So last week I stood before you and I talked about holy hands upraised in praise and also in prayer
and how we need the blessings of God. And out of that I developed a strong conviction that we need to understand holy hands
and we talked about it very briefly in the sermon last week and then I was studying the Lord kind of come around another way
I was looking at several different past descriptions as a possibility for this week and the Lord led me to a specific text
and I was studying it very intently and I was reading some of the Greek and I was reading some commentaries on it
once I kind of basically had an understanding like that and I realized that as we've taught this text that we're going to read today
over the years we've done it a great disservice and the reason and I have done this as well and the reason it is
is because we tend to take it in pieces and we act like they are separate distinct pieces but overall they have a message
and the overall message of all the pieces once they're connected is basically how to have holy hands.
That's the answer to the question and the Lord led me to the I had the question and I couldn't figure out the exact answer
to the question you know in a neat way and then the Lord led me to the passage and then I realized that the reason I was having trouble
is because I was looking at the pieces which we commonly do in this passage and then when I looked at the whole thing
I was like oh now I get it that's the overall question okay so first I'm going to give you how to have holy hands
to lift up whether it be in praise or in prayer and so it is this alms which I'll explain what that words means
out of a heart filled with light by an eye made right so that is how a person has holy hands to lift up in prayer
or in praise is it is alms out of a heart filled with light by an eye made right okay and then we'll break that down
as we go so as you see we're going to go to Matthew chapter 6 I got a whistle and amen I'm going to say amen
Matthew chapter 6 amen I've got the slight advantage of microphones around me and overly good sized lungs
from years of preaching so slight advantage there it is Matthew 6 and here we go now because it's the entire chapter
I cannot break down everything that I've been here but my guess is if you've been around a while you've probably heard
some sermons out of pieces of this or you basically maybe you know the Lord's Prayer that kind of thing you understand
basically what it means something like that so some of the pieces are there if not you can study them individually
in pieces and words on your own but we're really looking for the overarching teaching of the entire chapter
and then out of that we'll understand how to lift up holy hands okay how to have holy hands to lift up
so here we go Matthew 6 beginning verse 1 it says and this is the new American standard your translation might be different
in a couple of places I'll try to point them out but if not you'll understand why I think okay beware of practicing your
righteousness before men to be noticed by them otherwise you have no reward with your father who is in heaven
so one of the places that this text translates differently in different translations is in the very first phrase
where it talks about practicing your righteousness so in the King James it says alms okay and before we break down
we'll talk about what alms is and we're going to read the next verse all right but he says otherwise if you do this
if you practice your righteousness or do alms before men to be noticed by them you have no reward with your father
who is in heaven and that sounds like a problem to me we don't want to not have a reward when we get to heaven
verse 2 says when therefore you give alms do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues
and in the streets that they may be honored by men okay so there is the word and the word that's in the first
verse and the word that's in the second verse there are the same they are a Greek word that basically means acts of
compassion or compassionate miss if you will okay and so if you want to say alms for practicing your righteousness
you could do that and so that's what the King James chooses to do it is the same word both times the same Greek word
both times and so to translate it differently is kind of kind of sketchy to say it's one thing one place one thing
another because the word has a very simple meaning it means acts of compassion or compassionate miss so the state of
being a compassionate person and so there it is verse 2 says when therefore you give alms do not sound a trumpet
before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may be honored by men so people want it
to be known for doing good things now there is a kind of a brush off or a problem here kind of an offshoot of this
that we got to kind of let go and that is Jesus says let your good work shine before men right he does say that
elsewhere in fact it's in the sermon of the mount which is this from the sermon of the mount it says let people see your
good works so I say to you that this is not talking about not letting people see your good works even though you might
think and he gets a little bit more space he says truly I say to you they have their reward in full but you when you
give your alms do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing that your alms may be in secret and your
father who sees in secret will repay you so it sounds like he's saying make those works of righteousness secret
but there's two phrases in here that make it clear that that plus elsewhere where he says let your light so shine before
men that they will see your good work good works right and glorify your father in heaven at the day of his of his
appearing and so we know that the works themselves are not supposed to be unknown they will have repercussions
there were people are going to recognize the works for what they are when people are hungry and you feed them you
can't you can do it in secret kind of like maybe just deliver the money or the food without them knowing who and now
you're getting to kind of the point of what he's getting at right what he's talking about here is you're not your
motivation in doing them you do these good works not so that you can be seen doing the good works right if someone is
going to be glorified it's going to be God so if you do good works and they're seen make sure God gets the glory
right don't do the good works so that you with the motivation of being seen yourself they would blow the trumpet
and literally they blew trumpets in front of great offerings or in front of great acts of compassion when they're
about to distribute food thing like that and they would be honored by men people oh they're doing a great work
right we are not about that that's not what we're about we're not trying to get honored by men if if you do that you
then have your reward in full says but when you give alms not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing
so your your right hand is your doing hand it's your power hand just strength it's your authority right your left hand is
your helping hand it's your backup man right so what he's saying is go and do it yes make it a priority it's the first
thing that you do but don't think about it a lot underneath or after the fact don't don't undercut what it is by being
concerned about the details with your other hand all right so you just do it and don't think about it too much in that
sense don't dwell on it don't mourn the loss of the resources don't become concerned with whether it's going to work or
not etc. the things that you do those works of compassion you do in secret your father will see them and he will repay
you verse five and when you pray you're not to be as the hypocrites so it seems like right there by the way most again
that could be a sermon right three verse four could be a sermon and a lot of you might do that then it says in five it
says and when you pray so Jesus is continuing his discussion it's all connected and when you pray you are not to be as
the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners in other words they want to be
the one who's praying they want to be seen praying in order to be seen by men see their motivation so that people will see
them as holy men they're very pious right pious is that very aspect where people think you're holy truly he says I say to you
