Last week, I enjoyed uh a few days away with family, got to visit family in Tennessee. Uh, first time there in Tennessee, and, and first time in Nashville. And there's a reason they call it Music City, if you've ever been. Uh, first time walking down Broadway, and there is music everywhere. I mean, I love it. It was, it was fun. Like there was, uh, every restaurant and, and, and bar and place, it's just, I mean, we're walking down the street at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday. And there's like 25 bands playing at the same time, I mean, I think the dentist had live music down there. And it was just cool just seeing all these, all these musical acts going on and performing. But uh, I share that because here's the thing, you don't have to be a musician in Nashville, uh, to try to perform. You know, they're, they're performing as musicians for their job, but I think so many of us are in our areas of influence are trying to perform, uh, for somebody because in Nashville, you never know who's watching. You never know who might notice you, right? So many artists got their break playing in a small little place, and, and, and now they travel the country playing music. And, and so while they're playing to get noticed, I think many of us live to get noticed. And we treat much of life like a performance, right? Maybe it's at work, and you're performing to get the approval of the boss or your peers. Maybe it's on social media, right? Did the trip happen if you didn't post about it? Right? We want the likes and the, and the follows. Maybe it's in your relationships, where you are, uh, you want the applause and the approval of the people in your life. I, I know I'm definitely a words of affirmation kind of guy. And so, uh, you know, if I loaded the dishwasher, uh, I, I, my wife is gonna hear about it, you know, like she might have done 10 things, but I did the one thing, and I'm gonna tell her how good it was. Was anyone tracking with me, OK. Um, here's the thing, we perform everywhere, but if we're not careful, we'll even perform when it comes to our relationship with God. And we can sing the songs, we can pray the prayers. We can do all the right things, but the question we have to ask ourselves this morning is who am I trying to impress? Right? Whose applause are you living for? Whose approval is enough. You see, over the last 2 weeks, we looked at 6 case studies that Jesus shared about what does it mean to be righteous? What does it mean to live righteous? Right, we're called to be salt and light in the world. And then he gave us examples through marriage and divorce and through our relationships and against murder and hate or adultery and lust, or, or last week, Pastor Dan shared about how do we treat people that are our enemies or, or disagree with us and, and hurt us. And so 6 different case studies, Jesus and the greatest sermon in world history, the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5:7, doesn't just offer a way of salvation, but actually offers us a model and a way to live. Well, today, we want to go a little bit deeper. See, last two weeks, we looked at what does it mean to live righteous. But today we want to go underneath the surface and actually talk about what are the motives that drive what we do. You see, sometimes we can do the right things, but for the wrong motives. And Jesus is after not just our activity, but our heart. So if you're taking notes, I encourage you to write this down, that freedom begins when the performance ends. Freedom begins when the performance ends, because Jesus isn't looking for an impressive faith. He's, he's looking for an authentic faith. And we have to stop performing for people and start simply living for our heavenly Father. And we have to ask ourselves, why do I do what I do? Who am I doing this for and whose approval is enough? See, in Matthew 5:16, we have this incredible verse that says in the same way. Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. But today we move to Matthew chapter 6, and it starts off with a seemingly contradictory verse. Right here in verse 16 of chapter 5, it says, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works. But notice what it says in chapter 6, verse 1. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. Wait, hold on a second. What? You just told us to do things to be seen. And now you're telling us be careful doing things to be seen. Is it a contradiction? I don't think so. In fact, I think he's actually offering a clarification. So let's go back to verse 16. Notice what it actually says here, the the specific words. It says, let your light shine before others so that they may see. What do they see? They see your good works. And what's the purpose? So they give glory to your Father. They see your good works, they give glory to God. So what is Jesus warning us in chapter 6, verse 1? Let's go to that verse. It says, beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them. So what's being seen? You. Jesus tells us to let your light shine, so they see your good deeds, and in seeing your good deeds, they glorify God. But don't do the good deeds so that you are seen. I realize, he says, because then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. It says your motive matters. That's why later in the Gospel of Matthew in Matthew 23:25-28, it says, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but the inside are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside will also be clean. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you walk, you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but when, but within are full of dead people's bones and our uncleanliness. So, you are also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. What is hypocrisy? Well, the Greek word for hypocrisy is, is this Greek word to describe an actor who plays a part or who wears a mask. And we, it's so easy for us to do, isn't it? I mean, how many of us today walked into church and we have nothing going wrong, right? We're all highly blessed and favored, and God is good all the time and all the time, God is good. And in reality, you argued in the parking lot. Right? You withheld an argument because you're at church, but you're about to have one over lunch. Right? You're thinking about the email you got to respond to or what that person said or didn't say or the conversation you need to have, or the bills you need to pay or the things you have to do, and you're checking the box. Right? But we're OK. But see, the basis for hypocrisy is really fear and insecurity. Fear of not measuring up. Insecure that we won't be loved or accepted. But the cleansing has to come from the inside out. Have you ever had a dish put in the dishwasher, that didn't quite get all the way clean, like maybe like a bowl of spaghetti or something and it just stuck, and then the dishes got cleaned, and you see it in the inside, it's just still got stuff in it. Uh, maybe you're like me and I just give it to my dog, Sophie, who licks it clean and then I put it in the cupboard. No, you don't do that. Sorry, I didn't mean. No, OK, I don't do that. That would be crazy. But we do that in church all the time, right? We don't deal with the stuff on the inside. The outside looks good. So we put that on display for the world to see. When God wants to know what's underneath. He doesn't want an impressive faith, he wants an authentic faith. And here's the thing, the problem is not being seen. That's not the problem. The problem is needing to be seen. There's a big difference there. Right? Cause in verse 16 of chapter 5, it says, no, you were called to shine, you were called to be salt, you were called to be light. That's what light is. That's what light does. You shine, and when you shine, people see it. But the direction of the light is not towards self, it's towards God. And so it's one thing to be seen and to be acknowledged, it's another to need to be seen. That I'm doing this, saying this, acting this way so that others will think I'm better than I really am. Today, we're going to look at 3 spiritual practices. That I'm gonna offer us 3 very specific challenges. So I'm gonna challenge you in 3 areas. Number 1, I'm gonna challenge you to check your heart. We're gonna talk about the area of giving. Number 2, I'm gonna challenge you to change your audience. We're talking about the practice of prayer. And number 3, I'm going to challenge you to choose your reward. We're gonna talk about the spiritual practice of fasting. Let's see what God's word has to say to us today, because our motives matter. Let's jump into it. Matthew chapter 6, we're gonna read verse 1 to 4. Beware practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward for from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy. Sound no trumpet, pause there for a second. Notice, and you're gonna see this in all three cases, he doesn't say if you give, if you pray, if you fast, he actually says win. These were already established practices of the day, and now in American culture, giving and praying and fasting might not seem as common. Uh, but they are healthy practices. And so we're gonna talk about why we do them and how we do them. But Jesus gets to the heart of the matter. So, so when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret and your Father who sees you in secret will reward you. Now What he's saying here is that when you give with the wrong motive, you miss the purpose of giving. Right, we don't give to be honored. We give to connect our heart to the heart of God. The most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave. When we give, it's a demonstration of our love, of what we value. Is God against giving in public? No. In fact, the first church described in Acts chapter 2 is described as people giving everything they had to everyone in need. We pull our church values directly from Acts 2, which is why one of our values is joyful generosity. And then the early church also demonstrated this in Acts chapter 4, because Barnabas, the encourager, was praised for selling his land and giving the money to the church. And all throughout scripture, there is this biblical practice called tithing, which means 10th, which is, is, this spiritual discipline of giving. To the church and to God for the purpose of God's kingdom and God's glory. So giving in public and, and seeing giving is not wrong, but rather, it's the motive behind it. You see, in Acts chapter 4, Barnabas gives to the church and is, is praised for it. Well, in Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira do the same thing. Because they said, well, if Barnabas is praised, we want to be praised. And so they sell land and they sell. The difference is they lie about it. They lie about the amount that they give and what it represented. Why? So that they could appear more spiritual than they were. And that was so important to be honest before God, that ultimately God struck them down dead in Acts chapter 5. Now, why did God strike them down? It wasn't about the gift. It wasn't about the giving. It was about the heart and the motive behind it. So when we give, it's to honor God. And it's to align our heart with God. It's all about what we possess and it really gives us the mindset or the perspective. I want to Share an illustration about giving this morning, but I don't have my wallet on me. I tend to take it out of my pocket before I speak on stage. So, uh, does anybody have cash in the room? They don't have cash. Oh, Pete, thank you. OK. OK. Thanks, Pete. Thank