1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,840 Hey, I'm Matt Brownell. 2 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:10,480 And I'm Van Owens. 3 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:12,160 And I'm Tim Adams. 4 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:18,120 Welcome to Climbing the Mountain, where we dive into the scriptures and discuss themes, 5 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:21,280 connections, and real life application. 6 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:24,960 We're kicking off a series here where we're going to examine the Sermon on the Mount and 7 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:34,800 discuss implications for this teaching for Christians today. 8 00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:41,960 So we're back for part two on our, this is our second episode on Matthew 6. 9 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:49,520 And we've been honing in on verses one through 18, really talking about why are we doing 10 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:50,600 righteous deeds? 11 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:52,640 Why are we doing religious activities? 12 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:58,240 And there's a lot here, but a lot of it is encapsulated in this first verse. 13 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:03,280 It says, be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. 14 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:06,840 If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 15 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:13,840 So last time we were trying to unpack, you know, what are some of the practical modern 16 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:20,960 day examples of doing public prayer or public giving or fasting? 17 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:24,480 And what are some of the ways we can, you know, signal to each other, oh, yes, I'm really 18 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:25,480 righteous. 19 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:31,200 And we talked about the purpose of these activities and how they're really more about being driven 20 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:35,160 out of desire to be close to God in an ideal context. 21 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:37,960 And that's really what Jesus is trying to get at. 22 00:01:37,960 --> 00:01:43,800 But we also were saying that there can be, there's this tension between what Jesus is 23 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:49,680 saying Matthew 6 versus in Matthew 5, where it talks about letting your light shine before 24 00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:51,280 others. 25 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:55,840 And that there's a question of who gets the glory in what we do. 26 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:56,840 Is it us? 27 00:01:56,840 --> 00:02:01,360 Are we doing something so that we can get glory or are we doing something so that God 28 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:03,040 can get glory? 29 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:07,560 Which is really what Matthew 5 is emphasizing. 30 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:10,760 So yeah, I'll turn it back over to you, Matt, to keep us going. 31 00:02:10,760 --> 00:02:11,760 Yeah. 32 00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:15,920 Well, so I want to start off with an embarrassing question. 33 00:02:15,920 --> 00:02:24,880 When, where none of us received any reward from our father in heaven for whatever, have 34 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:30,760 you ever had a time where you had to do something religious in front of other people and totally 35 00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:34,200 fail because your heart wasn't right? 36 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:35,200 Yes. 37 00:02:35,200 --> 00:02:36,200 Yes. 38 00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:40,400 And then, and as you're thinking about, how can we, how can we avoid this type of failure 39 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:41,400 in the future? 40 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:45,200 So I, this was quite a while ago. 41 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:53,160 I was, I was leading a Bible discussion and the campus minister was coming to our Bible 42 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:56,960 discussion and I did it. 43 00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:02,240 And the first Bible discussion he came to that I led, he took me aside to the other room 44 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:07,960 and he said, that's one of the best Bible discussions I have ever heard. 45 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:13,720 And instead of saying, really, how so and trying to get something real out of it, my 46 00:03:13,720 --> 00:03:18,480 head got three times bigger than it is now and it's pretty big now. 47 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:21,160 And so the next week he was coming again. 48 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:27,560 And so I decided to do this really elaborate, deep, I wanted to be deeper. 49 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:29,040 I wanted to be more meaningful. 50 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:31,920 I wanted to be more funny where I wanted to be funny. 51 00:03:31,920 --> 00:03:34,840 I wanted to be more serious where I was going to be serious. 52 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:42,120 I picked this really difficult thing to talk about and we did it and it, I could tell right 53 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:44,280 from the beginning it was failing. 54 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:49,680 I would ask a question and nobody would answer it and it was, it was just horrible. 55 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:56,480 And he took me aside after that and he said, so that was one of the worst Bible discussions 56 00:03:56,480 --> 00:03:58,240 I've ever heard in my life. 57 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:01,360 And I don't, I don't understand what happened. 58 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:06,760 And I think what happened was my, I got performative. 59 00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:14,760 I wanted to, I wanted to live up to this new image that I had of myself, of this great 60 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:21,200 Bible scholar and the, what I could have done to avoid that was just did what I did 61 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:26,960 the first time, stick with something that I, that I felt that I knew very well, that 62 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:30,360 I was working with in my own life. 63 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:39,600 Just brevity and clarity and to make sure that I remember that I'm not the hero of this 64 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:40,600 story. 65 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:41,600 Yeah. 66 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:47,200 That, and, and I think that we live in a society now where everybody's trying to be the hero 67 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:49,880 of their own story all the time. 68 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:51,000 And that's where we trip up. 69 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:52,840 I'm not the hero of this story. 