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You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Good morning, everyone. Welcome to steadfast baptist church. If you could please grab your song books. We're gonna start with song 419 sound the battle cry 419 Sound the battle cry. Let's lift up our voices to the Lord 419 sound the battle cry Sound the battle cry Oh 419 on the second strong In the life Oh Singing let's open up in a word of prayer Heavenly Father. Thank you for this day. Thank you for our church family here I pray that you bless our church We're getting close to the middle of the year I pray that you would just help us to continue to be steadfast And to continue great works for you give us strength as we do it. We love you in Jesus name we pray. Amen All right for our second song. Let's go to 158 Oh for a thousand tongues to sing 158 Oh for a thousand tongues to sing It's on 158 Oh Oh Oh Good morning, thank you so much for coming to steadfast Baptist Church If you need a bulletin lift up your hand nice and high and one of our ushers come by and get you guys a bulletin on the front we have Psalm 59 that we've been working on. There's actually a little bit of an insert there We'll get to that in just a second service times and soul winning times There are lists on the left side also our church stats and then on the right Please be in prayer for all of our expecting ladies I don't have added in the bulletin yet one stat but brother Urbanic or Vangelis urbanic in the Philippines has sent me a Recent update I wanted to let me see if I can find that he texted it to me He said they had 361 salvations for May so That is that is a lot. And so, you know, they're doing a lot of work out there and Just definitely keep them in your prayers It's hard for me to find cuz I don't have his name plugged in so I don't know who it is But I'm just kidding on the right. We have a list of expecting ladies and then also we have our prayer list If you'd add one, please be in prayer for the Robertson's mother for our heart. We've been praying for their health also Upcoming events the Saturdays gonna be a wedding at 3 p.m. For Josh and Cynthia also on The 21st of the 23rd is going to be the red hot preaching conference, which is an event hosted by a friend of ours pastor Roger Jimenez there in Sacramento, California and this year They're actually gonna be hosting the conference in their new building. So it's definitely a lot of excitement about that Is anybody here planning on going to that? I'm just kind of curious Okay, he said nobody ever tells him if they're coming or not so I just at least I was just curious but yeah, I'm excited to go out there and to visit and so That'll be a great event on the back. We have several exciting announcements here Congratulations to the Naeem family on the birth of Charlotte Rebecca. She was born in the 27th 5 22 p.m. Weighing 8 pounds 1 ounce and 22 and a half inches long and also congratulations to their Nanda's family On the birth of Micaiah Robert who was born on the 27th 10 12 p.m 7 pounds 12 ounces and 20 inches long And in fact on the insert we have also congratulations the Cooper family on the birth of Esther May who was born on the 30th 3 40 a.m. 7 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches long. Congratulations all those families And Then also on the other side of our insert we have another graduation announcement congratulations to John and James on their Graduation, I guess it's the sons of Thunder here But we got a we got a Bible for each of you. So you want to come on down? We'll give you a Bible and we can give them a round of applause It's Great to see a young man zealous for the Lord and we hope that you continue your zeal and Continue striving to serve the Lord with your lives. So that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements We're gonna sing our Psalm of the week Psalm 150 Psalm 150 so if you'd like to use the special handout that makes it the easiest you could always use a King James Bible as well Psalm 150, let's sing it out Oh Oh Oh As the offering plates being passed around please turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6 Matthew chapter number 6 You You Matthew 6 the Bible reads take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them Otherwise ye have no reward of your father which is in heaven Therefore when thou doest thine alms do not sound a trumpet before thee as the Hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men Verily I say unto you they have their reward but when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth that thine alms may be in secret and Thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly and when thou prayest thou shall not be as the hypocrites Are for they love the praise standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men Verily I say unto you they have their reward But thou when thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou shut thy door Pray to thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly But when ye pray use not vain repetitions as the heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking Be not ye therefore like unto them for your father knoweth what things he have need of before ye ask him After this manner therefore pray he our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our deaths as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses Moreover when ye fast be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance for they Disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast Verily I say unto you they have their reward But thou when thou fastest anoint thine head and wash thy face that thou appear not unto men to fast But unto thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither mop nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal For where your treasure is there will your heart be also The light of the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light But if thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in thee be Darkness, how great is that darkness? No, man can serve two masters for either He will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other You cannot serve God and mammon Therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life What you shall eat or what you shall drink nor yet for your body? What you shall put on is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment Behold the fowls of the air for they so not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father Feed at them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit under with stature and why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow they toil not neither Do they spin