they have their reward in full again they're going to get all they're going to get right here on earth by the prestige of
being recognized but you when you pray before I go any further I want you to realize that you is a plural you it's a y'all
okay but y'all when y'all pray right and that's an actual thing in the Greek there's the you and then there's y'all right so
but you when you when y'all pray go into y'all's inner chamber and when you have shut y'all's door pray to y'all's father who is in
secret and your father who sees in secret will pray will repay you so God is going to know what you're praying know that you're
praying see your faithfulness right and he'll repay accordingly but again if you do that in front of everybody else and that's
the only real time you do it or that you're doing it to be seen then God is not going to reward you for prayers that whole idea of
lifting up holy hands in prayer we talked about last week and we need the blessing we're blessing God by lifting up holy hands
in praise and prayer and we need the blessings of God we want to bless God we need his blessings but you're not going to get any
blessings you're doing it to be seen you're not going to get any blessings it's hypocrisy so this so instead go into the inner room
the inner room is the storage chamber so I have a prayer closet of my house that I built that's not necessarily the inner room of my
house right it is and it is kind of an inner room because it has no windows no one can see me no one knows I'm in there right
but the bottom line is that's what he's saying so you go into the store room the center larder room the room where it has no windows
in your house and go in there and pray but remember it's y'all it's y'all's inner room so it's not it doesn't only specifically have to be a
physical room it's also something different so we we do our prayers on Sundays on Facebook live and people can see that that's not
your prayers in your room that's not our inner room this is not our inner room right this is not our treasure chest this is not our store
house right this is not the room that where people cannot see so there better be other prayer there should be prayer and then he's going to
give us an image of what that prayer should be like and then God will reward us if there is other prayer so then when you are praying
do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do so they're not casting spells or trying to get God to do a certain thing so we don't say it
over and over again that's a problem and the reason he says that is because we're going to get the pattern prayer here in a minute so he's
going to give us the pattern prayer and people memorize the pattern prayer and then they say it over and over again I say the Lord's
prayer to myself or in my head probably eight to ten times a day whenever I find myself waiting and I start to feel the impatient me
creeping up that's what I do okay but I have to realize that just saying those words over and over again they have no power right we don't
practice sorcery we're not trying to get God to do what we want God to do if God does something he's going to do it for reasons that are
mentioned in this text and because he's a good God is the bottom line this is and when you are praying do not use meaningless
repetition as the Gentiles do for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words therefore do not be like them for your
father knows what you need before you ask him so if you pray over and over and over again for money a hundred times a day for money
thinking God's going to finally give you money you got a problem there's something wrong with your prayer and with your understanding of
prayer probably you're not lifting up holy hands to him at all all right so then he gives the pattern prayer he said and listen
remember this is y'all's prayer meaning it's us as a group we pray this way all right pray then in this way our father our father not my
father our father we're in unity we agree he is our father our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name holy on the earth God's
name is holy so right there you can cut all your omg's out of your conversation right God's name is holy we do not take the Lord's
name in vain we use God's name as a holy thing and we think of him as holy he says holy be thy name thy kingdom come God's kingdom
God's kingdom is when God rules and he does rule anyway but people let him rule people give in to his rule people surrender to his
rule people turn their hearts over to God then they are part of the kingdom of God when they don't turn their hearts over to God even if
they pretend to they are not part of the kingdom of God you sit here in this room professing the name of Jesus saying you're
following Jesus but if you're not truly following Jesus then you're not part of the kingdom of God he says thy kingdom come
thy will be done God we want what you want to have happen that's what we want to happen on earth as it is in heaven so we want it
to be here like it is there in heaven God's will is done we want God's will to be done here give us this day our daily bread
notice the phrase in there it's important even though you probably looked at it glance past it a hundred times or whatever give us this
day our daily bread means we are trusting God for our daily sustenance today that says something different than saving the
finances from yesterday or fretting a morning worrying about what's going to come in the future we are praying God give us this
day our daily bread and forgive us our debts in other words the things that we have done and that you know that sins we all
know that sins the things we've done that we shouldn't have done we're asking God for forgiveness which is available through Jesus
Christ his son as we also have forgiven our debtors and someone has wronged you or owes you the best thing you can in any way
shape or form best thing you do would be forgive them in fact Jesus will later tell us it's really super important to do that
verse 13 says and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil so we don't we don't want God to take us to places
where we'll be tempted but we want God to deliver us from evil notice that word there from evil in the Greek it literally says
from the one evil that's a that's a noun that means evil is not an adjective like evil man evil woman evil demon evil is a
thing it's one thing has a personality of a sense so Satan is part of the one evil your sin also part of the one evil your worry
and regret also part of the one evil right when you say something hurts a child also part of the one evil you over or under
discipline your children also part of the one evil you are lazy and don't do the things that you know you're supposed to do
that's part of the one evil okay so we're asking God here as we pray this not to lead us to a place where we'll be tempted
but to deliver us from the one evil and then he says and this is kind of in parentheses but he says for thine is the kingdom
God's is the kingdom not ours not anyone else's not the president's not the governor not our bosses not our money God's is the
kingdom and God's is the power God is the only one we have lots of people who get into idol worship and they think something is
important right it used to be that little like statuettes that carry around in their pocket and they would rub it and pray oh please
or ancestor worship and it's still a really big thing in the orient right ancestor worship my uncle my aunt who's gone on ahead
praying to them or saying chance or things like that to them but God has all the power he's the only one who can do anything
for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory he is the one upon whom the light should be shined not us but him and
any and as the song higher says any light that's shined on us we should then redirect to him right not me now I can't do this
God does this right so all the kingdom the power and the glory for how long forever and then the amen you by now I hope you know
if you don't I'm about to tell you the amen means so let it be we agree we accept that that's the way it is and we want it to be
that way we don't want the power we don't want to rule the kingdom right and we we do want to live forever but we want to do that in
God's kingdom and we don't want the glory we want the glory to go to God now fourteen for Jesus says because if you forgive men