70 00:04:52,840 --> 00:04:56,680 I'm a Christian, the hero of my story is Jesus. 71 00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:02,120 And so he's the one whose story I'm telling, and if I can keep that in mind, it, it helps 72 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:04,520 me to avoid situations like that. 73 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:05,520 That's great. 74 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:06,520 I love that. 75 00:05:06,520 --> 00:05:07,520 Tim, you want to embarrass yourself? 76 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:16,800 Well, so I have, I have a bad habit of forgetting times that I did things poorly. 77 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:17,800 So yeah. 78 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:25,240 Well, so my, my first reply to this question was, I for sure have done that a million times, 79 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:27,480 but I might have not even noticed it, right? 80 00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:32,160 Like it might have totally failed, but I was just blind to it. 81 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:35,700 And that's probably more of where I think the Pharisees were at when Jesus was like 82 00:05:35,700 --> 00:05:38,640 reaming into them saying, you're like whitewashed tombs, right? 83 00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:42,480 And you're doing things, you look good on the outside. 84 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:48,360 But then I asked, I asked Adrian, my wife, and she had some good examples. 85 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:51,280 Why did you get good for that? 86 00:05:51,280 --> 00:05:52,280 It was funny. 87 00:05:52,280 --> 00:05:54,120 I asked her and she gave an example. 88 00:05:54,120 --> 00:06:00,640 She was like, Oh, were you trying to have me tell you the way that you messed up? 89 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:04,840 But there have been times where I, yeah, I've been leading like a small group discussion. 90 00:06:04,840 --> 00:06:08,320 And I've just felt like, you know, during that time, I just felt like in a terrible 91 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:09,320 place, right? 92 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:14,400 I just felt super like distant from God. 93 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:18,640 And I just felt like I had to kind of perform and put on a face as a leader. 94 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:25,120 And you know, there's like one time where the whole point of the discussion was to kind 95 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:31,040 of identify where you are in your stage of discipleship or being in a relationship with 96 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:32,680 God. 97 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:36,880 And there was one of the kind of identified sections is like, there's kind of be times 98 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:38,440 where you're just like in a wall, right? 99 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:42,160 And you feel distant, but you're like, you're working through it and you're fighting and 100 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:44,880 that can be a really transformative time. 101 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:49,160 And you know, I just totally pretended like I wasn't there, right? 102 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:53,480 I just pretended like I was, you know, in a really great space where I actually probably 103 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:55,880 was more in like that wall. 104 00:06:55,880 --> 00:07:04,000 And so, you know, I think for me, the, I do think there were many, there have been many, 105 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:11,360 many other times where my, my witness was definitely greatly reduced or even I was a 106 00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:17,480 bad witness for God because I was doing things for my own and someone else could notice that 107 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:19,040 and I didn't even notice it. 108 00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:22,040 I know that's happened. 109 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:26,520 But yeah, the antidote for me feels like just like brutal honesty, right? 110 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:32,120 And there's different ways of doing that at different times, but the key is that I'm not 111 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:36,640 presenting one thing while thinking another or being another. 112 00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:40,360 And that's, that's great advice. 113 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:46,800 So if you're a leader who is feeling kind of funky, it might be good just to get real 114 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:47,800 about it. 115 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:50,200 Like, you know, no one's perfect. 116 00:07:50,200 --> 00:07:53,960 It's not like you're going to shock people that, oh, you're having a bad day. 117 00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:56,960 Like we all have them. 118 00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:03,320 For me, I, so I have to preface this with that my background is in acting actually. 119 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:09,920 I'm an actor and, which incidentally is the word hypocrite in Greek. 120 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:11,200 That's where we get that word from. 121 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:14,400 So my background, that's nice, right? 122 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:18,400 My background and training as a young man is in hypocrisy. 123 00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:25,480 I, I, I was a lot of hypocrisy productions when I was in junior high, high school, even 124 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:26,480 college. 125 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:30,640 And I, I got to sing and dance and act in front of like in some cases, thousands of 126 00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:33,640 people, which kind of is weird to think about now. 127 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:36,120 But so that's my background. 128 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:42,200 And I remember when I became a Christian, someone asked me to, to share my testimony. 129 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:46,880 And this was in a small church setting and I was, got up and shared it. 130 00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:53,440 And I was very, at the time, very moved by just what Jesus did at the cross and was so 131 00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:55,000 grateful. 132 00:08:55,000 --> 00:09:00,080 And afterward, same kind of thing that you, you know, what, how you describe, man, people 133 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:01,080 are coming up to you. 134 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:02,080 Oh, that's so great. 135 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:04,080 I was really moved by what you shared. 