you, Pete, for the cash. Oh, OK. All right. Oh, OK. $50 Pete. OK. Uh, can I, can I have this? Yeah. Sure, OK, I heard, yes. All right, thanks, Pete. OK, where were we? I like this illustration. It's fun. Now some of you are staring at me and you got some questions. Why would the pastor take the money? Who is this peak guy and why is he handing out 50s and I need to talk to him after service. Why could Pete give that money so quickly? Well, maybe it's because a minute before the service started, I gave him a $50 bill. And I said, hey, when I ask for this, will you give it back to me? And he said, yes, because that's exactly what happened. Pete just gave me back my own $50. Thanks, Pete. And thanks for not making it a $5. Why do I share that? It wasn't hard for Pete to give me that money because he understood that it was mine already. I was just, he was just giving it back. And see, when we give, that's exactly what we do with God. When we give, we understand that everything we have in life comes directly from him. And that when we give back, we are giving back to the God who already gave us everything. And when you give, both to the church and to God, and to meet the needs of the people around you, you are stewarding the gift that God has placed in your hands, and that you get to have a heart aligned with the heart of God. And that when you do that, you are giving From a place of gratitude. And when you give from a place of gratitude, it leads to a generous life. And gratitude and generosity is what's gonna guard your heart from greed. And greed is what this world not only tolerates, but celebrates. So when we give, the reason we give in secret is not because giving in public is bad. It's because giving aligns our heart with God's. Last week, Pastor Dan shared that the great commandment was to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love others as yourself. And the reason Jesus summarizes the 600+ commands in the Old Testament to those two. It's because they're directly connected. Think of it like breathing in and breathing out. Which is more important when you breathe, to breathe in or to breathe out? That's kind of silly. You need both, right? They're intricately connected in the same way your vertical relationship with God breathing in is directly connected to your horizontal relationships with others. So when we give, we are, we're giving from a cheerful heart, as Paul encourages the church in Corinth to do. We give from a place of obedience. We give to create. The place and dependence upon God to recognize that all we have is from Him. And so when we give, we are giving back what is already His. And when we are grateful for what we have, we can become generous with what we have, and we can guard our hearts against the greed that this world promises and promotes. See, your motive matters. So don't do the right thing for the wrong reason. You know, we see giving in public all the time, right? Like you can't go to a university without seeing somebody's name on a building, right? But that's not how heaven's gonna work. You're not gonna get to Heaven and see the Peter Auditorium. You know what I mean? We sing Jesus paid it all for a reason, because he paid it all. That when we give, we give because Jesus gave. And we understand that we are stewards. Of the gifts that God's placed in our hands. And it's not that we don't work hard for that, that in fact, we work even harder. Cause we're changing the world. We're bringing God's kingdom down, and we're shining our lights into a world that desperately needs it. But he gives us the image. Don't let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. And, and it's not a, a literal image. He's not saying give with this hand and then put this hand behind your back. But it's a picture, right? Just a few verses earlier when we were talking about dealing with sin and with lust, he used the imagery of saying, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. So in the same way, he's, he's building off this metaphor and saying, look, it's not about the left hand or the right hand. It's about the heart behind it, that when we give, we are meeting the need to meet the need. That's the purpose of the gift. That it's honoring God. It's aligning our heart with God's heart. And it's positioning us in an honorable and humble fashion that God can use to make a difference in this world. So when you give, not if you give, but when you give, can you check your heart? The second challenge we see from scripture today is that we got to change. You got to change your audience. The next private practice that we see here is the one of prayer. You read these words in verse 5 to 8. When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees you in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Then he goes on and shares what we now know as the Lord's Prayer. So I encourage you to come back next week as we break down the Lord's Prayer. What does it mean to pray? Does God hear our prayers and, and why do we pray? And so I encourage you to come back for next week's message. But for today, let's just look at the motives behind it. You see, there's two problems that Jesus is addressing. First, we see the problem of prayer as performance. The Pharisees were praying in front of the synagogues, and they have these big flashy displays of prayer. Look at me and the way I pray and the words I say that make me better than you. Right. Thank me, or thank God, thank me, they pray, we would pray for themselves if they could. Thank God for making me so much more spiritual than this person. And they would literally pray these types of prayers. And so problem number 1 was prayer as performance. But then problem number 2, he goes to the Gentiles, is prayer as manipulation. He says, don't think God is swayed by the words you say. He said God already knows what you need. They were praying, well, if I pray enough, if I say enough, this phrase is, if I do enough things here, if I pray long enough and strong enough, and, and I say it this way, and I do this long, and he's gonna answer me, and I'm gonna get what I want, as if you can manipulate God. But as CS Lewis put it, I don't pray to change God. I pray so that God changes me. Now, is Jesus against public prayer? No. I say that because in Matthew 14, he prays publicly, right before he feeds the 5000, he prays publicly in front of thousands of people. Then in John chapter 11, before he raises Lazarus from the dead, he prays publicly again through in front of a lot of people. The early church was marked by devotion to the Bible and to the word of God and to the apostles' teachings and to prayer. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2:1 about the value of prayer and assembly. So why do we pray? We pray to connect to the heart of God. So we practice regularly prayer. We pray before staff meetings, we pray before worship, we pray before Bible studies. Brandon's been leading monthly prayer nights here. And so we want to create this culture of prayer. But understand this, that it, it's silly if you pray publicly, but you never talk to God privately. We don't pray to update God's database. Like, it's not like he doesn't know and we're just, hey, let me give you what's going on down here. Why do we pray? We pray for relationship. For dependence, for trust, for devotion, for worship, for submission, and ultimately for communion with the God who made us, who knows us, who loves us. Little behind the scenes, uh, my Sunday mornings, uh, when I get up in the morning, you know, I get up at 3, and I start praying for, I can't even say that with a straight face. I'm not that guy. Sorry. Sorry, I'm just not that pastor. Like I, there's some that do it, and I have mad respect. But for me, the Holy Spirit works through the snooze button and some coffee, and it takes a minute. Anyone track with, OK. So, but when I do wake up in the morning on Sunday mornings, I, I sit down with my Bible, I sit down with my laptop. I got my sermon notes up and I sit with my coffee and I just kind of start going through the message. And so once I kind of lock it in and I get through and I'm like, OK, I'm ready and I, and I come into church. And, well, this morning, uh, I'm doing what I normally do. I'm in the sermon mode, and uh my daughter wakes up, which she's usually the first of the kids to wake up. And my daughter wakes up and she's got the big girl bed head, you know, coming in, and she's got this box of Pokemon cards. And he sets him down, and I'm in sermon mode, right? I'm in sermon mode. She said, Dad, look at this one. Dad, look at this one. Look at this one's pink. This one's shiny. And she's going through and she's showing me these Pokemon cards. And, and so I, I paused, and I, and I, and I paused the reading. And, and for the next 10 minutes, I sat with her, and we look at Pokemon cards together. And you know what I thought as a dad? Loved it. I don't understand Pokemon. I don't understand it, but I loved having the moment with my child. No one else around, just me and her in the moment, right? Now I love you all, but if you come to my house at 6 in the morning to show me your Pokemon cards, I'm not going to respond in the same. Energy Why? Because the relationship dictates access. She is my child. My daughter that can come to me. And we have that moment of connection. Do you understand that you're a child of God? That God wants to have conversation with you, that wants to have connection with you. Do you think there's any problem, sin, doubt, question, worry that God doesn't already know? He knows and he wants you to come to him. He wants you to connect. I've been married for 20 years and uh I love being out in public with my wife. I love it because I am not embarrassed and she is very much an introvert. And so, uh, when we were dating in college, I used to embarrass her like in public, like if I saw her across campus, I would shout and be super obnoxious and just try to see how many people could wave at her as possible. And so like we'd be having uh lunch together at the cafeteria and I'd wait till she'd take her tray up and then I'd shout from the back of the cafeteria, like, hey, Samantha. And she like puts her head down like, the blonde girl with the blue and white shirt with her head down and face starting to turn around and then she'd be like, oh man. And, uh, and I would try to have fun in that moment. In fact, now that I think about it, I don't know why you stayed with me, but, but thank you for putting up with me. But uh, You know, and so we'd be in public and, and, and I'm very much extroverted and out in public. And uh, and so it's one thing, you know, if you know me at all, I talk about my kids, I talk about sports, I talk about, like I say I'm who I am. Um, but it would be weird if I talked about my wife and everything, and then I never talked to her during the week, you know, cause like, you, you, you'll see us here at church or a lot of times my wife is serving behind the scenes here because that's kind of her heart and character. And Uh, and, and, and we're out in the community and, and, and out and about, but, but what you don't see are the date nights. They're making meals together. They're walking her dog around the park. Like, and those are the times that I love. And you will never see You know why? Cause that's not meant for you. Right? We're called the bride of Christ. You're seen as a child of God. When you pray It's about connecting with the God who loves you. You see, the solution to religious performance isn't secrecy, it's