for their transgressions the things they've done wrong to you your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive men
then your father will not forgive you your transgressions so when you do wrong you have no forgiveness if you are also unable to
forgive somebody else with wrong view and that's a problem and you say but Jesus the grace of Jesus forgives all my sin this is
Jesus is speaking okay Jesus is saying if you do not forgive others my dad will not forgive you you say but Jesus paid for my sins
on the cross I should be forgiven simply by the blood of Jesus yes and therefore in being forgiven by the blood of Jesus you also
should be as God is and willing to forgive others that's what it and if you're not then you are not as God is which means the
blood of Jesus on the cross does not cover you verse 16 and whenever you fast so this is going without food or water whatever you
fast do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men so in other
words they intentionally would look down or look bad they might not shave or put like ash on their forehead right things like that
to help people see that they're fasting truly I say to you they have their reward in full but you when you fast anoint your head
in other words put a little oil on your head wash your face so that you may not be seen fasting by men but by your father who is in
secret so that God knows you're fasting and nobody else does and your father who sees in secret will repay you again you can get
rewards from fasting by others knowing that you're fasting also I will tell you first hand personal experience if others know you're
fasting it gets easier real fast right I have been invited out to lunch a dozen times while fasting and every time declined and felt
like I wanted to say I'm sorry I can't I'm fasting but you're not really supposed to do that right so I'm saying I'm sorry I can't do it
that day and sometimes I take some heat for that right or I've had people make me food and bring it to me while I'm fasting and I can't
eat it but I can't say I'm fasting it would make life so much easier if just everybody doing fasting and nobody's tempting me right
nobody's there handing me whatever can't but you're not really supposed to do that because then people go oh he's holy he's fasting he must
know God better than I do and it creates a stumbling block for the other person as they say well now you're doing what I can't do or I'm not
good at fasting and so and so on there's lots of reasons why but there's a reward for you that you can get on earth by everyone
knowing that you're fasting if you get that reward you get no reward from God but if you can do it without people knowing then God will
repay you it says verse 19 do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and
steal now because this is a continuation of the same thought you we now realize that he's not only talking about money see this is where the
preachers start preaching when they start talking about giving giving financially right don't lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth
where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal what if these break in and steal they steal money so surely this is about
money right but it's tied to what he was just saying basically simply he's saying don't get your rewards here because here there's all
kinds of ways for those rewards to be taken away from you you can save your money and not maybe you tied a little but then don't do more
or you just tied you don't give sacrificial like the New Testament teaches whatever you can save your money and save it up and save it up and
save it up thinking you're going to be okay but then the reality is something comes in and it's all gone one day I was at the library
right over here in Oregon I witnessed to a guy was sitting on a bench he looked like he was a little down started talking about Jesus he told me his story
he had retired at like 56 years old with four hundred thousand dollars in the bank in his home totally paid off and then like six months later
he was diagnosed with cancer over the the remain the next two and a half years they took every penny that he had saved for his retirement
was all gone and he said and then his wife left him then the house went into foreclosure he lost his wife he lost four hundred thousand dollars
and he lost his house all because it was here on earth subject to his cancer right now you can you can say well not me I'm going to put my money
in a trust so they can't touch it if they're building me for my cancer but the trust will pay for the bills if I have to and so on
but the bottom line is if you stop paying for treatments for your cancer they stop delivering treatments you die eventually that's how that works
right so they're on earth there are way and not just money but there are ways you go I hang out with my friends and I'm telling the jokes
right and everybody likes me and I'm I'm up on a pedestal because I'm the guy who was telling the jokes I'm the funny guy and then another guy
comes and joins the group and then now he's telling part of the jokes and he's pretty funny right and now I'm sharing the limelight that I had
because he was the funny guy just like me and then pretty soon one day I'm having him I'm down downswing or whatever and I don't feel up to tell him the jokes
and he tells jokes that now he's the guy and I'm not the guy I'm just part of the crowd looking up to the guy doesn't matter what your rewards are
here on the earth you can be the guy that always shows up on time or five or ten minutes early and people like I know he'll be there he'll be early
I know he's the guy he's the guy will be there early right but then somewhere down the road you wind up sick or hurt psychological frustrated or whatever
and you can't be that guy that day and how many days do you have to not show up early to no longer be the guy that shows up early not very many
you can show up for 20 years 40 years 15 minutes early to everything you ever do and then just three times in a row show up five minutes late
and they'll go oh he's always late right anything that you can have as a reward on the earth can be taken from you on the earth anything
there are people who live 25 years happily married I just read about a guy the other day a Christian man who lived 25 26 years happily married
and found out his wife was having an affair and their marriage is over she doesn't want to reconcile anything you have on this earth any rewards you have
anything that you have collected your reputation it's not just about money you do not want to lay up for yourselves treasures upon the earth of any kind
doesn't mean you can't have anything good no it doesn't mean you can't have anything good that's not what it means right really the problem is in the treasuring
that's the problem when you designate something as a treasure and it's something of this lifetime it can be taken away outside your control
Sherry and I would go on date nights for three four years in a row and we go play golf all the time right now Sherry can't play golf right and that's been taken from her
why did she do something wrong no she didn't do anything wrong but no matter what you treasure whatever you like you be careful because if you treasure it here on the earth
Jesus says do not lay up for yourselves don't store up don't collect don't look at don't observe don't be concerned with treasures for yourself here on the earth
where moth and ruff destroy and where thieves break in and steal and a thief doesn't even have to be a person it can be an illness it can be a bill it can be a situation
it can be a harsh word right it can be Satan himself you gonna stop Satan for coming in taking your finances or your health are you personally gonna do that
no God's gonna do that if anybody does it all God's gonna do it okay 20 but lay up alternatively lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys
where thieves do not break in or steal I can hear the words of Paul saying to Timothy I know in whom I have trusted and I know that which I have entrusted to him
and that he is able to keep it unto that day for where your treasure is there will your heart be also now we see the problem the real problem is not that thieves or moths or rust
right that's not the real problem the real problem is we're trying to have a holy heart that's how you're gonna get holy hands right this is all part of the equation
