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Hey, I'm Matt Brownell.

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And I'm Van Owens.

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And I'm Tim Adams.

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Welcome to Climbing the Mountain, where we dive into the scriptures and discuss themes,

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connections, and real life application.

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We're kicking off a series here where we're going to examine the sermon on the mount and

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discuss implications for this teaching for Christians today.

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In chapter six of Matthew, Jesus begins a new section.

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Now, we've been studying the passage that began in 517, how Jesus tells his hearers

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that he's come to fulfill the law.

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Then he warns his hearers how their teachers were not correctly teaching the law.

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They had false teaching.

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Now in chapter six, Jesus turns to our lives, how we live out our faith.

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He warns us not to be hypocrites, possessing merely a superficial righteousness or doing

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a religion for show, essentially for yourself.

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We're going to read a longer section of scripture that includes three bad examples of how we

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should not practice our faith.

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In the middle of it is this wonderful aside, the Lord's Prayer.

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We're going to read all of it together so you can hear it all in context, but we're

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going to just focus on the three examples and we'll save the Lord's Prayer for another

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episode.

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Tim, you want to read this?

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Sounds good.

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Starting in Matthew 6, verse 1.

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Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.

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If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

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So when you give to the needy, don't announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the

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synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others.

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Truly I tell you, they've received their reward in full.

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But when you give to the needy, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is

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doing so that your giving may be in secret.

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Then your Father, who sees what is done secret, will reward you.

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And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues

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and on the street corners to be seen by others.

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Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

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But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen.

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Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

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And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they'll be heard

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because of their many words.

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Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

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This then is how you should pray.

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Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

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Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our

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debtors.

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And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

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For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will

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also forgive you.

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But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

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When you fast, don't look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show

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others they are fasting.

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Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

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But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious

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to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father who is unseen, and your Father

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who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

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Awesome.

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Thank you.

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So the big picture I see in this passage is Jesus telling us to look at our hearts again.

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Why do we do what we do when we worship, especially in public?

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In the previous passage, people were trying to get out of obeying the law.

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Now Jesus pivots to people who were obeying the law, but they were obeying for the wrong

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reasons to be seen by others.

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So what is the quality of our hearts that God desires?

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Yeah, I think that when I looked at this question, I wrote down three words, sincerity,

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earnestness, authenticity.

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These are the things that I think are really difficult, and I'll just speak for myself.

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They're really difficult for me when I think about my public presence.

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It's easier to just put it on.

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It's easier to just treat it almost like clothing for me.

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I know I've been around public worship for the last almost 40 years of my life.

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And so it's easy for me to put it on and just say, I know how I should look when I go to

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church.

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I know what's in me.

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I know how I feel, and that might be a mixture of all kinds of sin and attitudes and just

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wrongness, but I know how I should look.

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And so it's really a challenge sometimes to be sincere and to go in and to prepare myself,

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which is what it takes.

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I have to prepare myself to be sincere.

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Otherwise I can just put it on.

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Yeah, I think it's very easy for any of us, and definitely for me to have this mindset

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of what I'm doing in public is what I have to focus on, and that that's really what counts.

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And when I think about what God actually wants is that my public worship means to be an outpouring

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of my existing and growing relationship with God.

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So there's something that there's a relationship, there's a fellowship that I have with God

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inside of me, and that is deep in my soul.

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And everything that I do, whether it's private or public, comes out of that.

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And what I'm seeing Jesus really speak against here is that doing things so that other people

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will see.

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And that inverts it, which I know we'll talk a bunch about.

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But to me, that's the key quality.

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There's this outpouring of I want to be in fellowship with God at all times and in all

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places.

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And one of those places happens to be in public worship and in public, but that's not my primary

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focus.

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Yeah.

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When I was thinking about this, well, I thought of two things.

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First, this is kind of frightening.

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These people are doing the right things, but God judges your heart.

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He sees your motivations.

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And so suddenly this became very, very difficult for me.

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And it reminded me of another, one of my favorite scriptures, which I'm sure is yours as well,

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Van, because I'm going to quote Samuel here, which is your favorite.

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It says, God says to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or his height, he's talking

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about David, for I've rejected the other people, his brothers.

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And the Lord does not look at the things people look at.

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People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

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And there was something about David's heart that was special.

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And when you see him burst on the scene, I think it kind of relates to this, you know,

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how God sees our hearts and what's going on inside of us when we're worshiping.