and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory Was not arrayed like one of these Wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven Shall he not much more clothe you o he of little faith? Therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek for your heavenly father knoweth that you have need of all these things But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer father in heaven I pray that you bless the sermon this morning and give pastor Shelley the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit as he preaches to Us and also Lord, I pray that you give us ears to hear the message and Help us to apply it to our lives in Jesus name. I pray. Amen. Amen So last Sunday morning We started a sermon series on the Sermon of the Mount the Sermon on the Mount and we went through chapter 5 Here in chapter number 6. We're still continuing that same sermon that the Lord Jesus Christ is instructing his disciples and In chapter 5 if you'd noticed in verse number 2 It says he opened his mouth and taught them saying so This sermon definitely is a little bit more of a teaching sermon giving a lot of instruction and in chapter 5 Jesus Christ was really emphasizing the idea of our need to humble ourselves He kind of ended on the last verse of striving for perfection It says in verse 48 be therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect and we need to humble ourselves not only for salvation, but also beyond salvation in seeking the Lord and understanding the high bar that God has set for righteousness the righteousness standards that God has and generally how those standards are a loving God and Seeking God now in chapter 6 it does make a little bit of a transition a little bit of a change to Where I believe it's kind of encapsulated by its last verse and we'll get there But in verse 33 it says but seek ye first the kingdom of God I believe that this whole chapter really is emphasizing this idea of seeking God it brings up prayer alms Fasting where your treasure is serving God versus mammon and ultimately just the concept of seeking First the kingdom of God, but it gives us a lot of different ideas here, but they're all generally about seeking God Sincerely through a spiritual view there's there's different forms of religion out there Where some are kind of on the surface their surface level their carnal their exterior And a lot of that is fake, and that's really what chapter 6 is Diving into is the idea that there's a lot of fake religion out there That's just being done on the exterior to try and convince people that you're spiritual or that you're religious whereas true spiritual Seeking the Lord is actually done in private not to be seen of men It's having a personal relationship with God and the reality is none of us Know for sure if anyone else in this room has a true spiritual relationship with God But I would argue that it will be evidenced in other areas of your life It's not necessarily evidenced in these specific ways It's evidenced in other ways And that's really where you can tell the difference between those who are real and genuine and those who are fake The ones who are fake they're doing everything Outwardly Whereas the people and then they really aren't sincere loving kind or doing the works of God And then you have this other group of people that you never see them do this list of stuff We're going to talk about but yet at the same time. They're very kind loving gracious and doing the works of God so To some people that are carnal and unsaved they get confused on this and think that serving God is this outward Giving money to the poor and doing all this outward praying and going around and telling everybody you're Fasting and just this outward show of religion whereas Christianity is done in the heart It's done inside not on the exterior. So as we get into this just keep those things in mind. It says in verse 1 Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them Otherwise you have no reward of your father which is in heaven therefore when thou doest thine alms do not sound a trumpet before thee as the Hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. They may have glory of men verily I say unto you they have their award, but when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand Doeth so the Bible is explaining that when you're giving money You're supposed to not be making it public look at verse 4 that thine alms may be in secret and Thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward the opening. So you have to ask yourself this question Why would you give alms and alms is the idea of just giving money to someone that needs it? It's not it's not tithing. That's a completely separate thing Alms is simply just giving something to someone that's in need it doesn't even have to be limited to money It could be you're giving them food shelter clothing It also is very commonly referred to here and in a monetary form alms would be typically what we think of is just giving money Now a lot of people think that this is what makes you godly is going around just giving money giving alms out but The thing about it if we're gonna truly be godly and loving the poor no one would know about it That's that's the conundrum yet. So many people today. They love to give money to the poor and tell everyone about it That should just be a sign that this person is not very righteous and they don't believe the Bible Okay, not. Oh, well, where's where's all you giving all this money to poor people and where are you bragging about? Donating money and giving to charities and helping people it's like well if I was doing that I wouldn't want to tell you Because the Bible is saying that if it's done in secret in verse 4 then God is going to reward thee So the way I get rewards is by doing it in faith Believing that God will reward me even though no one else saw someone that doesn't believe in God or believe in faith They would have no reason to give to someone in private hoping to be rewarded later because there would never be a reward the only way to be rewarded is for you to actually believe that God would reward you and For you to just help people without anybody else knowing and then God blessing you later in your life And it wouldn't even necessarily be as a direct result of that It's not like you're gonna be directly rewarded for that specific donation I believe God's going to reciprocate in another way. That's unrelated So people will not know that you've been giving alms or helping people or doing good unto other people. I Think in verse 1 when it says take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them That's the real essence and spirit of this obviously in the