we've got to have a heart that is somewhere that is pointed somewhere pointed at something and that something or someone or somewhere that's pointed at needs to be the throne of God
it needs to be heaven it needs to be God himself and if you have prestige or you have finances or you have health or you have strength or you have pride
or you have honor or whatever you have any of that on the earth and you treasure it that's where your heart is going to be your heart is going to be pursuing after
ensuring that you don't lose or maybe being worried about or maybe regretting something you did cause you to lose it or whatever that saying that you've treasured on the earth
and when it don't go right believe me it's really easy to get frustrated if your treasures are something that you can see feel hear touch whatever on the earth
even if you only feel it emotionally or psychologically we're living in a day where now out in the world people can no longer say it's just it is what it is
it is what it is and I can't I'm just gonna move on because it is what it is but nobody the fretting and the morning goes on for years or decades
there was a time where if you lost a loved one close to yourself they said it take two to three years bless you two to three years to basically be okay again
they just mourn for two to three years now there are people mourning for two to three decades the loss of a loved one and they're not okay they're just not why
because their emotions their heart their seed of decision making is spiritual was wrapped up in that person and now that person is gone they had a treasure on the earth
and they lost it was stolen from them and that's where their heart went and their heart is now broken or lost or tied to that event am I saying that's a bad person
no what I'm saying is don't do it not me Jesus don't store up don't let the things of this earth become important to you rather make the things of heaven the things that are important
that's what Jesus and it's not just about money it's so much about anything that we might treasure and he goes on he's not done 22 the lamp of hold on yeah 22 the lamp of the body is the eye
so right there by the way 1921 that's the text for a sermon and lots of people have preached it you can find outlines on sermoncentral.com right now to preach on those 1921 1920 and 21
and you can probably find a hundred sermon outlines to preach on those verses which I don't read them by the way the lamp of the body is the eye if therefore your eye is clear your whole body will be full of light
okay so he's saying this is how what's inside you gets right your eye has to be right but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness that's ignorance and wickedness and sin
it's part of the one evil if therefore the light that is in you is darkness how great is the darkness so in other words if your eye brings in the bad and not the good then what's inside you is going to be very very bad
24 no one can serve two masters still same speech same talks all connected no one can serve two masters you can't be divided for an either he will hate the one and love the other or he will hold to the one and despise the other
you cannot serve God and mammon that's money so in other words if you're concerned about money and riches then you're going to have a hard time serving God and virtually if you serve money you cannot serve God
25 still the same speech for this reason I say to you do not be anxious for your life don't worry about it don't be anxious about your life as to what you shall eat or what you shall drink nor for your body as to what you shall put on
is not life more than food in the body than clothing look at the birds of the air that they do not sow neither do they weep nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them are they not worth are you not worth much more than they
are and which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his lifespan in other words if you worry about making sure things are right in the future can you actually add a cubit that's 18 inches by the way that's just one cubit from your elbow to the tip of your finger
if you're shorter it's probably a little less than 18 inches but that's a cubit can you add that to your life no you can't you literally can't you cannot make it better the more you work or are concerned about the things that you're going to need in the future
the worse you will make it it's not that it doesn't work the other way around okay 28 and why are you anxious about clothing observe now the lilies of the field how the I'm sorry how the lilies of the field grow they do not toil nor do they spin yet I say to you that even Solomon in his glory did not
close himself like one of these but if God so raised the grass of the field which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace will he not much more do much more do so for you in other words is God not going to take care of you make sure you have these things
that you need oh man of little faith oh men plural of little faith do not be anxious when saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or with what shall we clothe ourselves for all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek those who do not know God they are
there after all those things for your heavenly father knows that you need all these things but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness so these are the things you really need you need God's kingdom and God's righteousness and all these things everything else we've been talking about
shall be added to you you could even say treasure in form of honor and like that as long as it doesn't become your treasure you may be honored on the earth you may be lifted up you may be put on a pedestal by somebody you redirect the light to God but the bottom line is all of those things might be added to you everything from what am I going to eat what am I going to wear what am I going to pay my bills with to my honor my prestige my mental state 34 therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow for tomorrow will care for itself each day
has enough trouble of its own so what Jesus is saying is deal with what's in front of you right now which brings us back around to the concept of alms right how to have holy hands to lift up alms out of a heart filled with light by an eye made right first of all this text calls us to have a single eye like a cyclops a cyclops was an ancient fable giant man who had just one eye right we're supposed to have a single eye that eye then is going to be
determined by view focus and nature first of all view is what do you see if you're going to have a single eye it's going to be directed at a single target and I don't mean you're always going to be looking at the throne of God Stephen looked up as he was about to be stoned and he saw the throne of God Jesus stands there and then they killed him right I'm not saying keep your eyes on the throne this is not about keeping your eyes on the Savior right although you should right when you take your eyes off the shepherd you're going to turn your eyes to the other sheep you're going to start to get frustrated I did the same thing we frustrated why aren't they like that why aren't
I don't know I didn't just have why aren't people doing what they're supposed to do and so on so we should keep our eyes on the Savior the bottom line is is a single eye in the view in the direction that you're supposed to be going okay what it is that God wants from you who it is that God is God's Word God's teaching God's plan right one eye viewing that which God would have us to do secondly it's about focus
no false gods no other things that become important like God right so there are going to come into your vision you're going to be looking at what God wants you to do and as if you had somehow the mystical ability to detect them you look at a scene and look around the room and there's one and there's one and there's one and there's one in this room there are several false gods right now in this room there's several false gods our cell phones are here the cell phone is a false god if you're playing a video game
