Well, I don't know if you recall, last week I had subtitled the little segment that I have on this particular class, Don't Be a Pharisee, and it's singing a sweet song at home without hitting the sour notes. Last week I said singing a sweet song and with Phariseeism in it, we're hitting the sour notes. You know, when I was younger, young man, we used to have a couple of terms when someone was irritating us, maybe in a pleasant way, we'd say you're cruisin' for a bruisin', yeah. Or you are achin' for a breakin', yeah. Turn to me with the Joshua chapter seven, since we're on the subject of achin'. Now we know the background that the children of Israel just, saw the Jericho walls fall down, they had that great victory there. And then we read, but the children of Israel, notice that it states the children of Israel. This is focusing on Achan, but it's a corporate rebuke. But the children of Israel, committed of trespass regarding the accursed things. For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took the accursed things, so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel." So here, again, they had this great defeat and Achan took that which he should not, was forbidden to take. And in verse 21, we read Achan's response when they finally figured out who it was that did this. If you remember, there was some lots and whatnot. It fell to Achan and says, this was Achan's finally confessing this. When I saw among the spoils, a beautiful Babylonian garment, 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it. Now, when you consider the sin of Achan, we have to think how the temptation to fall in the garden, how many similarities there are between these two things. When you think of the temptation of Eve and Adams going along with it, there's characteristics of these two things. Now, we read in Genesis 3, 6, when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom. Now, as I read that account of Achan and his confession, and also of Eve, what similarities jump out at you? Are there similarities you see in there between the two temptations? Pastor Denny? They saw. They both saw. So senses are alert. They both saw. Eve saw the fruit. Achan saw these valuable items. Anything else after they saw what took place? Grace? What I saw wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it was prohibited. That's a good point. And just like last week, Grace, you're jumping ahead a little bit there. It wasn't really a bad thing, was it? It wasn't like Rachel. Rachel, when she took one of her father's gods and hid it. I mean, that was explicitly forbidden. They knew it was bad to do that. But yeah, having gold wasn't bad. Eating fruit wasn't bad. I mean, all the trees in the garden, you know. So that's a good point. Anything else that's a similarity in the temptation, they saw, and then when they saw, they... Amy? They perceive, or it looks good. It looked good. So it engaged their thinking process. It wasn't just a noticing. It was a locked on looking, and it looked good. And that produced within them. And they took, yeah, a desire. First comes the desire. And, you know, the first, they covet it, they want it, and then they took. Eve partook of the fruit. You know, you think of what John wrote in his first epistle, for all that is in the world. That's pretty encompassing, isn't it? All that's in the world. I mean, I guess now with space travel, I guess that would probably include the whole universe. By the way, did anyone watch the astronauts returning to? That's incredible, isn't it? Yeah. Boy. So easy for me to chase rabbits. One just ran by and I'll tell you what, I'm doing good today. But for all that is in the world, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And we see that in both Eve and Achan, the lust of the eyes, they'd saw, the lust of the flesh, they desired. Where does the pride of life come in on this? Where would you see the pride of life comes in with Eve's sin and Aiken's grace? Prestige with the wisdom. Their own wisdom. No, when she said the fruit was desirable for wisdom, when she had wisdom, she would go elevate herself. Okay, good, good. I like that. Leonard? When people make a decision, they think it's going to add value to their character or some type of promise among the people that are around them. It's not thinking about the reality of what they're doing, but it's just that next status level. I reach if I can influence my environment. Not thinking of the consequence, just what they could get. Pastor Fred? You'll be like God yeah, yeah, so you know it's hard to say because Adam and Eve hadn't fallen before they fell, so they didn't have that innate, they weren't born sinners, they were born without sin. But we do see this idea that they knew better than God, so it's a prideful thing, isn't it? We do see the pride of life come, even in their act in that. Akin thought, Sure, we have these restrictions, but really, what will this little bit