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When we see David, he's, you know, before we see him, you know, go face off against

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Goliath, we know he's spent a lot of time on his own, obviously.

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He's been in the middle of nowhere and tend in the sheep.

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And then, you know, a wild animal comes along and God saves him from that wild animal.

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And that builds his faith.

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And so we see he's got some kind of real relationship with God that was developed in private.

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And so when he sees Goliath, he's angry.

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He's angry that this guy is insulted, the armies of the living God.

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And then he gets up and I think that there's this trust in God that is at the core of him.

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Yeah.

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You know, it's sort of like that scripture in 2 Peter 1 where it talks about making

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every effort, making every effort to add to your faith goodness and to goodness knowledge

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and knowledge, self-control.

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And when you read a passage like that, for me, it's overwhelming.

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It's like make every effort and then there's a long list of stuff that I need to do.

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And yet it makes complete sense when I think about the kind of heart that I want to have

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towards God in my relationship with him.

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Because if I don't have it, the more around it I am, the easier it is to fake it.

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And the easier it is to get away with faking it because people are used to seeing you in

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a certain light.

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And it's that effort in your individual, that thing that made David stand out, that made

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him do what he did when he went march down into that valley to confront Goliath, came

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from inside of him.

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It wasn't something he was wearing.

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And in fact, there's that comical scene where Saul gives him the armor and says, I can't

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go in this because I'm not used to it.

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And so you envision this little kid trying to wear the armor of a six and a half foot

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tall man when what he had inside of him was enough for him to be able to do what he needed

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to do.

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And I think that that's what Jesus is calling us to, is that authenticity, that it comes

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from a real place inside and not from some motivation to just look right or to be popular

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or to fit in.

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And there's a real danger in what you're describing too, Van, right?

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The more you perform at it, the better you get at performing.

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And that's scary.

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Yeah.

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There's an aspect to the way we live our lives that is performative.

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But if all there is is the performance, then, and there's nothing underneath the performance,

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then there really is nothing.

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So Jesus, I love what he's, so he's, he's addressing public shows of righteousness.

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And he uses these three examples, right?

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He's got public giving, public prayer, public fasting or fasting is such a way that everyone

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knows about it, we don't live in the same culture, might have a hard time relating to

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these examples.

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For instance, if someone got up in the street corner and started praying loudly, we'd probably

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think they are crazy.

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But we do have things today like virtue signaling, right?

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Signaling your virtue.

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What are some modern examples of things that we can kind of tie back to these examples

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Jesus is giving and how, how do they relate to us here?

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Yeah.

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I mean, I think it depends on your cultural context.

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Are you doing this in a setting that's, you know, maybe primarily Christian or you're

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doing this in the setting that's not.

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But with most of this, it basically comes down to I'm doing something primarily so that

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other people will perceive me a certain way, not so that I, you know, become a certain

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way.

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I mean, the actions that we do do, do something to us.

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But if the primary purpose is just to change other people's impression of us, that's, that's

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the issue.

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So there's a lot of examples of that, you know, most of them would be talking about

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something you're doing or doing something and making sure other people know about it.

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Right.

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Or like, tuning your own horn, which comes right out of this passage.

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So but yeah, I mean, I think a very obvious one example to me is when is with acts of

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charity, you know, it's still very, very common of telling people, you know, that you, you

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just gave a lot of money to someone, whether that's a very public figure or it's really

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easy to slip that in to a little conversation.

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Oh, you know, I was talking to this person and they needed XYZ.

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But then, you know, I think in addition to that, it's about, you know, as for us as Christians,

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it's really easy to get into this mindset of what do I need to do for someone else to

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think that, you know, I'm okay, or that I'm, I'm, I'm a good Christian, whether it's just

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showing up to something or it's using the right lingo.

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So I'm kind of in the in club, right?

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And that gets me some sort of status or favor or like perks within a community, but it's

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not actually changing my heart.

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Yeah, I think that there is something that's very prevalent in our culture now is this

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tendency towards being self congratulatory.

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And it's, it's really pervasive.

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And it's something that I notice all the time.

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And I will see it in myself.

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And when I do it, it just, it's repulsive to me.

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I'll see it in myself where I'll suddenly feel like I'm at work, for instance.

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And someone, I'm in the presence of someone that I feel intimidated by or that I want

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to impress them.