136 00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:07,280 And I was like, Oh, cool, that's good. 137 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:09,640 And then fast forward a couple of weeks. 138 00:09:09,640 --> 00:09:11,040 It wasn't that long. 139 00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:16,920 We had this big church group meeting, like regions coming together, lots of people. 140 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:20,680 And I was asked, Oh, we'd like you to share your testimony in front of that group. 141 00:09:20,680 --> 00:09:23,280 Oh, now we're talking about a big group, right? 142 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:29,800 And I took upon myself to, you know, really act that, like really lean into that performance. 143 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:30,800 Right? 144 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:36,920 And I'm going to like really feel this now and, and, you know, have the, the tears well 145 00:09:36,920 --> 00:09:41,640 up and all that, you know, and I remember after I got down from that, I thought, Oh, 146 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:48,840 no, I really did a good job acting and I almost right away, I was like, I feel gross. 147 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:52,160 What did I just do? 148 00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:56,280 And you know, I think there was something, my motivation was wrong. 149 00:09:56,280 --> 00:10:00,040 I cared about what others were thinking of me. 150 00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:06,520 I liked the attention and I just, I got, it was, it was like glory for myself instead 151 00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:07,520 of glory for God. 152 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:14,280 And I think what you were saying, Van is the antidote for me too, that I am not the hero 153 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:15,280 of the story. 154 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:16,600 I love how you said that. 155 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:23,600 I think the examining myself, if you're ever in this kind of position, examine your heart, 156 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:30,880 look at your motivations, be very, very wary and concerned if you find yourself in the 157 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:31,880 equation. 158 00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:32,880 Yeah. 159 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:33,880 Okay. 160 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:42,640 So embarrassing moments aside now in some ways, social media has democratized the podium. 161 00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:44,960 Everyone has their own soapbox now. 162 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:48,960 Public prayer wasn't and isn't wrong. 163 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:56,040 You know, as an example, but what should be our focus when we post something that has 164 00:10:56,040 --> 00:11:00,320 any religious or moral bent? 165 00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:07,760 I, you know, this goes back to me, to the, to the story that I was telling before. 166 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:14,240 There's a passage in, in John chapter three that I'd like to read a little bit of that 167 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:16,080 always helps me with this. 168 00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:23,760 So it's in John chapter three and the, John the Baptist has just been told by a group 169 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:28,760 of his followers that this guy Jesus that you baptized a while ago. 170 00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:30,840 Now people are following him. 171 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:32,960 People are going out to see him. 172 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:35,720 He's baptizing more people than you. 173 00:11:35,720 --> 00:11:41,600 And they, they say this to him as a matter of some urgency. 174 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:43,240 Like this isn't right. 175 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:45,120 You're the guy. 176 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:47,000 You're John the Baptist. 177 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:50,120 You're the one that people are coming out into the wilderness to see. 178 00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:53,560 And now all of a sudden this guy is competing with you. 179 00:11:53,560 --> 00:12:01,360 John says to them in chapter three of the gospel of John in verse 27, he says, a person 180 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:06,360 can receive only what is given them from heaven. 181 00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:12,000 You yourselves can testify that I said I'm not the Messiah, but I'm sent ahead of him. 182 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:15,160 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. 183 00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:23,440 The friend who attends to the bridegroom waits and listens for him and is full of joy when 184 00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:26,360 he hears the bridegroom's voice. 185 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:31,560 That joy is mine and it is now complete. 186 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:33,480 He must become greater. 187 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:36,240 I must become less. 188 00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:45,120 And I think whenever I, let me go back and say and be honest, whenever I'm in my right 189 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:52,720 mind and I'm going to present something in front of a group of people, I'm going to contribute 190 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:57,680 in some way to a worship service or I'm going to even just share something in a devotional 191 00:12:57,680 --> 00:12:59,760 setting or something. 192 00:12:59,760 --> 00:13:07,920 If I'm in my right mind, I'll think he must become greater, I must become less. 193 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:13,760 And sometimes that's just almost all the time it's just an attitude in my heart that I have 194 00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:18,120 to make sure that I'm trying to highlight. 195 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:23,280 Sometimes especially when I have a prepared thing to do, sometimes it's a very practical 196 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:24,280 thing. 197 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:30,920 Like I'll have a long, funny story in something that I wrote and I'll think, why am I telling 198 00:13:30,920 --> 00:13:32,920 this funny story? 199 00:13:32,920 --> 00:13:34,720 Because I like to make people laugh. 200 00:13:34,720 --> 00:13:38,720 It makes me feel good about me. 201 00:13:38,720 --> 00:13:44,920 But if that's the only reason this long, funny story is in here, then maybe I shouldn't 202 00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:46,320 tell it. 203 00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:47,800 Maybe I shouldn't do it. 204 00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:50,240 Oh, but it's so funny. 205 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:51,240 It's so awesome. 