you're watching a video you're on tik tok or reels watching somebody do a dance or somebody make a fantastic sports play or whatever when you should be focused on God you are being lured away by a false god it's a very real thing if you're doing your work and you're working for your employer and they're paying you to be there and you're talking to your friend your brother your sister whatever on the phone while you're on the clock and you're supposed to be working right you're being lured away from what you're supposed to be doing by a false god okay it has
what happens money everybody's got a little money in their pocket or a credit card or whatever money is a false god if you have enough money your bills will be paid if you don't have enough money your bills will not be paid that is the lie of the false god manner to make you pursue money so you're going to pursue money of which Paul wrote to Timothy the pursuit of money or the love of money is the root of all evil if a false god by the way got to pay for a cell phone and cell phone service and the sports so you can watch all the
games live and the streaming service so you can read your books or watch your movies and all that right it's all money takes money right so the pursuit of that money to be able to do that is the root of all evil not money itself but the pursuit of that money once you treasure it treasure the money for what the money can do now it's going to lead you to do into evil false gods they're in this room they're everywhere everywhere you look they're there so you're going to see them right but what you have to do is focus on what's important
focus on Jesus's work on the earth advance in the kingdom that's what the Lord's Prayer was all about focus on forgiveness focus on mercy focus on works of kindness and compassion cancel your streaming services and use the money to pay for somebody to get food cancel your next outing and go and look for somebody that you can love on and buy them a gift instead that'll get help you to get control and focus on the things that are of value and are important you say but I happen to be somebody who's in a position
where I have God has blessed me with more money and I'm tithing why should I have to do more the New Testament standard is not about tithing the New Testament standard is tithing plus it's sacrificial giving it should be way beyond that right people are giving to stuff they believe in all the time God's people giving to the kingdom money that's a no-brainer but it's not just money it's what do you treasure right what's big to you what's important to you do you treasure your family give your family to the kingdom of God
do you treasure your car put your car in the service of the kingdom of God until you do that you are not a faithful servant to own it because you have lost your focus your focus is not on doing what it is that God will have you to do with what it is that God has blessed you with rather your focus is on dealing with the false God now be careful because it reverses to if you spend your time dealing with the false gods you spend your time fighting to get control and make sure that the false gods are not getting control of you you're also not
focused on what God would have you to do so I wrote a book says putting money in its place the idea you want to deal with money here's what you do give sacrificially and then line the money up so that the bills are paid behind your back you don't even know what's going on that's what you do that's how you get rid of that's how you take care of a spending plan is designed to take care of it it's taking care of now you can do what it is you're supposed to be doing now I don't mean to be getting to talk about money because it isn't about money it's about all things you treasure the words of your friends your
friends your kids your health everything you do right and all that can get doctors doctors can be false gods right I went to the doctor with the problem with my sinuses I'm having allergy issues while I was there the doctor said well we need you to take this pill it's going to deal with your migraines for 60 days so once you take this pill it's going to deal with your migraines for 60 days and then after that hopefully you won't have to take it anymore so I'm reading it it's an anti-depressant I'm like well this is an anti-depressant on top of migraine medicine
I don't want to take this right it's going to affect my psychology and he goes well you need to do this and he's got his little assistant with him there you need to do this and this is why you need to do it and he started arguing with me why I need to do it and I said well I don't want to do it and I don't think God wants me to do it so he said well we're not trying to make you do anything you don't want to do and he backs down and he starts explaining to why you know the patient is really the person in charge of their medical care and everything like that you focus on God now will you have to take medicine in your lifetime?
almost definitely we have to have surgeries maybe very likely should you not avail yourself of the things that God has put in place for you to get the help that you need? absolutely you should and what do you do while you're doing it? don't focus on it don't treasure it don't let it become a guide or a leader in your life don't let your doctor tell you when you're well let God tell you when you're well and that's the problem everywhere you look there are things that can become false gods relationships right we hook up with a guy or a girl who doesn't follow the Lord they're not all about God
they say they're a Christian but they're not all about God well I'm going to lead them closer to God but the whole time you're doing one of two things either you're representing God to them to try to lead them closer to God or you're busy putting out fires to deal with the fact that they're not close to God either way is that focusing on God? is that walking the path that God will be able to walk? the answer is no everything in the world can become a treasure and everything in the world can become a false god and we must focus on no false gods
focus on God and the things of God and doing the works of God and then while you're focusing on God and doing the things of God the last thing is he says you must have a good eye you must have a good eye no the good eye begins with getting saved you first have to commit all that you are to the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus will birth you again but then it gets trained right you know when babies are born when they're first born they really can't see at best they can see lights like patterns lights and dark
and then eventually they can see blobs of light moving around and then they can start to see some colors and then they can really start recognizing and then through the vision that baby as it's being breastfed by its mother or being bottle fed if that's how it's done but they're looking at the face of their mother there's a hormone that's activated in their brain and they know that their mother is their mother with not anybody ever teaching them that right because their eyes learn to see when you learn to see what who God is what God's about you will have a good eye you will have no division
in who you are that's what it's talking about in Romans 12 where it says you can eventually test and approve what is the good and faithful will of God right because you got to get a good eye when you're first born as a Christian you can hardly see then eventually you can kind of see a little more clearly you start to realize that's not good this is good that's dark that's light and you gravitate toward the good things in life if you're following the Lord faithfully you begin to learn and sometimes you're in the middle of the thick of it in the dark
barely able to deal with what your focus a false God has been looming in your life and God will say hey wake up you just did it right now you just walked that I just did this myself in the last two weeks because I'm reading this report that came out from Southern Baptist that they commissioned and I told to share this one I said just realize that as I'm reading this report they are putting stuff in my head that I never even wanted to know and they're all like don't comment on you've got to know how to guide and direct your church you minister and everything you've got to read it you've got to read it