help? You know, man often looks at sin like it's not really that big of a deal. We could figure it out better. Sure, God's word might say this, but is it that big of a deal? So many trees, like I said before, what's one more? And aching, you know, I mean, seeing all those spoils and they're just pulling out of Jericho with all that rubble there and perhaps, you know what I mean, not perhaps, all those bodies as well. Who would miss a little bit of loot taken from them? Now, the two other things about Adam and Eve's sin and Achan's that has a connection to Pharisaism. I don't want to say Pharisaicalism, it's Pharisaism. There we go. What two other things are connected with Adam and Eve's sin and Achan's sin that's also connected to being a Pharisee? What would that be? What would you think that would be? Hiding what they did in the sense that no one will see, right? Yeah, that has to be at the core. I want to land on one of the foundational stones of Phariseeism. Yeah, true, that's true. Anything else? Think about the consequences. Debbie? They were supposed to get the best of everything. They were supposed to have, you know, because they were elevated above everybody else. They felt like they deserved this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No self-image problems with the Pharisees. They were better than everybody else, and by golly, they deserved to have better than anybody else, too. There was wide ramification for Adam and Eve sin. Would you say there was wide ramifications of Adam and Eve sin? Yes. You confirmed that. Thank you. Well, it justified their action. Yeah, that's right. So they justified their action. In other words, they made themselves look good in their own eyes. You know, what's the old Benjamin Franklin quote? We're reasonable people and we can come up with reasons for anything. We can justify anything we do. And but the big thing I want to say, yeah, they thought it was private. Iskra said they thought it was. But is sin really a private matter? I mean, I think both these narratives illustrate that it's not. It has wider ramifications, of course, Adam and Eve sin. We're all living in the wake of their sin. We've inherited our Father Adam's sin nature. And also, so that the ramifications, and Achan, of course, what happened with Achan's sin? What he thought was hidden, wouldn't hurt nobody else, what happened with his sin? But there's no such thing really as a private sin. And we hear this all the time, don't push your morals or ethics on me. What I do is my business and all this type of thing. But these two narratives really show us, and this is particularly true in the house. And I would say most of this weight of this falls upon the dads of the house that, you know, Private issues are not private. They have ramifications on others. And it happens in the church. You think about the Apostle Paul writing the Corinthian church, the incestuous man there in the fifth chapter. He says, do you not know that a little yeast leavens a whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be a new unleavened batch. as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the festival, not with old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Now, the issue here with the Corinthian church was not so much that they had sinners in their midst, but they had sinners in the midst that they just went on wallowing in their sin without repenting of it. And this is what the apostle Paul says, you're bringing leaven and making the, it was affecting the whole body. So we've got to stand against the enemy's lie and that harboring, harboring, giving place. I think last week I mentioned that term pet sin. Did I mention that last week? Somewhere, sometime I mentioned it. The pet sin is a term we used to use decades ago of just a sin that you just gave it enough food, you just gave it enough attention. You know, a stray cat comes by, how many times do you have to feed it to get it to return? One time. A pet's sin is like that. Give it a little attention, and it'll repair. We gotta stand against the enemy's lie of not harboring this sin in our lives, and thinking it doesn't have any effect on the others. 1 Samuel 16, seven, for the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. The heart is always the issue, isn't it? And it's heart is always the issue, and the issue is always the heart, is the heart of the issue. There's somebody else that sees. God sees all things, but somebody else that sees in the family. And who would that be? Your children. Your children are very perceptive. Very perceptive. And they pick up a vibe even. They pick up a sense when there's a difference between mom and dad or there's an argument going on. I think I may have shared this some years ago when our older kids were younger. That would be years ago. They were younger before. And our oldest, who is now 44, she may have been 11 or 12 years old. And right before I left off from