206 00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:56,080 It's such a great story and people are going to feel involved and they're going to feel 207 00:13:56,080 --> 00:14:04,160 no and it gets crossed out because he must become greater and I must become less. 208 00:14:04,160 --> 00:14:05,160 I love that. 209 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:07,280 That's such a great verse to quote. 210 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:09,920 Yeah, it reminds me. 211 00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:15,560 I think it's very in keeping with what we were saying last episode too about how questioning 212 00:14:15,560 --> 00:14:18,040 your motivation, why am I posting this content? 213 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:25,040 Is it for likes, am I doing it for my brand or so I get recognition or rather is it pointing 214 00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:26,360 to God? 215 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:27,360 Yeah. 216 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:36,440 I mean, so it's funny because this group talks a lot about social media, but I don't 217 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:40,040 know how much three of us actually use it. 218 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:42,040 We're on it right now. 219 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:45,080 Yeah, kind of. 220 00:14:45,080 --> 00:14:55,920 But yeah, I mean, the way I think about this is there's, when I'm posting something or 221 00:14:55,920 --> 00:15:04,160 when I'm seeing someone else post something and I think, wow, that was really cool, the 222 00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:09,560 benefit of having a podium like that is that you can reveal parts of your life to people 223 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:15,400 in a way that helps them to see something that they wouldn't have seen before. 224 00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:21,240 And you can express, this is something I believe, this is something that's important to me. 225 00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:28,360 This is a critical part of my life or my worldview. 226 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:38,160 And if that is something that is godly, that can be incredibly productive because it gives 227 00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:42,600 a chance to shine light onto something that is very good. 228 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:48,800 And so I think that's the opportunity of the internet, of this kind of incredible reach 229 00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:54,360 that we have of doing something or talking about something in tens or hundreds or thousands 230 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:56,200 or millions of people see it. 231 00:15:56,200 --> 00:16:05,200 And I think the flip side is if I'm not doing that thing in secret, if this isn't actually 232 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:11,760 very important to me in the way I actually live my life, then it's hollow. 233 00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:19,240 And that hollowness might not be shown immediately, but it will be shown eventually. 234 00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:25,440 And so that's the challenge of being in the spotlight, right? 235 00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:29,880 That there's a much closer scrutiny that gets put on us. 236 00:16:29,880 --> 00:16:34,960 But it's honestly not, I think Jesus says multiple times. 237 00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:36,720 God sees everything, right? 238 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:37,840 He sees our heart. 239 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:38,960 He sees every action. 240 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:43,440 He sees what we whisper in secret. 241 00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:50,760 And so the social media platform is not in some ways unlike that because everything's 242 00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:56,520 right there on you and it might take a little bit longer for things to be exposed, but it 243 00:16:56,520 --> 00:16:57,520 will happen. 244 00:16:57,520 --> 00:17:04,560 So the way I think about this, what should my focus be when I post something, you know, 245 00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:10,200 is this something, am I revealing something that's really a part of my life that is important 246 00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:12,480 that I can just bring into the light? 247 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:18,000 Or am I putting something on for the public view because I think that will bring me some 248 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:19,000 advantage. 249 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:23,680 When I only answer that question, it's pretty easy to know, you know, should I post or should 250 00:17:23,680 --> 00:17:24,680 I not? 251 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:25,680 Nice. 252 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:30,240 Jesus says something really cool here. 253 00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:34,800 Jesus says, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. 254 00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:38,480 What do you think he means by this phrase in this context? 255 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:46,360 Well, you know, it made me think immediately of the passage where he said, if your right 256 00:17:46,360 --> 00:17:49,080 hand causes you to send, cut it off and throw it away. 257 00:17:49,080 --> 00:17:51,640 It's clearly, it's very hyperbolic. 258 00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:56,720 I mean, you can't, you can't not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. 259 00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:59,600 That's not how a human body functions, right? 260 00:17:59,600 --> 00:18:04,480 But I think what he's saying is, I think maybe a couple of things. 261 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:13,840 I think maybe he's saying that when you, when you do your acts of charity, that you should 262 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:23,320 really guard your heart about doing it for any other reason, doing it for any kind of 263 00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:28,160 performative reason, that you should really be aware of that. 264 00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:35,880 That you should be so urgent about being aware that you're not doing it for just mere performance 265 00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:40,600 to look good in front of people, that you should not let your left hand know what your 266 00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:43,040 right hand is doing. 267 00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:49,480 And I also think that he might be talking about, it should be something that comes from inside 268 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:52,760 of you and it's, it's a part of you. 269 00:18:52,760 --> 00:19:01,680 And so that, so that it is reflexive, so that it happens almost automatically. 270 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:03,600 Like your, like your heart beating. 