288 page report with a hundred pages of stuff I never wanted to know I would never think of I don't even want to think about right I don't watch any of that stuff and I don't read any books like that and it's described in this report I'm like I don't want to know this but now I know it this morning I'm praying and was popping in my head and that's what's gonna happen to you there's gonna be a moment at which you lost your focus you began to let a false God loom large or an earthly treasure become important to you and you're gonna realize that you go whoa wait a minute that's got to go and you solve that problem the same way you got
saved which is you repent and you turn and put your eye where it belongs and in that same look there's still gonna be other false gods you know that's not nope that that's not for me I'm not gonna have that I'm not gonna treasure that I'm not gonna get wrapped up in that not on the earth I'm not gonna do it I'm gonna keep navigating the path finding my way to God alone with an eye that's not wandering with an eye that has no false gods and when I that is not divided it is just good and that's how you open yourself to the light that our God brings
into your life right that's what it says if and if you have a good eye there will be light and if you have a bad eye there will be darkness Jesus said it not me secondly notice that the goal then to be able to produce the the holy hands is a heart full of light so the alms the works of God which we'll talk about in a moment come from a heart filled with light by an eye made right we just talked about an eye made right you
now know what that is a heart full of light light is Jesus Christ first of all if you're not a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ don't be surprised when you find dark thoughts in your heart right and there will still be some remaining a lot of times from before when we were not Christians Jesus will come in and we'll be like but I used to do this and I used to do that I remember when I did this a hurt me as a young Christian and it rarely happens not I think it's happened the last couple of years but I used to have traumatic flashbacks of things that I had
said and done before I got saved people that I hurt people that I said things to events that I went through tragedies that were perpetrated on me right and I would have traumatic flashbacks and eventually the Lord healed me for 15 10 15 years after I was a Christian I could still see one image in particular but some of the pornography that I was involved in as a young teenager 12 13 14 years old 11 to 14 years old and I
was in my 30s if I thought about it I could still see one image in particular but several others possible when a false God takes up residence and puts darkness in your heart when the evil begins to loom it'll be there and you try to get rid of it the way to get rid of it is to focus on God and ultimately that I said that one day I was driving down the road I said Lord I I cannot have this image in my head anymore I prayed to God I said God I cannot have this image in my head anymore I'm asking you Lord do away with it do away with it
and that day he did away with it and now I cannot see any of the images of what I looked at that I could see for 15 years I can't see them anymore and there's one page in particular that remained the longest I could see in my mind's eye right now I can see the cloth and oranges on the outside edge of the page but the stuff in the middle which is where the naked woman was is gone idols stuff that you allow the treasure on the earth that's what they'll do they'll hook into your heart and into your mind and they're stuck there they're there for so long decades even don't do it don't
put yourself through that misery submit your life to Jesus Christ give him your heart let him make you born again we are all sinners in need of a Savior and Jesus is volunteering for the job and say Jesus you be Lord of my life Jesus you cleanse my insides Jesus you rebirth me and be my Lord but the light is also wisdom Jesus said thy word if I hid my heart that I might not sin against thee it's wisdom God's wisdom
not just the word of God but wisdom it's the application of the word of God we figure out what does it say what does it mean what am I supposed to do about we do it you see what happened we learn we learn and grow as we were babies and now we're growing up to be mature Christians we learn and grow as we are doing what we're supposed to be doing and that wisdom takes up residence in us but it's clearly also compassion a heart of compassion is the heart of Christ that he would pray for those who were crucifying him and say father forgive them for they know not what they do a heart of compassion
should be in you if you don't care that there are people in our city being sold into sex trafficking every single day of every calendar year if that does not affect you you should ask yourself why am I not affected by the fact that a 10 year old girl could be taken off the street groomed by a sex fiend and then used 30 40 times a day to have sex with men that she does not know and she's kept hopped up on drugs the whole time you know
like well that doesn't happen does it yeah that happens all over the world and Toledo is in the top 10 in the United States of America that that happens most of the girls are not trafficked here because there's not enough people they're trafficked in Florida or elsewhere a heart of compassion if you don't care that there are people calling the life station on a regular basis or on the church phone or showing up at our pantry saying they would not have food to eat today if they don't get food from a pantry if that does not bother you you don't have a heart
of compassion the way Jesus does Jesus's heart is breaking over the fact that there are people who do not have food over there people who do not have clothing they do not have safety of any kind Jesus's heart is breaking standing at the right hand of the father going oh please God wake them up that they will have a heart of compassion there's a song that says I look at the world today and I'm asking God God why don't you send somebody why don't you send somebody God to do something about this thing that I see that's so terrible in the world today and you know what
God says back in that song same thing he said to Isaiah yeah I send you you're a follower the Lord Jesus Christ there are wrongs in the world you do something about it I'm not saying take up arms and go and fight I'm saying you take steps and do compassionate works and that compassion will blossom in you and it will fill your heart I've had people come back to me after years and they say you know if you hadn't been there if the life station or New Heights hadn't been there at that time I might have committed suicide or I might
have starved to death right you said these right words to me at the moment which I was suffering because my son died of a whole of an opioid overdose and I was barely alive walking around absolutely numb and you said these right words to me I'm still here today ten years later because of what you did had a guy who comes to the life station to tell me that the letter that we wrote him when he was in jail not a bullet not he was a professing believer but he wasn't a New Heights person and he wasn't at life station anymore we hadn't heard from him in a couple years we wrote him a letter in jail and he
said that letter saved his life one little work of compassion by you one caring one moment of being a bleeding heart one moment of wearing their suffering on your sleeve instead of your own suffering that's what God has called us to we can make a huge difference the light if Christ in our heart the wisdom in our heart and the compassion in our heart and as you do things you will be affected by the outcome then
driven that heart should be driven by your eye the eye then that is not wandering the eye that is not after false gods treasuring things here on the earth that we shouldn't be treasuring the guy the eye that is of no divisions the good eye let your heart be driven by the good eye that God will give you you say I see this that needs to be done I check with my friends and my family and I call around and say anybody gonna do that anybody already on top of that nope nobody's on top of it okay I'm gonna make sure