world. We live in today sometimes it could be almost like Literally impossible to give money to somebody and just no one see or just no one else could ever possibly be aware or There couldn't be other involvement The essence in the spirit of this is though when you're giving it's not to be seen of that person You're not trying to get glory from the person that may be aware or have seen what's going on It's just generally saying you're not trying to be like hey everybody look over here. I'm gonna give money to this person You're looking you know, like that's the whole essence in the spirit behind this particular passage So, you know, I don't think you have to get necessarily super legalistic about this passage But again, it's about the spirit. What's the spirit? Are you giving money? Because you want everybody to know about it or you giving money because you just sincerely want to help this person You love this person. Of course, you can't entirely Avoid Someone else finding out about things in this particular chapter. We're gonna talk about fasting It's gonna be pretty hard for your wife to not realize that you're fasting Okay, but obviously it's supposed to be done in secret So like there's gonna be certain people in your lives in close proximity that may notice things that you're doing to serve God But generally speaking you're not doing it to impress these other people or to be seen of these other people You're doing it because you love God and you have a you have sincerity in your heart So really the limits test for giving money should not be whether or not someone saw The limit test is what's going on in your heart? Are you doing this because you actually love this person and you want to follow God's commandments or are you doing it? Because you just want to get glory from someone you're hoping someone will notice You're hoping that this person will will recognize and they'll think highly of you or think better of you You know that is where the heart of the issue is here and there's so many people today That want to just give money only For glory. Did you notice it says as the hypocrites do what what is a hypocrite? They're not giving money because they love God They're not giving money because they love that person what they're wanting to do is they're wanting to buy glory for themselves They want to buy Ignition for themselves. This is what you would call a philanthropist Philanthropist of the day and in fact, I even typed in on the line I said what are the top philanthropists in the world and it gave me a list. Okay. I'll just read the first four Here's the number four. This is the most generous loving and godly people keep that in mind, right? number one Warren Buffett Number two Bill Gates Such a godly person just so lovely number three George Soros Number four Michael Bloomberg Now a little bit further down on this list. It also had Mark Zuckerberg and Ted Turner I mean these people just love humanity. They love God. I mean Ted Turner loves God doesn't he? I mean he said some of those blasphemous things I've ever heard of my life So you would think like why? Would these people be giving money if that's such a godly attribute I mean if being godly and being Christian is all about just giving money and just being so kind and so generous Then wouldn't you have to think that these people are some of the best Christians that have ever lived I mean all the money that they're giving now Of course when you actually look a little bit further than just the names on the list you'll notice that they gave money to like HIV institutions or climate change institutions or Charities that they own and then pay themselves. Okay, so like don't hear me wrong. There's a lot of Not legitimate charity here anyways, but I'm just saying why are these people? Giving this money out. Well number one for tax benefit Number two so they can be on a list of the most generous people and get what glory I mean in fact most of the time these people when they give to charities They have those oversized checks, you know the Bible saying like don't blow a trumpet It's like why can't you just give them a normal-sized check? It's like no one's gonna be able to see that We need to blow this thing up We need to get a big check and let everybody know and we're gonna take pictures of it And we're gonna put it on social media and we're gonna announce it to everybody I mean, this is what the world does and what are they doing? They're trying to buy Glory for themselves The truck in fact, sometimes it's just advertising It's like they could spend some certain amount of money on advertising But instead of doing that they just give money away in charity and they get the same Advertising benefit out of it. And so it's really just a thinly veiled Advertising spendment, you know, they're spending money on some kind of advertisement So when we think about Christianity, it's not about us going around bragging about giving money to the people In fact the vast majority of our giving almost no one's gonna know about no one would even figure out No one has any idea about and also, you know in our world I think that you should try to help people that have sincere needs and that are sincerely in need, you know Individuals that are lazy or a fuse to work. I don't believe this is what this is saying Okay, and there's other passages in the Bible that bring up the idea of not helping people that are purposefully lazy There's one thing there's being in need being poor Having being without being in a bad situation widows the fatherless. That's what the Bible brings up It doesn't bring able-bodied men that just want to get drunk and refuse to work feed them it doesn't say that in fact, you're hurting them by feeding them in many cases because you're continuing to allow them to live a life of debauchery and Filth and shame and these people are very dangerous in society. And so really that's the that's not a Christian attitude again but of course what a lot of churches do they like to brag about how much money they give to lazy homeless people and It's like you're a double-loose Because you're not really doing the Matthew 6 said and then you're also violating second Thessalonians chapter number three Because you're literally feeding people that refuse to work and then they'll look down on you and say well Where's all your Christianity? Well, I'm not going to show it to you because that's not the part of Christianity that we brag about That's not a part of Christianity that we show it should be done in secret and a private and of course Somebody would say well if it's all done in private then maybe nobody ever does anything Okay, but that's just a cynical view of life you know the reason