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So I will figure out a way to get into the conversation that, oh, I've been around this

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place for my whole adult life.

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I'll say that sentence or I've had experience with, with this president.

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I was here when so and so was president of the university.

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And I was, and it, and it becomes this thing where I'm trying to puff myself up.

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You're not in a job interview.

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You already got a job.

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Right.

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I'm just, I'm trying to, again, I'm trying to look like something.

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Yeah.

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The thing that, and this is, I'll say this because it, it's a particular pet peeve of

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mine.

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Do you know those things that you'll see sometimes on social media where people go up to a homeless

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guy and they give him a bunch of money?

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And then they take him to the store and they buy him clothes and they give him a haircut

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and they do all this stuff.

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And I'm not making a judgment as to where the hearts of those people are in doing that.

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They might be in a great place.

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But to me, it's like, just do it.

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Yeah.

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Why do you have to put it on social media?

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Are you trying to make me feel, are you trying to make me feel guilty for not doing that?

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Or are you trying to just look like a great guy?

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Right.

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And that's a great example.

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I find myself a lot of times, I just want to look like a great guy and almost especially

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when I'm not feeling like a great guy.

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I want to do something to just sort of show everybody, look, here I am.

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See, see how good I am.

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See what a good boy I am.

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I'm just a good guy.

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First thing I thought of with this thing was philanthropy.

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I was, you know, I work in the construction industry and so I don't want philanthropy to

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stop.

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I like when people give a lot of money to fund projects or fund, like, you know, different

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departments or whatever or positions and, you know, they get their name attached to

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the, you are the so-and-so fellow and or get their name on the building.

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And I love all that because it keeps us going with the construction that I love to do.

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But yeah, that was the first thing that came to my mind.

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And what does that say?

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You know, you want your name to last, right?

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It's about legacy somehow.

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People will still have your name in their mouth after you're gone and I don't know.

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Yeah.

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I think there is, but there's also a thin line because Jesus does say earlier in the

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sermon on the Mount, he says, let your light shine.

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I know.

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To the world, right?

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I know.

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A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

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Don't put your light and put it under a basket.

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And to me, it's just one of those.

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There's a, there's a series of fine lines in the teaching of Jesus that you have to walk

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on that where does letting your light shine stop and blowing your own trumpet begin?

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Right.

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It's a, it's a really thin line.

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Yeah.

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And I brought up that I was thinking about a lot about those, those Matthew five, 14

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through 16.

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That's a great counterpoint.

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And so it really is then a quality of your heart.

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I was also thinking about philanthropy in that I remember doing, there was a wall of donors

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for this building that we were, you know, and then there was a tile that was anonymous

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and we're like, Oh, okay.

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Well, that person didn't want, they just wanted to give and they thought it was a good cause,

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but they didn't want their name, but we're, we're still putting anonymous up here.

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Okay.

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Anyway, something to consider.

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I don't know how did these kind of different examples creep into the church?

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For instance, do we see virtue, virtue signaling in church?

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If so, how?

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Yeah.

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I mean, I think it's, I think it's super common because in the church, the, you know,

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in an ideal world, if everything was perfect, you know, the, the leaders and the people

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we most respect in the church would be those who have hearts that are so rich and generous

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that they are doing all these things naturally, but it's a lot easier to kind of fake it or

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to point to the one example of something that we're doing and not have the consistency that

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it, you know, it's something that I'm doing in secret and it's also happens to be in the

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public space.

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So I, it's not to say that anyone who's talking about something that they're doing that's

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good is only doing it for praise, but I think that the temptation is especially significant

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in the church because that's really what defines what it means to be great.

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Right.

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If, if we're going to be great like Jesus, we're going to be doing the things that Jesus

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did and said.

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Yeah.

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I think that, you know, when I was talking before about the thin line between letting

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your light shine and blowing your own trumpet, it, it really is, and it is a quality of heart

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and it's something that we have to first of all be very aware of and I think be very

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prayerful about and also be very open about talking in as individuals because I think

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I'll give an example of someone up at the pulpit talking about how generous a church

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we are.

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Now there's a reason to do that.

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You know, there's a reason you want to encourage generosity.

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You want to, you want to share with people who might be visiting churches that, you

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know, we're, we're trying to not just be religious, but we're also putting our, putting our money

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where our mouth is.

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We're also, you know, we're, we're living, we're trying to live like Jesus and be giving

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for real.