work, Catherine and I had an argument. And I don't know, it was probably she didn't understand something. I was trying to explain it. I don't know. But she didn't hear that. No, good. She will hear, right? But I left for work, and Catherine called me later laughing and said, oh, I just had some wisdom given to me by our daughter Rachel. And she said, when I left, she went and sat down on a couch and kind of on a huff. And Rachel walked up to her and said, you know, Mom, Proverbs 15.1 would have been a good verse for you to remember this morning. A soft answer churns away wrath. And, you know, through the mouth of babes. So, I mean, the children pick up things. And it's so, again, nothing is really a private matter. Children see and God sees. And we got to remember too, God sees the good faithful work done as well. You know, I don't know if I mentioned this last week, just a little Paul Washer clip that was on YouTube. And did I talk about the flower in the jungle last week at all? Maybe I've mentioned it to a few. It really blessed me. It was just a little three-minute clip. It was before he gave his sermon at the Shepherds Conference there. He worked in the jungles of Peru. He said, why would God put a beautiful flower in the middle of the jungle? No roads go by it. No paths. No one will ever see it. It will live its life and die and no one will ever see it. Why does he do that? How would you answer that? Take a guess. Don't write a wrong answer. He enjoys it. He sees it. And what a, you know, that's just like, oh, that was like getting a hug. And yeah, and you know, when you think of doing a faithful work, You know, and, you know, sometimes we think when God sees all, it's like, ooh, when God sees all, it should be a comforting thing as well. He sees good and faithful work when no one else does. I think of you young moms who every day, feeding and raising and nurturing these kids, loving them, and every day, some days are good and some days aren't so good, and God sees that work, and as Matt said, he enjoys it, he likes it. So that was something Adam and Eve learned that God does see everything. And even though they made coverings, you remember that was one of the reactions. They made coverings. Adam and Eve took some leaves and covered themselves. Then it says they hid themselves among the trees. You know, like all this foliage here, you know. So they didn't know everything about God, did they, at that time? But they were learning. And Achan, what did he do? He buried it in the earth. Both are using what God created to try to hide. They did, their sin. And so these could be descriptions of Phariseeism, and Pharisees try to hide their true identity. He or she is trying to look like somebody else. And dear ones, this is a big part of our sanctification, isn't it? Is putting on more of Christ, losing the fear of man, being genuine before God, and being genuine for one another. Think how, how fuel it is to our own prayers when we know of what each of us are going through, what our struggles are. If everything is hidden, it doesn't give us ammunition, so to speak, or even impetus to pray for one another. Well, let me just, that was just a little introduction, or maybe it wasn't too little. But if you recall from last week, there were two reasons I mentioned for studying the whole issue of not being a Pharisee. Do you recall what those were? Jesus warned, yeah. And who else? There was a two-part to the first reason. Jesus warned of the leaven. Remember the leaven? And the leaven communicates to us what aspect? of danger. Why did he use the word leaven? Spreads. Spreads? Spreads. Just on the way here I told my wife I'm getting a hearing test this week. Or at least I'm going to schedule one. So these type of things don't happen. Yeah, spread, and a subtle spread, a slow, subtle spread, and not seeing the effects of it until later on. And then someone else warned of wolves. Who was that? No, I'm gonna wait as long as it takes. Pastor Fred says, Pastor Paul warned of the Galatians, remember, or he warned in Acts about wolves coming in after he departs. And the characteristic of a wolf is just destruction with no care, taking no mercy on the flock. What's the term that it uses there? Hmm? Yeah, ravenous, yeah, ravenous wolf, not sparing the flock. Yeah, yeah, ravenous, no care what damage is done. You know, church splits are often, not often, always, I think, an ugly thing. And I remember witnessing one, and you could almost tell who had a shepherd's heart and who did not in a split. One was concerned about all the faithful people who come and just want stability and unity, and the other was concerned in building their own work. And I wouldn't say they weren't ravenous and not sparing the flock, but I don't know how much concern was given to the flock, put it that way. So we had Apostle Paul and Jesus both warned on the leaven and the wolves. That's one reason. Well, what was the