why someone should give is because they just love people they want to help people and You know in some ways when someone is in need Things that I've done and I've seen other people do and I think it's a good idea instead of just giving money to people sometimes what you can do is you can offer them a job and Yet you pay them Way more than you would actually pay for that job, but you're just not just handing it out for free So you kind of prevent yourself from just giving money to lazy jerks But that at the same time you actually give them what they need, you know, they need a couple thousand dollars You know, you might pay them you may say hey, I'll give you this job That's worth 50 bucks or 100 bucks and you still give them that money So it's it's if you think about it It's pretty similar the principle in the Old Testament how the poor were able to glean the fields or how specifically Boaz instructed his servants to literally even just like take handfuls and just lay them on the ground So that Ruth could just come by and pick him up, but it wasn't like he was Saying here's free money Hey, he started to go out there and work a little bit But obviously she was getting paid way more than she deserved and the amount of effort and labor She was putting in wasn't necessarily reciprocal of her payment. So he was very generous but at the same time he was affording them the Ability to work a little bit and then people also feel better because most people don't like handouts Most people feel kind of bad about just getting free money but if they can at least do some kind of work if they can just do a little bit of effort they can do something and Then you give them even though it's not necessarily Directly resent representative of their work effort. It's still just kind of a nice way to kind of work things out now again There's nothing wrong with just hey, I'm just gonna give you money. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that I'm just saying maybe you can consider that as an alternative as well and People that are in my mind in danger of in this lazy thing That's usually how I test them and think about this like there's so many homeless derelicts and weirdos and stuff like that and People wonder like how do you respond to these people because they'll come up you like give me money or whatever This is what I say come to church and we'll talk afterwards That handles ninety nine point nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine percent of all interactions have ever had and think about it I'm not asking them to do some great task I'm not saying like go climb a mountain and steal the golden egg from this eagle or something I'm like show up at church Like shouldn't you already be going to church? You know, it's like hey, I you know, I like to help people that go to my church Why don't you come to church and we'll talk after the service was that so hard? Was that so difficult and then of course, you know individuals that even get to that level Which was a really hard task then it's usually like okay. Hey, I need a little bit of this work done Do you want to do that and we could help you know help you with some money? No I don't have time for that and that usually resolves the hundred percent case and it's like oh, man You're just not giving money to all these poor lazy derelicts. You're right People call all the time and just say hey pay our bill pay my bill and it's just like come to church Do you want to ride? Nope, I mean they think they can't even get a free ride to church, but I'm just supposed to pay their bills I mean think if I advertise that how many people you think would call free bills paid You know and again, this is what some people think like this is what church is about This is what Jesus Christ came here to do. Well, I want to know how many bills did Jesus Christ pay? I Mean he paid Peter's tax bill, but even Peter's tax bill. He didn't just pay it. He had to go work He had to literally go fish Now be it did he pay him more than that fish is worth I'm sure he did but he made him do a little bit of effort a little bit of work Okay, and it's it's funny how just even a little bit of work will separate the lazy from the righteous. I Mean, did you read in the Proverbs when it talks about the slothful that he's so slothful He can't even bring his hand to his mouth to feed himself Like he's that lazy There are people that are that lazy I'm telling you they exist Okay, and at the end of the day if you help a lazy person, you know what? I'm not saying you're a bad person or you did wicked sometimes we just like to help people and whatever and it just You give people benefit of the doubt and then they burn you and you're just like, okay Well, whatever but at the end of the day, you know I'm just not gonna go out of my way to try and help the laziest people. Okay Now when you do give alms though You should be doing it with a heart to sincerely love the person to help the person and not for glory Not for recognition not look at me and how wonderful I am You should just sincerely do it because you love God and you love that person if you don't really love that person in any way Or you don't really want to help that person don't give them money Like there's really no it's just not the right thing to do We should do it out of sincerity out of love out of kindness and not as the hypocrites do to just be seen of men the Catholics a lot of Evangelicals a lot of charities today a lot of groups will just give money big checks big charity donations They like to brag about it. They have all their soup kitchens and all this other stuff and again I'm not against feeding people But if you're not like Africa or something, it's probably you're just doing it to be seen of men I mean there are legitimate parts of this world that people are just starving and Churches will actually feed people and hey, I'm for that, you know, I'm not against that Jesus fed people, you know Okay, but he wasn't feeding lazy people He wasn't just going around just trying to be the welfare system of our government and all the welfare systems Just such a wonderful gift to you know society. No, it's a bad program It should be shut down. Oh You hate poor people. No, I actually love them and honestly most people that are on welfare are taking advantage of that money so they can use the rest of their money on drugs and Alcohol and all kinds of other filth and if you didn't give them that welfare, they'd be forced to buy food They'd be forced to spend some of their money and it would mean that we have less drugs So yeah, I'm sorry that you are confused about how society in this world works Also, you know it in sin device people actually stay married for