that gets done I will put myself out I will be I saw it I'm the one who saw it so I'm gonna make sure it gets done I'm gonna seize the opportunity a heart of compassion the thing with right now media some people in the room are going I don't think I don't know if we even need right now media listen to me there are lost people across the city of Toledo we have no church home we have hundreds of people who say they need a church home you know how many Southern Baptist churches are in the city of Toledo not enough that if they all came this coming
Sunday they would even be able to get a seat that's how many churches there are their neighborhoods whole vast neighbors where somebody wanted to go to a Southern Baptist Church or even an evangelical church a church where they're going to be told about God they would have to walk five miles so far we need to do what needs to be done that those people can hear the gospel be trained in walking in the Lord they can get that wisdom if they want it they can be taught how to have a good eye and they can begin to
do their alms and that brings us to the final point alms this I get holy hands alms out of a heart filled with light by an eye made right you now know what an eye made right is no wandering no false gods no divisions a good eye given by Jesus you now know what a heart full of light is a light filled with Christ filled with wisdom filled with compassion and driven by your eye and out of that arises godly alms alms are works of compassion works of compassionate souls
they are works sometimes it's given money more often than not it's not it's more often than not not money a lot of times it's prayers I heard about what somebody's going through I'm going to pray for them out of my compassionate heart I am led to pray for that person consistently or intentionally private and corporate prayer we pray our corporate prayers when we get together and somebody leads us in prayer and most and everybody just kind of waits until they're done that is not corporate prayer you should
be praying when someone's leading us in prayer in your head at least if not also out loud you should be praying and you should pray the same words that they pray but then as God leads you to pray something else you pray whatever God leads you to pray you start where they start you end wherever God takes you and we all say amen that's corporate prayer y'all go in your inner room and y'all pray and y'all pray like this our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on the earth as it is in heaven
give us this day our daily bread lead us not into temptation forgive us from trespass I got out of order bottom line is all the times I say that try to say it out loud I can't do it but anyway pray together corporately and then corporately privately go to your homes go to your workplace sit in your car pray before you go to the grocery store pray everywhere all the time and if you got nothing else to pray pray the Lord's prayer then do works of compassion
see a need step up and meet it see a need get out of yourself out of your concerns and your put your treasures into it think about hey I've got this thing I like spending time with my friends I like spending time with my friends I like doing my job I like my money I like my foods I like what go you know what I'm gonna give up coca-cola for 50 cents a day or maybe three dollars a day if you're a big coke drinker and go and that'll give me 900 bucks at the end of the year that I can help somebody with and then do it find out what you treasure
and then put your treasures into the kingdom of advance and God will repay you that's what Jesus said alms compassionate works done for the Lord giving give financially give up your time give of whatever you got and then worship praise by the way when we do these alms we can lift holy hands because in the process we are getting holy hands out of a heart filled with light by an eye made right not for our gain not for the world
gain do we do these things we do not do them for help from God right you don't go God I need your help I know I need your help and we ask God to help us and we think well if I do these things these compassionate works then I will get God's help the only promise in the Bible there are two of them two promises in the Bible where God says specifically if you do X he'll do Y one of them is honor and obey your parents you honor and obey your parents and it's lifelong command from
the moment you are born to the moment you die if you honor and obey your parents for your whole life God will make your life long and prosperous in the land to which he sends you that's a promise from the Ten Commandments Jesus quoted it while his life says the first and command with a promise and then in Malachi chapter 3 it says if you give tithes and offerings like you're supposed to God will pour out blessings from heaven like he wants to test him in this it says those two are the two that I'm familiar with but here it says God will repay he will repay your compassionate alms
if they are done not for yourself not for the gain of others but for the Lord not to get his help but for the Lord for the kingdom of God and then that brings us to the conclusion there are two images on that laptop that I'm going to need in a moment in fact I'm going to need the first one right now what you're going to see here is a pyramid comes from Wikipedia or something like that you can see a pyramid up on the screen when it gets there and I'll describe it this is Madlow's
pyramid hierarchy of needs okay on the bottom you'll see the physiological needs so that's your food that's your clothing etc and what Maslow basically hypothesizes that if those needs are not met none of the other needs can really matter because you will literally starve to death in 40 days and you'll be dead or you'll die of exposure and you'll be dead right or you'll die of thirst and you'll be dead right so they are the most important needs they are breathing if someone suffocates you you'll be dead food water sex
sleep homeostasis excretion the ability to sweat these are the basic physiological needs of a human being okay and then it goes up from there safety security of body of employment of resources of morality of the family of health of property so you want to feel like those things are going to be okay I want to know that I'm going to have my stuff taken care of right and those are actual practical needs you don't want anybody knifing you in the street right you want to have a job and you want to know that
your job is going to be there tomorrow when you go to report and so on then it goes up a little further friendship family sexual intimacy so people need real relationships that go a little further than just I'm here right and then it goes a little further still self-esteem confidence achievement respect of others and respect by others I submit to you that everything everything that is on that green line and down can become a god can become a treasure in your life it's what I need if I need it and I don't want to ever be without it
then I need it to the point that I'm going to treasure it I'm going to make sure right when your self-esteem is damaged you become a vampire and suck the life out of everybody around you and that's what happens right and people pursue those things if money's on the list it's somewhere in the middle under safety right but you can have a lot of a steam if you're making a lot of money get a few promotions right you get a few promotions without any additional money you still are meeting your esteem need though you're not necessarily meeting your safety need right then you get to the top of the pyramid skin up the top right there more
morality creativity spontaneity problem solving a lack of prejudice acceptance of fact self actualization when we are born again we are born again there that's where we're born again okay you may not at certain points in time in your life feel safe where you are you might actually be martyred for Christ God forbid but you might you will not feel safe while you are doing that you may feel safe in the hands of the Lord safe that you're going to go to heaven eternally safe but your physical body will not feel safe your heart will be racing your
mouth will be sweaty your mouth will fill with cotton you'll barely be able to say the name of Jesus but when they say to you you must say the name you must despise the name of Jesus or otherwise I'm going to kill you you'll croak out his name and say no love Jesus and then they may kill you and you will not feel safe while that's happening but all the while you will be morally correct all your creativity spontaneity problem solving all put on hold you will say Jesus and Jesus is my fact and I know that and you will go straight to heaven right this is the