other reason I gave? Do you recall that? It may have been kind of quick in passing. The other reason was our experience. Our propensity is to pick up Phariseeism very quickly. You know, you think of Ananias and Sapphira. You know, they were most likely with that group of new believers in the early chapter of Acts. And then here in Acts chapter five, they sell some land, they give part of the offering to the apostles, but keep that part, but say it was the whole thing. I mean, what's up with that? What was the motivation behind that? That's how Acts chapter 5 starts, but Acts chapter 4 ends with what little narrative? Does anyone know? Well, you don't have to look at your scriptures, but it's the part Barney, Barnabas. I always call him Barney. Barnabas comes and he had sold a piece of land and he laid it at the apostles' feet and has made note of that, you know, made scripture. Well, here Acts chapter five starts with Ananias and Sapphira and they probably saw the attention, I'm surmising this, we don't know for a fact, but he probably saw, well, you know, Barnabas really got received some alkylates on that gift he made, you know, why don't we do that too? Yeah, but the whole thing is a lot of money, isn't it? No, they kept back part. We got the best of both worlds. We'll have all these al-Qaedas, they're being good religious people, and we'll still have some of our money with us, too. But that deception wasn't just the people, was it? Peter said, you lied to the Holy Spirit. So, at any rate, playing the hypocrite came really fast to these believers, as illustrated in the life of Ananias and Sapphira. You know, you think about our own Christian walk. How many of us come to Christ humbled? Perhaps the world is humbled. Our own sin has humbled us. We come broken and we cry out to Him. And you think of those early days of your Christian walk and how you just wanna soak up everything, you know, all kinds of teaching. And then you kind of notice, well, Yeah, but I still have issues in my life. I still have problems in my life. But then I look, and I don't know if anyone else does. I think it's just me. And then what happens? Time goes on, you say, no, they have problems too. I've learned that, but they don't talk. Oh, okay, so now we don't talk about the problems we have. So what is being taught there? We're learning to be a Pharisee by osmosis, just picking it up from that's around us. You know, probably one of the reasons I want to have this little talk on this is just that was a great deal of my own experience. And not to say it is completely removed, but I became more aware of it at least. And so, you know, that's why I want to share it. And then we see that that little leaven, of Phariseeism, and the family in particular, can do a lot of damage. It'll wreak havoc on the family. You know, I think I've told this story before. I know I've shared it with Pastor Dabney, but it illustrates what I'm saying here. Years ago, Catherine went to a homeschooling conference. I may have shared it. Just like my jokes, you've probably heard them before. It was CHEO, why don't they still have those? Christian Home Educators, it was in Columbus, Ohio. And they have these breakout sessions, you know, they have the main auditorium, then they have breakout sessions. And one of the sessions was titled, And We Had Hoped. You know, that was taken from the text of scripture, the two on the road to be mass, talking to the Lord before they realized it was Lord, and we had hoped. He was the Messiah. And anyhow, in the seminar breakout section, we had hoped was addressing those who were raised in homeschooling families, Christian households, who didn't go on with Christ. They didn't go the direction their parents had hoped they had gone. So after the conference, the directors went to this lady who had that little breakout session, who led it, and they said, how did it go? And she goes, yeah, they were good. We had a few people there. They go, a few people? She goes, yeah, why? She goes, that was the most requested cassette. Back then it was cassettes. I don't know if you know what cassettes are. Dave, explain to him. You need a pencil. You need a pencil, yeah. That's how you rewound it by hand, right? Yeah, boy, were those things a pain. Anyhow, that was the most requested cassette of the conference. Now, what does that say to you? How hardly anyone attended the class, but yet it was the most requested cassette. What does that say to you? Nobody wanted to be seen. Nobody wanted to be seen. Nobody wanted to acknowledge, this is my situation. We're busy spinning the plates, making sure it looks good. And so, but they wanted, yet they wanted the help. They wanted the help in this, but they didn't want to be seen. And I thought, boy, that was ever so telling. Well, I use that because it shows that we pick up Phariseeism very easy. And a number of parents wanna help, but they don't, and they, They want their