women to stop being whores to actually stay with their husband For people to get married it Welfare is a bad program in general You know welfare should be limited to the church The house of God the people of God giving out of sincerity to those in real need Those because the Bible even says like the church won't even give money to people that aren't widows indeed It says just because you're a widow I shouldn't even necessarily pay your bill think about that's a pretty extreme scenario Like most people in here are not a widow and it's like I can't even pay her bills When she's not even a widow indeed, and then you're gonna get mad that I won't pay a lazy Man, that's able-bodied Like how could you literally be mad at me for not paying his bills when the Bible tell me not to pay a widows bills Like that's the insanity of people that just don't read the whole Bible and don't care about reconciling all passages They just want to cherry-pick the Sermon on the Mount and just say like well, you know, you give money to give alms But are you doing it to be seen of men? Well, I never see you giving alms. Okay good That sounds like I'm doing what the Bible says then You know beware of the people that everybody knows how many alms they give that's actually a red flag Not a good thing. Look at verse 5 And when thou prayest thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners Of the streets that they may be seen of men verily I say unto you they have their word You know what? This makes me think of it makes me think of all these Pentecostals They go around and make these public videos about how they're praying for people. I Saw one and it's like this guy. He's like, oh man my arms. They're not like perfectly, you know the same distance So this is like Pentecostal that's sitting here just like shalalalalalalala and the guys is like And then it's like the whole crowd of these Pentecostals just like It's like what in the world How are people this stupid? It's like it's like children you're like, hey I can take my thumb off my hand This is legitimate churches today think about that The stupidity in our society is so bad. It's so bad But this is what we see we see religious leaders praying on people by Praying they go out there and they make these big long prayers and these public prayers. They're going everywhere. They'll run up to people What if there was a guy the Todd white guy a guy that looks like Predator and Joyce Meyer had a bastard child or something This guy walks around and like his whole ministry is just like randomly praying for people He's like walking to be like can I pray for you? The answer should be an obvious. No Get a haircut Get away from me, you know If there was really like reptilian agents, you know secretly in the bodies of men I would think it was him But it's like no I don't want this random stranger that I've never met that looks like a complete psychopath to pray for me But they do that and they make all these videos and then they're like trying to act like how godly they are Well, did you see me praying in public? But you know what the Bible says that this person is a hypocrite When you pray what does it say in verse 6 but that when thou prayest enter in thy closet and when thou Shut thy door pray to thy father, which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly But when you pray use not vain repetitions as the heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking Be not ye therefore like unto them for your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him So again the vain repetitions It's pretty easy to pick on the Catholics there because they say the same prayer over and over and over and they just repeat it That would be a vain repetition because they don't really even sincerely believe the words that are coming out of their mouth They're just simply chanting something and when you're chanting something it's vain at that point It's not that the Lord's Prayer or the words of God are vain but by just saying them over and over in a meaningless attitude and spirit it is vain and then that Repetition of just our father which art in heaven how they just sit there and say that and look There's nothing wrong with those words Of course the Lord taught his disciples out of pray and we're gonna read that in a moment But just by chanting it over and over it becomes a vain repetition. No sincere it no sincerity No genuineness to it when we pray we should be praying to God and Here's the thing. It says that the hypocrites are praying publicly Well, why what is a hypocrite? It's someone that says something but doesn't do it Or they believe something and it's fake. Okay, so when they're praying out in public and whatever What it's trying to tell you is that they don't pray in private Todd white is not getting in his prayer closet and praying to God and asking for help. He's only doing in public He'll only cause himself to pray just so that other people can see him praying because he doesn't really believe in God He doesn't really believe in prayer. He doesn't really have faith He only does it so that other people give him attention and recognition and it's saying there's so many people today that they pray in Public because they want you to think that they're spiritual when they're not They're not the people that are actually praying in private. They're not the people that actually care about you and This phrase gets just thrown out there. I'm like, I'll be praying for you brother You know what? Don't say that unless you're gonna do it And I think there's a lot of people that just say that and it's just fake They don't actually pray for anybody they don't want anybody to have anything good They don't actually have faith in God that prayer even works, but they'll just say it because it just sounds nice It just makes you sound spiritual. Well, I'm praying for your brother I'm praying bro, you know, it just sounds cool. It sounds spiritual makes you sound religious It makes them have to be I mean if someone says that for you, you pretty much have to say thank you Because you have to kind of take them as they were you don't know So you just kind of have to be like so they get a little bit of glory out of that and it's like rather than Tell me you're gonna pray for me. Just pray for me And again, I'm not against you saying that don't hear me wrong I'm not saying if someone says that they're a bad person like don't mark them or something Pastor Shelley this person told me they're gonna pray for me Sounds good. Okay. We're gonna give them the benefit of the doubt This sermon is not about other people it's about you. Okay, and it's about you not saying it when you're not sincere Don't be a flatterer. Don't try