271 00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:04,600 Yeah. 272 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:09,800 You know, you're not, you don't say to yourself, I'm going to, I'm going to make my heart 273 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:11,080 beat because you don't have to. 274 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:12,080 Yeah. 275 00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:13,080 Does it by itself? 276 00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:17,080 And I think that that might be what he's getting at with that as well. 277 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:18,720 That's, that's, I like that. 278 00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:20,200 Tim, what do you think? 279 00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:25,040 I mean, you know, he says right after that, so that you're giving maybe in secret. 280 00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:29,080 And so that's the, the simple way of thinking about it. 281 00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:33,960 But you know, then we've got many examples in the New Testament where give, someone gives 282 00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:36,840 not in secret. 283 00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:40,840 And so it's, I don't think it's a universal reward. 284 00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:41,840 Right. 285 00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:46,560 I don't think it's like a universal prohibition about telling someone about, you know, what 286 00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:53,680 you're doing, that the image I see is, you know, the right hand goes and gives something 287 00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:55,680 and then runs over to the left hand, right? 288 00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:57,800 And says, oh, did you, did you see that? 289 00:19:57,800 --> 00:19:58,800 Did you notice that? 290 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:02,880 What did you do? 291 00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:12,200 And that's, you know, if, if I'm, if I'm giving so that I can run over, I'm in great 292 00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:13,200 danger. 293 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:14,200 You know, I'll get my reward. 294 00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:17,360 And the left hand will be, oh, wow. 295 00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:20,640 It's incredible. 296 00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:25,280 But yeah, the, so, so yeah, I think it's, I think it's really, it's as simple as that. 297 00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:32,480 You know, it's, it's not so that there's this immediate feedback loop of I'm going to get 298 00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:38,200 my praise right now, you know, the point of me to give, the point of me giving without 299 00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:44,360 making a big deal of it is so that God can be glorified and, you know, who knows, who 300 00:20:44,360 --> 00:20:46,520 knows every time you give, right? 301 00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:51,440 It's the person who receives it knows there was a gift given and God knows. 302 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:58,760 And that there's quite enough opportunity there for, for glory, for God's glory to happen. 303 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:02,320 So not, I think that's kind of where he's getting at. 304 00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:06,780 I think there's something about this where, because he's mentioning two parts of a single 305 00:21:06,780 --> 00:21:13,480 body where it's more like, you don't, you don't take yourself so seriously. 306 00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:14,880 Like don't think about it yourself. 307 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:19,240 I liked what you were saying, Van, about the involuntary kind of the heart's just beating. 308 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:25,240 You're not thinking beat heart, beat, beat, or breathe like, oh, I forgot to breathe. 309 00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:28,080 You do it and or blink, right? 310 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:34,920 I think there's, there's something about that with this where it checks the pride that could 311 00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:39,560 be in your own heart that would rob you of glorifying God. 312 00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:41,040 It's like, forget about yourself. 313 00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:42,040 Don't focus on you. 314 00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:48,080 Incidentally, I gotta say, that's the best advice I could give anyone who has to speak 315 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:50,680 publicly inside or outside of church. 316 00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:52,280 Don't think about yourself. 317 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:55,120 How people will view you. 318 00:21:55,120 --> 00:21:56,800 Focus on the job you have to do. 319 00:21:56,800 --> 00:21:58,840 It's important to get your message across. 320 00:21:58,840 --> 00:22:03,160 The information you're communicating is important somehow, right? 321 00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:09,440 I think the difference, I guess, between giving a presentation at your company or to a client 322 00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:14,480 versus speaking at church is just in one sense a matter of importance, right? 323 00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:17,680 I mean, there's no one more important than God. 324 00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:28,280 If you can keep your eyes focused on God instead of what you are doing, like it's not, not 325 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:33,800 what you're doing up there, if you keep pointing to God, right, where you're, if you can keep 326 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:36,480 your focus on God, I guess is what I'm saying. 327 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:41,240 He's going to get the glory and, and he can just use you as, as he's designed you. 328 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:44,120 You're not tripping over yourself. 329 00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:45,120 Yeah. 330 00:22:45,120 --> 00:22:52,240 Well, the world loves controversy and hot takes and drama and Jesus is telling us to 331 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:53,560 take all of that stuff. 332 00:22:53,560 --> 00:22:59,120 It makes us popular, draws a crown and turn it toward God where no one else can even see 333 00:22:59,120 --> 00:23:00,120 it. 334 00:23:00,120 --> 00:23:01,680 Why should we do that? 335 00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:07,440 And is this just a tact to deflate hypocrisy or something more? 336 00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:13,720 There's a quote from Origin that I find pretty helpful here. 337 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:20,800 And it basically says, just as water and fire can never exist simultaneously in the same 338 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:27,480 place, in the same way, egotism and virtue are opposed to each other and can never easily 339 00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:30,720 coexist in the same soul. 340 00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:37,320 And so that you were just talking about, you know, not focused, not thinking about yourself, 341 00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:42,280 thinking about, you know, the job you're trying to do or the purpose behind what you're, you 342 00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:45,600 know, what you're saying or communicating. 