hierarchy of needs you can find yourself in there anywhere at any time looking for what you're looking for whatever it is we can pray for the basics right he said give us this day our daily bread we can pray for all the things that are below the born again state you can say to God God I need this please give me this I need it right but you're praying for a new fancy car or a bigger house that's not on there that's up higher that's in the esteem area right you want to feel good about yourself
don't feel like you have more than somebody else has right God is going to make you feel good about yourself but he's not going to make you feel good about yourself through your worldly treasures or through false idols he's going to make you feel good about yourself because you're being recreated in the image of Jesus so when you're praying for things that will just add to your esteem you're making a huge mistake it's become an idol for you right so these are these are the things that can be treasured and they are the things that are needed and they're in the order of basic up to more kind of like spiritual and psychological and like that
I submit to you that this whole chapter everything that we have just read was Jesus teaching us how to deal with that through our eye we put an eye over top of all of that and let that eye fill up all that's below it right anybody got a dollar got dollar in your pocket Tommy's gonna put up an image for us that you'll find on the back of the American dollar
and he has I have one you're gonna see my dollar maybe else have a dollar yeah so this dollar has a symbol on the back of it it's a pyramid at the top of the pyramid there's an all-seeing eye interesting isn't it did you know that no one knows for sure why that's there there are a whole bunch of theories as to why it's there a whole bunch of them so the the all-seeing eye at the center of a pyramid was a symbol of the Illuminati of Babel
a barbarian group of businessmen thought they were gonna rule the world they existed for less than 10 years they infiltrated the Freemasons and other secret societies and and they thought we're gonna work behind the scenes and rule everything and no one's gonna know it's us and they had all these cultic things that they did and blah blah blah that's the that's the Illuminati but this is the all-seeing eye this is over the pyramid it's not in the pyramid but some people still think that it was put there by the Illuminati even though the Illuminati ceased to exist as an organization in 1785 but some people still think it has
to do that because they're you know conspiracy theorists or whatever there are two sayings on on this paper here do you know what they mean they're both Latin I wrote them down but the top one the more important one says that our work is approved by God that's what it says now I wonder who put that symbol on the American dollar now before you say some
government guy it was the head of the kind of the Confederate Congress before the Constitution was signed that actually recommended that the symbol be put there and that those Latin sayings were put on there he's the one who recommended it he was a Christian by the way the said the top saying says our work is approved by God if you can get one eye one all-seeing eye one focusing on God I one make God more important than your basic needs I
one I will not follow false idols I one I will follow the Lord and the Lord alone I if you can get that you can bring all of your needs under his control and he will authorize your alms he'll tell you what to do and you'll do it now this is what I'm left wondering I'm wondering if anybody's done it have I done it
have you done it I submit to you that based on what Jesus says in this in this chapter that we just read if you haven't done it if you have not put your eye non wandering no false gods no divisions your good eye toward God in his kingdom if you've not done begun to do works of compassion living in the light of Christ and with wisdom driven by that one eye
if you haven't done that maybe you're not saved you say well how can you possibly say that well see what did Jesus say he said if you if your eye is divided your eyes on money and you're about money your treasures are on the earth you may have money but you'll have no reward from the father who is in heaven if you pray in front of others and do things in front of others to get honor and prestige
then you may have honor and prestige it's very easy to do really just go to work and work real hard for your boss and your boss gives you a little raise now you have honor and prestige right when your boss gives you that raise they'll still say anything about Jesus so you've done it you worked for a raise got the raise and didn't say anything about Jesus you've done it and if you do that you'll have no reward from your father in heaven that's what it says well no reward from your father in heaven sort of
sounds a little bit like dangerously close anyway to not going to heaven what it is is a contradiction if you're a follower of the Lord Jesus you're gonna go to heaven and then what just stand there receive no reward I think we need to repent and we need to turn our lives over to God we need to stop letting those treasures and those idols that are everywhere it's not that you can't have good things in fact we're talking almost all about things that
we enjoy it's okay to enjoy a little bit of money it's okay to enjoy good food so clear okay to enjoy good companionship or hobbies or even to enjoy your cell phone all these things it says in Galatians these things were given to us to enjoy but they are not supposed to ever take the place of a treasure and they should certainly never loom large in your sight ever and if they do then you can safely assume that your eye is focused in the wrong place
I submit to you that it was God who put the pyramid on the dollar bill and that's why to this day no one really knows who did it or who who why it happened he had a reason the guy who recommended it and they had a reason for listening to him everybody has a reason in the day that they live but it's God who protected his Bible cover to cover for thousands of years and it's God who put the pyramid on the dollar bill and I from now on when you see the dollar bill I want you to be reminded as you look at your dollar bill
or even if you don't use it use plastic and realize hey I spent a dollar every time you spend a dollar
I want you to be reminded on the back of that dollar is the same
this says your works are approved by God
and ask yourself
is that true? well that's what God wants
he wants our works to be approved by him works alms
out of a heart filled with light by an eye
made right and I'm asking you to make that commitment with me today
and to begin to ask yourself am I focusing on the wrong things
how do I focus on the things that are kingdom things
study the Lord's prayer spend time in prayer
and we will do it together not physically together you'll be at home at your house
I'll be at my house and
everybody will be at their own houses and we'll all be praying
with the same heart
Father help us to have one eye
I ask the praise team to come forward and lead us in this closing hymn at this time
this is our hymn of decisions this is our moment of challenge
you should be asking yourself right now does whatever was spoken today really speak to me
was God challenging me as I have been prayed
there is no room for concern or worry about the future and no room for regret or
trouble over the past you don't get to do that you have to live today
you have to live today you can't die and live at the same time
and regret over the past and worry over the future those are death
live today live large with one eye
one heart filled with the light of Christ
wisdom and compassionate works we can raise our holy hands
in praise and in prayer
and we know we have holy hands because now we know how to have holy hands
would you sing with me as we sing this song let's sing together
turn it all over to God just now
we fall down we lay our ground
all those treasures laid at the feet of Jesus
that's what's going to lie there then
we raise that song in mercy and love
at the feet of Jesus
and we cry holy, holy, holy