intimacy. Your private prayer life, your private relationship with God. Should be in a place that then your public life overflows from that place. Cause your life cannot sustain public ministry with without private devotion to him and connection to him. And look, if you got nothing to say to God, like, Share with him your Pokemon cards. I don't know. Like, he wants time with you. Like he wants the questions and the doubts and the issues and all the things, because it's about connection with him. It's not about performance. You can't manipulate God. You can't perform your way to answers, but you can connect yourself to the one who loves you and who's in control. And if you do that, it lands in a place of freedom. When it comes to giving, you got to check your heart. Now I've talked with people who are hesitant to give and, and they have reasons, but understand that we give. And we give cheerfully because God gives. And when it comes to prayer, check your, check and change your audience. We're not praying for performance. We pray as a church, we can, we encourage that one of the best things you can do is pray for people or ask for prayer. But also, can you go for a walk with God? Do you have a spot? Is it in the car? Is it around the block? Is there a chair? As you go throughout your day, are you having conversations with him? He already knows what you need. Right? You don't need fancy words. You just be authentic, be real. He wants to connect with you. Third, what we see here is that we have to choose your reward. This comes when describing the practice of fasting. Now the practice of fasting today isn't as well known in modern church, but actually many of us have probably already fasted at one point in our life. Uh, we might not have done it for spiritual reasons though, right? Maybe some practice for dietary reasons or intermittent fasting, uh, or maybe you've fasted because you're going to have a procedure done or blood work done. If you think about fasting to have blood work done, the reason you fast before blood is drawn is, is that they want an accurate reading of the needs of your body. The same thing is true when we fast for spiritual reasons. The idea of fasting is to go without. To be reminded of your dependence on God. John Mark Comer put it this way. Um, he says that fasting is going without something, typically food, for a set amount of time to awaken our body and our soul to our deep hunger and need for God. The idea is to temporarily starve the flesh, so then in turn you can feed the spirit. Now Pharisees in that day were were fasting at least twice a week and sometimes extended periods, and then they would tell everybody about it. Right. And God's gonna come and say, no, the, the purpose of fasting is not to show everyone how spiritual you are. The purpose of fasting is to show how dependent you are on God. And he'll show you what you need. Jesus said these words in Matthew chapter 6, verse 16 to 18. When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret, will reward you. The idea is this, is that the rewards you seek reveals the audience you serve. And so if you're being dramatic about going through something, understand that you will, you, you might receive the applause of people. But you're not connecting to the heart of God. And so he's saying you, you're not fasting to tell people, oh, look how good I am. You are fasting for the moment or for a season to remind yourself of your need and dependence upon the God. Who saved you Cause if you get to the place where God is all you have, you also get to the place where you recognize that God is all you need. And I'm telling you that if you can get to that place, you're gonna find freedom. Imagine the freedom of walking into a room, not needing the approval of everybody you come into contact with. You don't need the approval of everybody in the room because you already are accepted and loved by a God for all eternity. So what do you need from people? You don't need to walk into the room to get anything from anyone, but rather you get to walk into the room and give. You get to be salt and light. You have the freedom to love authentically blessed and broken both. We are blessed by God by more than you ever know, and we are broken by our own choices and the world and the circumstances of life, and that is OK. That God will meet you here. God is here. And that as you develop the vertical relationship with God, through practices like giving and prayer and fasting, You gain a confidence that comes from genuinely knowing God and God knowing you, that then will allow you to face anything you walk through in this life, knowing that no matter what the world throws your way, you are secure as the bride of Christ and a child of God. Because freedom begins when the performance ends. Freedom begins when performance ends. And today I would challenge you to check your heart, to change your audience, and to choose your reward. If you want the applause of people, you might get it, but guess what? The applause ends. Right? Uh, seeing those musicians in Nashville, everyone clapped after they got done playing and, and it, it was fun, but they're chasing the applause, right? And you want it again and again, and it fades. But when you find security. In a relationship with God. You find a confidence and a courage to go and be salt and light in this world, that we do right things with right motives, that even though we mess up all the time, God will work through those mess ups. And so what do we do? What can we do today? Well, I want to point you to a prayer that David pray prayed in the lowest point in his life. David had just been called out for a whole bunch of sins. He was at his lowest point in life. He was in the bottom of the valley, completely broken. And he