343 00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:54,680 And I think that many of the times when we're feeling the pull to do something so that other 344 00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:58,280 people can see us, right, it's just, yeah, just our ego, right? 345 00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:02,280 It's just our pride wanting to get puffed up. 346 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:09,040 And when that happens, when we're being prideful in that way, it's very hard to have the heart 347 00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:15,080 of compassion and self-sacrifice and love or all other things we might think of as virtue. 348 00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:17,560 Um, in, in our hearts. 349 00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:21,920 So I do think it's, it is deflating hypocrisy, right? 350 00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:28,400 Um, by creating room for, for virtue to grow. 351 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:30,240 I like that. 352 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:31,240 Yeah. 353 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:41,160 I think what it also does is it also fosters an intimacy in your relationship with God. 354 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:50,480 And there are things that you do that only he and you know. 355 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:58,560 And um, you know, I think about in, in my relationships with my family, my, my wife and 356 00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:05,480 my son and my daughter, there are things in each of those relationships that are between 357 00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:13,080 us, ways that I try that I give to them that are only meaningful to them. 358 00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:20,760 And that I only, that only happened between us and nobody else really knows about it. 359 00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:27,360 And it makes, it makes those things and they're generally kind of small things. 360 00:25:27,360 --> 00:25:33,480 But when I do them, there's a, there's a look that I get with each of them. 361 00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:38,720 And I say, and for them to know, you know, I got you on this, I love you. 362 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:42,760 And it's just that little, and it's, it's just, it's gratifying. 363 00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:49,360 It lasts a millisecond and, um, but I live for it in those relationships. 364 00:25:49,360 --> 00:25:55,240 I think of the, the, there's a very, uh, fascinating passage for me, fascinating for 365 00:25:55,240 --> 00:26:02,320 me anyway, in revelation too, where, uh, you know, revelation, he's, he's giving all these 366 00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:06,480 messages to the churches there in the beginning of revelation. 367 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:10,640 And at the end of them, he, he has a little exhortation or a warning. 368 00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:16,800 And in one of them, he says, um, to the one who is victorious, I will give some of the 369 00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:17,800 hidden manna. 370 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:23,920 I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it known only to 371 00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:25,080 the one who receives it. 372 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:29,280 I just, I, I read that and it feels like one of those things. 373 00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:37,560 It feels like I want there to be things between me and God that only he knows. 374 00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:38,560 Yeah. 375 00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:46,280 I want to, I just want to do something for somebody that even that person doesn't even 376 00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:51,960 know that it was done for them because I want, I want God to know that. 377 00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:54,560 I want it to be like that little white stone. 378 00:26:54,560 --> 00:27:00,360 I want it to be that little intimate thing that only he knows. 379 00:27:00,360 --> 00:27:06,680 And in those seconds, there's a closeness to God that I feel that just, it defies description. 380 00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:09,040 That's nice. 381 00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:15,320 You know, in the last example here, the fasting one, Jesus uses a word for disfigure. 382 00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:18,920 Uh, where they disfigure their faces. 383 00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:20,960 It also means disappear. 384 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:22,640 It's just a wonderful turn of phrase. 385 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:23,640 Jesus uses. 386 00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:25,480 It's fascinating. 387 00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:31,440 When they fast, they disappear their face to appear holy. 388 00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:34,320 What does living like this do to you? 389 00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:37,160 And what do you think it means for our holiness? 390 00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:38,160 Yeah. 391 00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:40,280 I'm curious, Matt, what your thoughts are on this? 392 00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:46,520 Cause I struggled with this question a bit, but it does feel this kind of like, um, you 393 00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:49,080 know, this sort of contortion, right? 394 00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:51,440 Like disfiguring or disappearing to appear. 395 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:57,120 It's like you're kind of doing something out of order in the way it's supposed to be. 396 00:27:57,120 --> 00:28:04,080 Um, and I just kept on thinking about Matthew 23 and Jesus's indictment of the hypocrisy 397 00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:09,400 of the Pharisees, um, him calling them whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside 398 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:13,000 by the insider fold, the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 399 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:17,560 And there's something in that too of this kind of like contortion or distortion of what 400 00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:18,560 should be. 401 00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:19,560 All right. 402 00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:24,640 It's beautiful in one place, but it's totally disgusting in the other. 403 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:31,040 Um, and, and I think that that's the kind of the root issue. 