kids to follow the Lord, but they just don't wanna do too much damage to that image. They don't want that blemished. What metaphor did Jesus use about the Pharisees that want the outside to look good? What metaphor did he use, you remember? Whitewashed tombs, whitewashed sepulchres. Yeah, whitewashed sepulchres. Looks good on the outside. But inside is full of dead men bones. You know, I can remember doing projects for banks where we did a kind of a whitewash, made a house that they were putting on the market look good. But we were aware that there were some structural and other issues going on in that house, no matter how good the cracks were patched and sanded and painted and whatnot. The whitewashed sepulchers looked good on the outside, but inside was death. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." So the believer's life, the dad's life, the believing dad's life, and mom as well, is to assist our spouse, and assist our children to get to heaven, to live for God's glory. We're not earning their salvation in any way, but we want to be a help in these things. You know, The Men's Breakfast a few weeks ago, Thomas Watson's book, A Godly Man's Picture, Watson says, Christians should be content in all things except one thing. Do you remember what that was, Kev? Kevin and I, you, yeah, I'm talking to you. Not the one next to you. So we shouldn't be content to go to heaven alone. Yeah, this we're going to say, yeah. Demonstration of Phariseeism all around us. We want to take others with us. We want to share this and be an aid to them. Boy, just think husbands and wives that think, I want to be an assistant in my husband getting to heaven well, being fit for heaven. I want my wife to be fit for heaven and encourage that Christian walk. Not saying we're doing the work of the Spirit of God, the grace of God, any of those things, but as we are co-laborers in this thing. And we want our homes to be as much as heaven as possible. And that includes keeping 11 of the Pharisees out of our lives. Again, heaven is the sweet song we wanna sing to ourselves, we wanna sing to our children, and working on those sour notes as we sing it is indeed why we wanna take heed to this particular subject. Now, turn with me to Matthew 23, if you would. Now, if you remember the context or the chronological timeline here, this is just a week out from the crucifixion. So this is, if you see the title in there, if your scripture has it, Woe to the Scribes and the Pharisees. And pretty much much of the chapter is geared to giving of the warnings of the Pharisees and also pronouncing woes. Now these aren't the last words of Christ. Perhaps we'll have that coming up in a few weeks on a Good Friday service. Perhaps not. Did we go over that schedule yet? Usually you invite me to those meetings. I was just wondering when I didn't get invited. But we also read that these things are so, the life of the Pharisees is so egregious to the Lord that he pronounces eight woes upon the Pharisees. Now, when you hear that word, woe, what do you, what comes, how would you define it? Watch out. Excuse me? Watch out. Watch out. I was going to say if Dan and Terry were here being farm folks, they might say when you want to stop a horse, but that's a different spelling. The, yeah, watch out. Anyone else have a... It's a curse. A curse. A curse. Not exclusively a curse, though, is it? Would you say? Well, let me ask you this, what prophet in the Old Testament pronounced a woe upon himself? Oh, I see what you're saying. Well, I guess it depends on who gives the curse. Yeah, context could change the ramifications of a woe, correct? We can't really curse ourselves, but God can. I'm sorry? No, no, but we could, well, I mean, when you think of the prophet in the Old Testament that pronounced a woe, I think this illustrates it, pronounced a woe upon, who was that prophet, Nick? Isaiah, what did he say? Do you remember? Yeah, I'm a man of unclean lips. There's a real popular WCRF pastor on there and said, now, Isaiah was prone to swearing and vulgarity because he said he's a man of unclean lips. I thought, really? That's it? Would you differ? I mean, I guess from your reaction, you would differ from it. Why would you differ from it? Why do you think he said, I'm a man of unclean lips? Nick? Even though you didn't raise your hand, I mean, you started this. I mean, he's standing in the presence of God in comparison, and he's about to go preach to the people that God told him to go. And he's seeing his utter sinfulness in the presence of God. Yeah, it was the comparison, the contrast that caused him to cry out that. But that's a woe just identifying his condition. So actually a woe can be a precursor of repentance or acknowledgement of even worship. But we do see a woe oftentimes is a pronouncement of judgment. As I said, it's given right before judgment hits. So there's eight woes given to the Pharisees in this chapter. Well, let's