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But if you're not careful and you're a person sitting in the audience, especially a person

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who is a member of the church sitting in the audience, you might misconstrue that and think,

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well, this is what you do.

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You say how generous you are because, so that people can see it.

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So that people can see it.

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And when you're presenting at a public worship service, there are things that you say so

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that people will know because otherwise they wouldn't know.

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I think it's just a, it's a very thin line and I think it's a line that we all have

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to walk individually in our relationship with God.

303
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Yeah.

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I know I, I felt the same way that this is a tricky kind of thin line and, and a lot,

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it seems like so much of our modern world deals with seeing things publicly, like what

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we were talking about before with social media.

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And so I, I actually find some really useful aspects to that too.

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Like if you're going to use social media to evangelize in creative ways, I think that's

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great.

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I'm not suggesting we get rid of any of our marketing communications teams at all.

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I think they're needed.

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They're great.

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But you know, I think where it veers into self promotion over promoting God, I think

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that's, that's maybe a judgment call that each of us has, has to have in our own heart.

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And I think that's also the danger of anyone who gets up in front of it, people, you know,

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are you doing it for yourself or for God?

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Are you getting likes?

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You know, I don't know.

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Uh, what's, you know, I think that's, that's the question.

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I think God sees it and we need to ask ourselves, you know, what are our motivations?

321
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So I think we have time for maybe one more question here.

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This is, this is great.

323
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So all right, let's say, um, let's see.

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This doesn't say that giving, praying or fasting is wrong.

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He says, when, when you give to the knee, when you pray, when you fast, so he expects us

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to do all three as an aside.

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I often wish he'd say, if you fast, I hate fasting.

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I don't know why people, it's the rage now, you know, like everyone's talking about their

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intermittent fasting and it's so good and health benefits and blah, blah, blah.

330
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Uh, I'd rather eat frankly, but Jesus says when you do all these things.

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So it, it can be good to give pray and fast.

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It's more about what we were talking about, the quality of the heart and, uh, how we do

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each of these.

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Why, why do you think Jesus frames these religious activities in this way as heart issues between

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you and God?

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What does that teach us about the purpose of religious activities in the first place?

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Yeah, I mean, when I think of this question, the fundamental thing I have to go back to

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is, you know, what is God's goal for us?

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And that's one of those questions that has many different answers, just like Jesus comes

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down and he says, you know, this is why a sudden man came down and there's like, he gets

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like six or seven different answers at different places.

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But one of those is in Titus, um, chapter two, and it says, for the grace of God has appeared

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that offers salvation to all people.

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It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled

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upright and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing

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of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ.

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And then this is the key who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and

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to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

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And so in the context of what we're talking about, if my, if my righteousness is something

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that I do for the praise of others, then I will be very eager to do it when I receive

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that praise, right?

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And I'll, I'll be going, I think giving money is a really good example of this and so I'll

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just keep on using it, but I'll go and I'll like look to, oh, there's someone who needs

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something and then I'll kind of check, look around, right?

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And think, oh, is anyone watching?

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Or like, you know, who am I going to, I'm thinking about who am I going to tell about

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it, you know, in an hour or two?

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And so there's a certain kind of eagerness there, but I don't think it's the eagerness

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that, you know, is being talked about in Titus where there's an eagerness to do good because

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it is good.

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There's an eagerness to do good because that, that is the type of people that we are because

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we're the people of God.

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And so wherever we go, you know, in the light of day and in the dark of night, you know,

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we're just eager to do good.

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And I think that's the, that's the direction that God is calling us to and wants, you know,

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to purify us, to become those people and quote, unquote, religious activities, you know, performing

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righteousness can be a really incredible way of developing that heart because we're, we're

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teaching ourselves, this is the kind of person that I am, you know, this is the kind of person

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that God has made me to be.

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And so that to me feels like the fundamental reason behind why I'm being called the faster

371
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to pray or to, to give or whatever they'll, in the case may I be.

372
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Yeah, I, when I was looking at this, at this question, I was thinking of the fact that

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the people that Jesus was talking to here, the original audience were people who lived

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a life where these things were very normal, that they didn't have the way that we can

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have today.

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So we have a very sort of segmented existence.

377
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I have, I live in different worlds.

378
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I have my work world.

379
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I have my church world.

380
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I have my home life.

381
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They're all, they all can feel like different lives.