to pretend like you're spiritual if you're not, you know, make sure you pray for me And sometimes you know if I say that about somebody If I say that to somebody or I I am trying to be sincere But I'm thinking like, you know, my life's busy and I may not remember this person I'll try to pray for them as soon as I can like just so that way It was it's sincere. It's it's real because life's busy things happen It's easy to forget things and especially if it's someone they don't see in your regular life, you know Sometimes it's better just pray for them as quickly as you can but at the end of the day We don't want to just go around telling everybody we're praying for you when you're not You want to go around making these big prayers and you're not praying in private, you know There's a time to pray in public our church prays collectively. There's collective prayer. It makes sense. Pray for our meals We pray for a lot of different things. You know what when it's you know, well, we're having a meal time I'm not gonna sit here and just like pull out the bulletin You know and and I'm not gonna get here and just get on my knees and pray for every single thing I could possibly do plus if you've ever been into like these non-denominational churches. Sorry. I have been in all of them. Okay And you go to these thing called like life groups or care groups or these home groups or whatever They would almost always end with these like long prayer times I Still have PTSD. Okay, I mean we're talking like 20 30-minute prayer times and It just like these these people It's funny how they would pray in such a derogatory manner Like I'm not joking. They'd be like, let's pray For and I'm trying to think of a name that nobody's in here with Let's pray for so-and-so Let's pray for Kenneth Copeland. Okay, and This be like he's just he's just struggling right now Lord I know that he's into like all kinds of drugs that he shouldn't be into and people aren't aware of it And I just I just pray I know that he's like with this girl right now And she's really evil and hurting him and and it's just a bad decision and in her names, you know You know Karen or you know, it's like it's like Like they're just sitting here like basically just gossiping through prayer and you're like, what are you doing? Like and they're just sitting here just like saying anything and everything or they go in these long diatribes about how much they hate Satan I'm not joking. I Was in this like men's group and they're just like Satan We're bind you right now in the name of Jesus and you're so evil and we're gonna send you back to hell And you have no authority on our lives right now and we just pray right now We were buku Satan and just like for ten minutes and I'm just like bro Like I get the zeal but man this is awkward It's just so weird and like if you've ever been in these situations like my eyes start to hurt from just like holding them closed And you start getting bored every once in a while You're like you kind of start feeling that woozy like you're gonna pass out Down like what how long is this guy gonna pray? It's just like I've never in my life been around someone that does that and then I actually thought they're a godly person Okay, and yet that's just people they're just not very spiritual and so it's just this is my time to shine Where I'm just gonna go on these long prayers and just do them in public and do them It's like hey if you want to pray a long prayer, I'm not against you, please don't do it with me Do it in private Okay, and again I'm not even a I'm not even one of these people that says you have to pray all these really long elaborate prayers Because honestly, I think of the Bible teaches the opposite Because I mean did you not even read what he said here in verse number eight be not therefore like unto them for your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him He wants you to ask but he doesn't want it to have to be this long Drawn out over the top. I have to constantly repeat myself Or I have to explain to God everything that needs to happen No, it's just he just wants you to kind of just say it Right, and he already knows he's already ready to give it to you But you just gotta have to just say it makes me think of Aladdin. Okay. Sorry for all my carnal references But Aladdin he's like drowning in the sea and the genie wants to grant his wish to save him and he just needs some Acknowledgement, so he's just like, you know, like he basically his head just barely nods and then he like saves him out of it It's like from our perspective. It's like God just wants to help us. He wants to bless us He wants to good unto us He just waiting for you to just open your mouth and just say please or just ask You have not because he asked not but it didn't say because you're not asking hard enough Because you're not you don't know what to say, I mean think about it if you have toddlers They asked your wife things all the time and it didn't even make sense, but they know exactly what to give them They're like no, no, no, and I'm just like I don't know and she's like Oh, they wanted a banana and a chocolate milk stirred or whatever. I'm just thinking like no they didn't say that They never said that none of this makes sense. But you know what the mom already knows what they need before they ask But they just they just need to ask Okay, and I think that we have to take the right approach here and understand that you know We need to get in a better habit of asking rather than worrying about the exact words and the exact utterances And did I pray long enough, you know, I don't think you should feel guilty about praying long enough It should just be about asking about all the various things I mean the Bible says to pray without ceasing to me Important to pray often than it is to pray these long drawn-out prayers and show me in the Bible one example of a really long prayer anyways, I Mean the Bible has a lot of prayers in it Like it's filled with prayers and if you just read any of them, it would be like less than two minutes Now I'm not I'm not gonna say that Your prayer life should be under two minutes What I'm trying to say is instead of worrying about having these long drawn-out prayer sessions Just pray as much as you can You know I think that some people might even be intimidated to pray often because they think like well, I don't have an hour to pray So I'm just I'm just not gonna do it Whereas God would rather you just pray wherever you're at whenever you you are in a situation that you need prayer Hey, you're driving in the car by yourself pray Hey, you could sneak away for a moment. Hey, you're using the restroom you're doing I mean You're just you're just by