look at some of the things that Jesus notes about the Pharisees to help us heed his warning about the leaven of the Pharisees. We see in verse one, Jesus spoke to the multitudes and his disciples saying, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe, and do whatever they tell you to do. Now, that's interesting, isn't it? I think we touched on this last week. Not everything the Pharisees did was bad. Not all Pharisees were bad, right? We talked about Nicodemus and Gamaliel. Perhaps Gamaliel was a good guy. Nicodemus seems to be on that page, or is, rather. But we do see that the Lord affirms that some things the Pharisees did was good. But do not do according to their works, for they say, and do not do." By the way, can you think of something, does anything come to your mind that makes you think that this is something the Pharisees did that we ought to do as well? Nick? Jesus said that, They tied the men and women, but they neglected the waiter there. So they said, well, should you vote? So there were things that they had said to do, but even with the Sabbath. So Jesus never wanted to get rid of the Sabbath, just the way that the Pharisees have made it a yoke, a burden upon them, upon the people. So their intent was Excellent, excellent. So the motivation behind doing right things doesn't make the right thing wrong, right? I remember a good friend of mine years ago, he said he laid off his morning devotions. And he said the reason for that was he was becoming prideful of his regularity and his morning devotions. So he thought, well, I'm not going to become prideful like that. I mean, our tendency is always to be prideful of something. So that we're going to have with us always. Do you then become prideful of stopping your devotions? I mean, the thing is you still want to have the breakfast, the nourishment of God's word, but always, I mean, daily we have to check our motives on things as well. So yeah, they said there's, and Nick brings out, honoring the Lord's day, or the Sabbath rather back then, and also tithing. Yeah, these things you ought to have done, but don't neglect the weightier matter. These things that are proper to do, don't forget the heart of the issue on it as well. So in short, when Jesus says, do according to the works, but not according to what they do. And this I could see even, you know, I think of our early years in homeschooling and that of putting burdens upon the kids that I myself was not even walking out. I was giving them good things to do. There was a time when we had so many chapters of scripture in the morning, I thought, what are they really absorbing? It was just, it was too much. Instead of taking a portion and talking about it, which I found later to be much more fruitful, it was get in this, like a load of it, you know, sort of speak. But this doing one thing or saying one thing and doing another thing probably is more the most foundational thing in Iskra's point of hiding being a secondary. But that's probably the most basic definition of hypocrisy, saying one thing and doing another. And as fathers, if we ever want our children to heed our words, We have to be intentional here, to be consistent that our words match our actions. And when they're not, what do we do when they're not? What do you think we ought to do when they're not consistent? Pastor Dabney? Repent. Repent. Yeah, repent and perhaps even ask forgiveness. Something I've had to do with my children, you know. And I remember going to a young man that was a little older than my oldest child. We kind of homeschooled two families together. I talked about going to my children and repenting of putting forth more of Christian rules, which are good to have, but more of that was the emphasis instead of Christ, the rule giver, and not creating any type of affection and love of Christ in those things. And I had to ask him to forgive me for that. And because little exterior issues became the main focus. Well, anyhow, we'll get on that later here. Thought I saw a hand go up. The Pharisees set high standards for others, but they didn't make much effort to do those things themselves. You think of the parent who might say to a child, hey, you're spending so much time on video games. And then the child says, well, I mean, you don't have to tell a child. Well, maybe you do have to tell a child. They're spending too much time on it. Maybe they don't realize it. They don't realize how the hours zip by. You know, I used to say, you know, try to teach a child to have one hour or a limited half hour, you know, schoolwork's done, this and that's done. Because a child will lose all track of time when they're on those things, and they're not beneficial at all. But anyhow, if you tell a child, don't be playing those video games so much, and they walk by, and you're just surfing the net or on social media, and we'll get dinner later, you know, this type of thing. They're going to say, hmm, actions aren't lining up with the words. Can you think of examples, other examples, I mean I mentioned the video games and a parent spending a lot of time on the computer being similar in that way, electronic devices I guess. Can you think of other examples where a parent could say one thing and demonstrate they're not following their own words on that? Hey, good looking young man back there. Robert. Forbid such things happening. If it's a good burger. You're talking McDonald's. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's understandable. Yeah. Yeah, telling them not to eat junk food while you got a bag of chips going in. Hey, that's a real good example. Mike? That's real good. I think, I'm not sure how laws are, Pastor Fred, maybe you know. Isn't it that if you go to an employer and say you need to have all for the Lord's day, They'll honor that, is that state law? But I heard that one time, if you give into that, then they see this was a religious preference, not a conviction. And they'll say, well, give up your preference again this day. I thought I heard that was maybe state, I don't think it's federal, I'm not sure, anyhow. But that's a good thing, yeah. Or even that the Lord's Day is a special day, it becomes a focal point of the week, and we stay up a Saturday night, 11, you know 11 11 30 watching TV or getting to bed late Sunday morning comes things are rushed. Nothing's prepared No sense of heart preparation, you know, the kids are gonna say Sunday's important day. Hmm Never knew that I've seen families and I think I've mentioned this before wouldn't that really have a hard time with their schedule but when they line up a day to go to Cedar Point and I'll tell you what, they are in that parking lot before the gates are open to let people in, because they're going to milk every minute out of that day that they can, which is, hey, if you're paying $6,000, what is the general admission now for a ticket? I don't even know. Our youngest, Maggie, never wanted to go to Cedar Point, so we haven't been there in decades. I used to go with, Leonard, do you still get out there? No, sorry, I'm getting a little too old. What's general admission now, though, do you know? Now, I'd like to go out there again. Oh, Kevin. Come on, he probably sets the prices out there. You know what? Kevin's a good illustration because he's always here and he's always helping out and always working here. But he does like his roller coaster, but that doesn't take away from his attending church, which is a good thing. But, and Kevin, he was probably here, probably Pastor Dabney was here, and then, Kevin, were you the second person in the parking lot? Okay, yeah. And then his dad was probably the third. But the, there are folks that struggle with the Lord's Day schedule, but when it comes to that entertainment stuff, they're right there. Anything else? Lord's Day, Grace? Can we talk about other people? Boy, if that was, what was that game called? You know, when they had the words, bang, you know, and the things. Who? Family Feud. Family Feud, thanks, thanks. Yeah, if that was Family Feud, that would probably be the number one answer. That talking about others. If anything says that we are not mindful of God's all-knowing, all-seeing, knowing everything about us, If there's anything that says we don't really believe that, it is talking about others, especially on the Lord's Day. I've thought that it's good any time, but boy, that is probably the number one thing. If you want to tell your kids, I've gone pretty far down this road of Phariseeism, it'll be how you address others. And fortunately, I've had folks like Liam and Maggie in my life to rebuke me often in this area. Because you know me, like Pastor Dabney said sometimes, but this will be funny if I say it. And once in a while, there's some things that I say that are funny that should have been said, if you can believe that. It has happened. Children are watching. And you know, when you think of what defines a leader, how would you define what a leader is? Nick? Well, that's true. I mean, the truth of the matter is that a leader, in the simplest terms, is someone people follow. And whether good or bad, it will be followed. And so our children are picking up how we're leading, and we could train another generation of hypocrites. Verse four we read, they bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move with one of their fingers. So we see they set these high standards, I think I said this before, but they don't make much of an effort to change those things. And we think of some of these things that were just mentioned, hey, don't talk bad about somebody, but then they hear this and that said about that person. I think we're going to get into that when we get to the list of woes as well. But three, by all their works, they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, Rabbi, Rabbi. So here we see they are motivated by the praise