404 00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:38,640 Um, when, when we're disfiguring or disappearing in order to, to seem one way to, to those 405 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:41,600 whose opinion ultimately doesn't matter at all, right? 406 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:44,320 There's this something that should be beautiful. 407 00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:45,320 That's not. 408 00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:49,520 Um, and so that's, that's kind of what it, it did for me. 409 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:51,080 I was thinking about this. 410 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:52,080 Yeah. 411 00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:59,360 I think it, it, it becomes purely performative when you do that. 412 00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:01,480 It's only a performance. 413 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:09,680 Oddly, I thought of, um, this, this character that John Lovitz used to play on Saturday 414 00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:15,280 night live for some reason, it, he was an actor and he would, he would do these, he 415 00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:22,560 would do these dramatic things and then people would respond to, they would say, Oh no, your 416 00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:24,000 mother died for instance. 417 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:27,880 And he would say, no, it was acting. 418 00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:33,480 And the joke was he thought he was such a great actor that everything he did was only 419 00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:39,040 a performance and it made all the performances just stupid and contrived. 420 00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:45,080 And he wasn't really, he wasn't really doing what he thought he was doing. 421 00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:52,200 And I think that when we, when we do things like these, like these Jesus is accusing these 422 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:56,560 religious people of doing, of disfiguring themselves, of trying to look like they're 423 00:29:56,560 --> 00:30:04,520 fasting, you deprive it of all of its relevance of all of the good that it could do for you 424 00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:09,760 or for the people maybe that you're fasting for, you deprive it of everything because 425 00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:13,160 you make it nothing but a performance. 426 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:14,680 That's all it is. 427 00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:15,680 Yeah. 428 00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:22,480 When you can get to a point where that's all it becomes and then you're the one who's 429 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:23,480 self-deceived. 430 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:27,480 You're like that John Lovett's character where you think I'm this great person and 431 00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:29,960 everybody else is thinking, look at this guy. 432 00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:30,960 What's wrong with him? 433 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:31,960 Right. 434 00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:32,960 Right. 435 00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:33,960 Yeah. 436 00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:38,320 I think it's pretty clear from this passage that when we try to disappear ourselves to 437 00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:43,760 appear holy, our real holiness also disappears. 438 00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:48,040 For me, it kind of reminded me of, I don't know if you know the, but I can't even say 439 00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:50,560 it, Potemkin village. 440 00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:52,400 Have you ever heard that term? 441 00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:55,720 I think it originated from Russia. 442 00:30:55,720 --> 00:31:02,440 Catherine was going around and they had these facades that looked really good for this area 443 00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:05,640 she was touring, but there was nothing behind them. 444 00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:09,760 It was just facades and they get people to dress up and as peasants and have fires in 445 00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:12,640 front of them and they're like, oh, it doesn't look good as you walk by. 446 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:17,400 It kind of reminded me of that kind of thing that there's something that looks good on 447 00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:23,960 the outside, but our holiness has no substance behind it. 448 00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:25,040 It's all for show. 449 00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:30,360 So when we live for the approvals of others, I think something that we mentioned before, 450 00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:33,360 like it's hollow, it feels that way. 451 00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:38,880 It's insecure, you're grasping, it's a lie. 452 00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:40,920 It's not real life. 453 00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:49,280 No one's perfect, but to try to keep up that appearance, which is this lie, I think is 454 00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:50,280 exhausting. 455 00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:51,440 That's the other thing I think. 456 00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:55,440 And if we fall in this trap and we start comparing ourselves to others around us, I think that's 457 00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:57,680 also something that's like that a little bit. 458 00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:02,360 At least I'm not like so-and-so, right? 459 00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:06,040 I say these prayers and I do all these great things. 460 00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:13,280 On the flip side, when we're real with who we are and how much we need God in his mercy, 461 00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:23,000 when we say like the sinner, oh, I'm a sinner, God, we give glory to God. 462 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:27,520 And also, this is another thing I was thinking, if we're really to call ourselves Christians, 463 00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:31,640 we should live this way all the time because this is how Jesus lived. 464 00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:35,680 He was God in the flesh. 465 00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:44,240 His majesty was hidden, so much so that they crucified him on a cross. 466 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:51,760 The cross was his glorification, actually, because he was pointing back to God. 467 00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:59,760 And that's where we see God's love in the face of unjust punishment and suffering. 