said these words in Psalm 51:10-12. He said, create in me a pure heart, oh God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. That no matter how far away you are from God, God is never far away from you. That if you are willing, if you are humble, if you are open, you can return to him. That we can do the things that will lead to spiritual maturity. We can give, we can pray, we can fast. But we do them not for the applause of people, but for connection with our Heavenly Father. That as we grow stronger in our connection to God, We grow in our relationships with each other. Can I share with you a time where God broke me over this desire for ambition and performance? I, I remember when we first started the church, I had this vision of how I thought it would go, and it, it didn't go that way. But people started coming. We were meeting in a school, we were setting up, we were tearing down. It was, it was a fun time. It was a crazy time. It was a busy time. But we were, we were seeing some movement, right? And I was feeling pretty good. And so there was a Sunday where we set up, we, we did all the planning, we had everything ready to go. The countdown went down. And I remember just being humbled and broken because we had 6 people on stage, and we started service with 2 people in the room. Bob and Rose Finkhauser. They got some health challenges now are watching online. Bob and Rose, hope you're doing well today. But I just remember having two separate conversations. Do you ever have the public conversation of what you say out loud and then a separate one that you say in your head? Like maybe you tell somebody, bless your heart, but, but in your heart, you're like, oh God, I'm OK if you get them. You know what I mean? So I, I was on stage. I was like, welcome to church today. Let us stand where two or more are gathered, we praise the Lord. And I just remember like, God is good, and let's stand, Bob and Rose, and, uh, and let's praise the Lord. And then on this other side, I was like, are you kidding me, God? I left my job. I put everything on the line. I did this thing for you. And you put 2 people in the room? That was what I was thinking. And then God Hello, Holy Spirit moment. And he goes, But was I in the room? Is it your church or my church? Would it change how you preach? Who are you preaching for, by the way? You're saying I can't use that? And I just remember just being wrecked. Like, oh. You're right. Now, don't get me wrong, I, I love a full room more than a non-full room, right? I love that we went to 3 services and going through, but I, I've come to recognize over this craziness of 8 years of church planting. That it is God's church, it's not mine. And that if, if, if, if I see more free preaching in the last six months or so, it's because I am, because I realized this is all God, not me. And, and anything weird or mistakes as sarcastic as me. But anything God's going to do or change or that you hear is from God. Like I, I've had Sundays where people come up to me and they're like, man, I really like, you really spoke to me when you said this. I was like, oh, thank you. And they walk away. I'm like, I didn't say that. But God took that and, and that's what they heard, and that's how God moves through. And God will work in and through your life. And, and I'm telling you, if, if you can break the idol. A performance. It's so free. It's so framing. So here's what I want you to do this week, is I want you to build one healthy and hidden practice. Pick one of those 3 Maybe you give in secret. Maybe the church for the first time, you haven't done it, um, I welcome you to do that. Maybe you buy the meal for a neighbor or buy the coffee for the person behind you. Maybe, maybe you send an encouraging note or you write one or, or you clean up your neighbor's yard. Just, just pick something nice to do for the purpose of doing something nice. Just do it Because that's what light does is light shines. Maybe it's praying. Maybe you've prayed at church, maybe you've sang your songs, maybe you've been in Bible study, but have you prayed with God this week? What if you took 10 minutes in the car on a walk, when you wake up, just pick up the time. And if you got nothing to say, just show God your Pokemon cards. I don't know. Whatever it is you're going through, like, give that to God. Given the connection He already knows what you need. But spend that time with him. Or if it medically makes sense for you, what if you went without? What if you fasted from a meal or for a day or picked a time, and, but the purpose of withholding. was to then replace it to feed your spirit. What if you did those things? of strengthening your vertical relationship with God. Cause if you do that, I'm telling you, it impacts your horizontal relationships in everyday life. And that's what God wants to do, to change you from the inside out. Will you pray with me? Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the example. Thank you for meeting us in our brokenness. Thank you for showing us that you want to connect. Help us check our hearts when it comes to giving. To give because you gave to steward what you've given us and understand that all good things come from you. And so that when we give, we're just giving back to the God who already gave us everything. God, help us to change our audience when we pray, not for performance, but for connection. And God help us to choose the reward of knowing you more, because that is a greater reward than anything this world has to offer. Help us to stop living for the applause of people. And instead live for the acceptance, knowing that we are fully loved by you. Help us to remember that freedom begins when our performance ends. We want to follow you today, God, and your sons, and we pray. Amen.