of men. Now, someone that's motivated by the praise of men, as Ananias and Sapphira were, what deeper issue is it revealing? A deeper issue that scripture says is a snare. The fear of man, that's right. It shows the fear of man. So concerned with the fear of man more than the fear of God, right? We have to remind ourselves that we do live under the all-seeing, all-knowing, omniscient God at all times, and we live for his smile. This has to be a constant reminder, for his smile more than man's favor. So it's being faithful and doing the right thing no matter who sees. Think of that flower in the jungle. You know, I love the words of Christ, our Lord, to the Church of Philadelphia in Revelation chapter three. Jesus says, I know your works. He sees their works. And he has these three things to say to them. See, I have set before you an open door. No one can shut it, for you have, notice these three things, you have one, a little strength, two, have kept my word, and three, have not denied my name. Now we know keeping his word is a good thing. We know not denying his name is a good thing. How is little strength a good thing? Is that a good thing? Jesus says, you have these three things, little strength, keep your word, you don't deny me. I'll take two out of three. But he said, why would little strength be a good thing? Grace? So we would depend on him. His strengths make us. Yeah, second Corinthians says, strength is made perfect in weakness, little strength. cause them to look to the Lord. So little strength and keeping his word is a good combination, is a good combination. Little strength, staying away from his word, not good. Little strength and his word is a good combination. So being seen by men is what's reflected. I think I mentioned to you too, that same, the homeschool conference we used to go two years ago, would parade around families, and some you probably know about, I mean, national programs, TV programs. And the kids would be, I think I mentioned this, like color coordinated, and they all were so successful. And so they gave, the image was perfect. The image was perfect. And I had to tell my dear wife at times, because I said last week, how do you spell mother? Does anyone remember? G-U-I-L-T. G-U-I-L-T. That's right. It just seems to be the middle name of mother so much. She so often feels that she hasn't done enough or done the right job. And so guilt is right there knocking on the door. And so these moms would look up at these perfect families and think, what am I doing wrong? And my wife would look at it and think, oh, I wish we could do this thing. I have to remind her, dear, sin has not jumped over the roof of that house there. They are dealing with sin just like we are dealing with sin. And we want to look to our Lord in strength and having a victory over it. But don't ever look at a family and think that, no, no, they have arrived in glory already. They're just borrowing a few more days here on earth. They're not there yet either. Well, I'm going to close with that. Any thoughts or comment, Nick? doing things not in the sight of man, but in the fear of God. I was reminded of that this week, listening to some on the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, and how in that forbidden wilderness, there was a soul in there. Yeah, yeah Yeah, excellent, excellent illustration. Thank you, brother. You know, real quick, two testing of our, you want to know where you are spiritually? I mean, we don't, to compare ourselves among ourselves is not wise, scripture says, but we could have two little tests apply to it. And one is what we think about when we're not thinking about anything. And the other is what we're doing when we know nobody else knows or sees. Of course, both things are secretive. Their thoughts are secretive, so you think to a degree, Lord knows, but also our actions, our deeds. You want to see where you are spiritually, and those two things alone ought to cause us to call out on God for his strength to be with us and to give us the spirit to have victory over such things. Thank you, brother. Anything else? Well, you're a lovely class. I hope to join you this time next week, Lord willing. Join your hearts with mine as we close our time. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we are again mindful of your good hand towards us. We're thankful that the banner of our Lord Jesus Christ flies over your lampstands, your churches this day, that banner of love, that love of the Father. so clearly made and giving of his Son, the Son dying on our stead, taking upon himself that which we deserved, giving us freedom from the guilt of sin and also the power thereof. And so Lord, as set free slaves with no more shackles around our hands and ankles, we do lift our voices in praise and adoration, looking to you to speak to us through your word this day, and we responding in praise and adoration. Again, be with us, we pray in Christ's name, amen.