yourself You could be in public but you're just kind of by yourself you're at lunch you're doing whatever and you just think about someone you think About something and you just have a simple prayer there. I mean a lot of the prayers in the Bible or even they're not audible They're just in their mind. They're just praying to the Lord just simple prayers Hannah is just praying for a son and she does mutter her lips a little bit But she's not even like making an audible sound, you know, God hears our prayers and What do you rather you do is just constantly be praying for things thinking about things You know when you're a silent partner say simple prayers there It doesn't even have to be this long drawn-out thing Don't like while your partner's giving the gospel like get on your knees really Lord Please open the eyes of this blind man Give him the grace of salvation You know, it's like don't be this weirdo. Okay, the there's a plenty of charismatic churches if you want to go there. All right But like in your mind, you know Someone's close. So there's a distraction or there's some situation that compels you, you know Just say a simple prayer to the Lord in your head and just ask him Hey, Lord, please help this person to pay attention help this person to Hit their heart to be softened, you know, whatever it is. Just say something simple. That's what I believe God wants God wants a regular conversation with us, you know, that's how we communicate with him and think about us as people God made us very similar to him and having the same emotions and feelings as a Father as a husband do you get irritated at the idea of your children or wife not telling you what they want? Has that ever happened? We ever thought like she's like, why didn't you just ask? Why don't you just say something and it wasn't like they needed to have an elaborate formal note It's like they just had to simply just say I want this and you're like great. Here you go The thing that you get mad about is just they didn't even say anything. In fact, you just want them to constantly communicate Hey, I would like this. Hey, I want this and you're just like, yeah, sure. Yes. No Okay, every once a while to know right because he asked him this to consume it upon your lusts but Generally speaking, you know God wants us to Go to him in prayer and to ask and it doesn't have to be this drawn-out thing He even gives us a sample here. He says in verse number nine after this manner therefore pray Our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Now. Is that a long prayer? In fact, I would argue some of the greatest prayers ever prayed were very short God be merciful me a sinner That was a pretty important prayer, wasn't it? Lord remember when I come as my kingdom Oh pretty important for her there, right? I mean, it's not about the length is it it's about the heart. It's always about the heart and In this specific situation even think about this. He says specifically about forgiving and he wants God to forgive him where He says in verse 12 and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. He didn't mention which debts he had He didn't even mention which people that he was forgiving. He just it's like a general statement, isn't it? I mean, isn't that really general just forgive me my debts as I forgive all of my debtors That was a pretty broad statement So I think in some cases we even have to recognize and realize we may not even remember every single thing every single detail But we're just it's about a heart issue. Hey God, please forgive me today because I truly want to forgive I'm gonna try and forgive everybody that's done me wrong I can't remember everything single situation Nor do I have to have like don't be legalistic about I have a literal list of every single person that's ever done me wrong And what they did in detail and I'm gonna tell God about it It's like just try to have a heart of forgiveness Try to have a spirit of forgiveness try to ask God to help you to just say you know what? I'm gonna let go of all the I have against all the people I mean I don't even think about all those situations until I run into them again Right, but I'm gonna try and have this attitude have this spirit and I'm hoping that God will be the same way to me because I Can't even remember every single time. I've transgressed. Let's be realistic Do you really know every single sin that you've committed in the last week and the last month in the last year? No, there's probably no way to know Every single thing you've done wrong. So what's the best attitude to say? Hey, I'm just gonna be forgiving everybody of all their stuff so that God will forgive me of my stuff And Again, what's the essence here in this prayer? It's the spirit not so much the words not so much the exact detail of everything for some of you That's a benefit. You don't have to remember the details. Okay Maybe you should pray for a forgiveness on that too. Okay But he says our father which art in heaven. I love this. It's an hour It's not just his father. It's our father God the Father is truly our father and this is another important like nuance Usually people don't go to this verse to think about this but think about what he says our father which art in heaven that's a location in Order for that to be true. God the Father has to be in a location Which means he has to have a physical presence Because how can you be in a specific location if you don't even exist if you don't even have a physical presence I mean the Bible talks about the Omnipresence of God how he exists everywhere and that is true. There is a truth to the idea of God Permeating our existence, but there's also another layer of truth where God actually has a specific location Because that's why he's pointing to a specific location think about if you were literally everywhere What would be the point of saying our father which art in heaven? Why would you say our father which is everywhere? our father which Transcends physical presence. No, he's denoting our father which art in heaven Why because God the Father is in heaven seated on the throne There is a strange doctrine out there That will say God doesn't really the father doesn't even really exist in a physical form in any way He doesn't have a physical presence and he's not in a physical location and you can't see him. You'll never see him You know the people will never see him the people in hell Okay, except for there'll be a moment at the Great White Throne judgment Which I don't even know they'll really even see they might just be facing the ground and go straight in the lake of fire But generally speaking those of us that are saved. There'll be a day when we'll see his face and live Okay, and and