468 00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:03,920 Anyway, that's the high calling we have. 469 00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:07,760 So I guess just to wrap this up, we've got one more question. 470 00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:12,760 Jesus talks about doing things in secret to be seen only by God and that God will reward 471 00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:13,760 you. 472 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:15,680 What do you think this reward is? 473 00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:20,680 Well, the first thought that I had was, well, it's heaven, right? 474 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:23,440 We get to be with God for all eternity. 475 00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:32,600 But then I thought also, and maybe primarily, it's the increasing likeness to Christ that 476 00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:40,280 comes from that when we can pull this off and when we can do it for the right reasons 477 00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:47,840 and have the right motivation, what results from that is I'm more like Jesus after that. 478 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:57,040 And if I can continue to do that, I become more like Jesus and that I become the opposite 479 00:33:57,040 --> 00:34:02,720 of the person who's acting all the time until their acting isn't even good anymore. 480 00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:08,520 What happens is the person who's motivated and properly motivated by the love of God 481 00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:13,520 and by gratitude towards God, you become more and more like God. 482 00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:15,320 I think that that's the reward. 483 00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:16,320 Yeah. 484 00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:19,200 I think it's both and. 485 00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:28,440 But anyone who has spent any part of their life focused on getting other people to think 486 00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:34,720 of them a certain way is familiar with that sense of things caving in. 487 00:34:34,720 --> 00:34:42,160 There's like, I'm always fighting against this insatiable desire that other people have 488 00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:48,040 for me to look a certain way or for my own perception to keep up that appearance. 489 00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:59,080 And when I do things out of motivation to please God and to be more like God, I'm inviting 490 00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:04,800 the spirit to come in and to remove that prison. 491 00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:10,600 And so, you know, everyone who sins is a slave to sin or in 2 Corinthians, the Lord is the 492 00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:11,600 spirit. 493 00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:13,560 When the spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. 494 00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:21,440 And so I think there is a very real gift and a reward of becoming free from having to keep 495 00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:23,720 up the appearance. 496 00:35:23,720 --> 00:35:30,920 And that's pretty profound for, you know, at least talking as a person who's naturally 497 00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:37,920 a people pleaser naturally feels that pressure to realize that I don't need to forever live 498 00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:38,920 that way. 499 00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:39,920 Yeah. 500 00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:44,640 And so I think that's a great reward to take the burden off your shoulders of I have to 501 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:48,640 measure up, I have to look good, I have to, you know, compare myself to everyone around 502 00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:49,640 me. 503 00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:52,120 And that is exhausting. 504 00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:56,800 I think what you were saying to Van about God, you know, being with him forever and 505 00:35:56,800 --> 00:35:59,760 eternity, I think that is part of this too. 506 00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:05,080 Like when I look at the flow of Matthew six, I can see like, and then the very next verses, 507 00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:10,240 it starts talking about don't treasure earthly treasure, heavenly treasure. 508 00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:16,440 And you know, reminds me of 1 Peter 1 where he says he describes an inheritance that can 509 00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:18,600 never perish, spoil or fade. 510 00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:20,120 It's kept in heaven. 511 00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:23,400 And so there's something better that's waiting for us. 512 00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:25,480 I don't know exactly what this is. 513 00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:28,400 Paul talks about a crown, an imperishable crown. 514 00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:36,200 You read about it, a crown of glory even and I think 1 Peter as well. 515 00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:38,040 And but I don't know. 516 00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:43,600 Just for me, all of that, who knows what that exactly means, but there's something better, 517 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:46,120 way better than anything here. 518 00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:50,840 And so that kind of like key, that's our hope, you know, tied in like an anchor in heaven, 519 00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:56,720 but the biggest reward, whatever all that other stuff is that can't perish or, you know, 520 00:36:56,720 --> 00:36:59,480 the biggest one, I think is God. 521 00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:04,800 And this is, I think what we're seeing that the motivation, all of this is relationship 522 00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:05,800 with God. 523 00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:07,360 That's where it comes from. 524 00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:14,400 And it reminds me of Genesis 15 where God turns to Abraham and says, I am your shield, 525 00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,640 your very great reward. 526 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:23,120 I think what we're seeing here in part with what Jesus is preaching here is, is we should 527 00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:28,280 have a focus on God and value him above everything else. 528 00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:30,000 Amen to that. 529 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:31,000 Amen to that. 530 00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:34,280 Well, I think that winds us down here for this session. 531 00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:35,280 This has been fun. 532 00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:36,280 Yes. 533 00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:37,280 Yeah. 534 00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:54,640 That was a great session guys.