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And if I don't have something overarching that unites all of those things, I can be three

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different people in those three different places very easily.

384
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And those three different people are, are, they can be at odds with each other, which

385
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is why it's always weird when somebody from my work comes over to my house for dinner.

386
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Because then it's strange because those two worlds are clashing and they don't, and they

387
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don't match.

388
00:27:31,120 --> 00:27:35,400
The reason they don't match or the reason that they may not match is that I don't have

389
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:37,200
something overarching.

390
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And what's overarching needs to be my devotion to God so that I really in a way have one

391
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life that I'm living in all of those places and that it's devoted, that one life is devoted

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to God.

393
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So even though there are certain behaviors that I exhibit at church, that I would not

394
00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:07,080
exhibit at work, I would not when a meeting starts in my office, stand up and start singing.

395
00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:08,080
Okay.

396
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:11,640
Let me lead you all in a prayer before we start this meeting.

397
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I wouldn't necessarily do that, but I need to have, it needs to be the same person in

398
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all those places.

399
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:24,240
So there needs to be an acknowledgement of God if that's appropriate at work.

400
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:26,920
I need to be able to share my faith.

401
00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:32,160
You know, I need to be able when I'm talking to my daughter about a lesson that she's doing

402
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:35,160
in her class on the book of Job.

403
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:41,880
And she says, this is stupid and I understand why she's saying this is stupid.

404
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:48,360
So let it be overarching and say, well, this is what it's communicating.

405
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:54,080
Not in a churchy way, not in a work way, but in a sincere way.

406
00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:57,920
You don't want to be a secret Christian and people should know you're a child of God,

407
00:28:57,920 --> 00:28:58,920
right?

408
00:28:58,920 --> 00:28:59,920
Right.

409
00:28:59,920 --> 00:29:00,920
Wherever you go.

410
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:03,520
You wouldn't want to have your friend say, oh, I didn't know you were a Christian.

411
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:04,520
Yep.

412
00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:07,160
I need to say really, really hard to do.

413
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:15,000
It's really hard to think that way when I'm in those different worlds.

414
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:19,520
Well, I like what both of you are saying here.

415
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:25,280
And I think I was thinking of bits of both of them a little bit in terms of purpose,

416
00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:26,280
I think.

417
00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:31,760
What you were saying, Tim, and the Titus scripture you mentioned references glory.

418
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And that was kind of what I latched onto here that I think a lot of this has to do with

419
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:39,120
giving glory to God.

420
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And as I was looking at the end of chapter five, I was reminded, be perfect therefore,

421
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as your heavenly father is perfect.

422
00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:51,040
And I couldn't help but think about him being described as our father, which is the Lord's

423
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:55,160
prayer is in the middle of this section, is a reminder of that he's our father.

424
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And at the end of chapter five, Jesus is saying, God's their father, but they aren't

425
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:01,120
acting like it.

426
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:03,680
They don't resemble God.

427
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:08,560
And when we act like our father, we give him glory.

428
00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:12,840
And in Proverbs 17, saying it says, the glory of children are their fathers.

429
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:18,720
If we were gaining our sonship by our works, we'd get the glory, which I think is a little

430
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:22,040
bit of what Jesus is talking about here.

431
00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:26,240
And again, it's like this delicate balance that we've been talking about, because on

432
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:31,600
the one hand, and this is what the scripture you mentioned earlier, Van Matthew 5, 14

433
00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:37,360
through 16, it says we need to be the light of the world and not hide that light because

434
00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:40,840
it's needed all around us.

435
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:44,880
But then, you know, verse 16 is really great.

436
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:48,040
I want to actually read that because it relates to what I'm saying here.

437
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:53,160
In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and

438
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:57,640
glorify your father in heaven.

439
00:30:57,640 --> 00:30:59,480
So we should stand out.

440
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:03,400
None of these examples are bad in themselves.

441
00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:10,400
The crucial thing is Jesus is addressing now why we do them, our motivation.

442
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:12,640
We should never stand out for self.

443
00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:14,840
This is all forgotten, His glory.

444
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:15,840
Who gets the glory?

445
00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:18,760
Yeah, who gets the glory?

446
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:19,760
This is great.

447
00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:21,800
I think we should do another one on this.

448
00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:23,800
This is a lot of fun.

449
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:24,800
Thanks, guys.

450
00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:51,800
Thank you.