don't get sucked into these weird Ideologies because they just ruin beautiful passages like this our father which art in heaven That's true what I mean, this is the opening line to Jesus's Prayer example, this is an example of prayer and he's denoting our father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy name What are we doing? We're blessing the name of God the Father and He's the only one that gets that title That's why we're never supposed to call any man father on the earth. You know, you how what is hallow mean? It means to bless Think about things that are holy Sanctified to be hallowed means to be set apart means we're taking something and we're making it special Okay. So what we're doing is we're taking the name Heavenly Father. We're taking the name God the Father We're even taking the name father and we're setting it apart and we're making it special. Holy Sanctified and hallowed whereas the Catholics then steal this name and give it to a literal pedophile in a dress And they say father so-and-so You know what? They're not Halloween the father's name and they'll say let's do a hundred, you know our fathers But they don't even understand the words that are coming out of their mouth because they're literally not Hallowing the name of God the Father They're not even hallowing the name father our father which art in heaven how it would be thy name Meaning I'm not going to give that title to any other There's one father. It's God the Father and no one else gets that title spiritually speaking. No one You know that's Halloween that's making it special You know, it's it's also weird and I'm not against this but if you think about it, it's weird how Catholics Do this to all kinds of names? They basically just do weird stuff and again I'm not against anybody that's in this situation because it's almost all Hispanics but if I go to Mexico right now and I run into a lady What do you think her name is? Maria What do they do there? It's so funny. They don't even try to hollow their own virgin. Okay, which is not a virgin Sorry, burst her bubble. Okay. She had other children But hey is is Mary was she a godly woman Yes, was she chosen to be a specific vessel to bring in the Lord Jesus Christ? Yes But is she them like this over-the-top mother of God and an interceder on our behalf? No, and then they actually don't even make that name special by naming literally everyone Mary But then they also a lot of them and this is kind of limited their culture in my experience is they'll name their sons Jesus and I Don't know has anybody ever met someone that was English speaking They're the Anglo-saxon and their parents named their son. Jesus. Does anybody know someone? I'm not saying they Jesus and If you said their name in English is used like you've ever heard of someone in English Look, it's like kind of a Catholic thing and it makes sense because look they don't hallow the name father So then why would they how the name Jesus either? I think it's weird to name your children Jesus And again, I'm not against someone that has that name. I'm not saying that they're a bad person or anything like that I'm just simply saying that that seems like a weird cultural practice coming from what the Catholic Church specifically and you know what I don't think we should perform those kind of actions because we should keep you know What God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit? We should keep these things special and hallowed and separate and Sanctified and we certainly certainly should never call any man on this earth father He's our father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Oh How dare you preach Leviticus? But the Bible says that I should be seeking for his will to be done in earth not just in heaven Oh, well, you believe in a theocracy I guess so Why would I not want the Bible to be the the ruler of the land It should be the ruler of this land. This should be the highest form of authority. We have the Constitution You know what? This should be above that We should have the Constitution just said hey this document is superseded by the King James Bible Everything the King James Bible says it's right and if we're in if we ever make a law or a statute That's in conflict with the King James Bible. The Constitution is wrong Like the 19th amendment, okay Sorry, that's about women voting. But you know Sorry, you don't know what any amendments are but The reality is that you know what? I should seek for the will of God to be done in earth as it is in heaven not just well It would be cool, but I don't want to preach that. I know that's what the Bible says, but I don't like that That's not that doesn't flow with what's going on in earth. Yeah, we're supposed to change the earth We're supposed to change the culture around us We're not supposed to just sit here and acquiesce to whatever month the government wants to celebrate It's interesting how they never want to celebrate Christian month. I mean we literally founded the nation I mean if you think about like who is the most responsible party for bringing America into its existence? It's Christians What book led our nation to its success? It's the King James Bible We should be having like months of celebration in comparison to the other things What did sodomy ever do for America and we're celebrating it We celebrate black history month. We celebrate women Month, I mean what other months do you want to celebrate? I? Don't even know they keep up they keep coming up with other stuff our government will celebrate Islam It'll celebrate Hinduism. It'll celebrate Jews, but where's the Christian month? Oh you get one day Christmas Hey, I'm thankful for that, but you know what it's ridiculous to sit here and say that we shouldn't be celebrating Christianity we should be celebrating all the all the religions didn't bring us America Christianity brought us America Not filth and debauchery and you know what we should be seeking for the Lord's will to be done in This place not just in heaven well once we get to heaven I'm just gonna love everything and love everybody and just only do good or it's like you're just you're just lying You're not sincere. You're not spiritual the spiritual person will pray that God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven everything Says in verse 11 give us this day our daily bread. Hey, there's nothing wrong with praying for carnal needs You need something ask God for it Notice he didn't ask for a Ferrari Notice he didn't even ask for anything, but just daily bread Verse 12 and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. You know we want to make sure that you're not a hypocrite Now this last part's an important part It says in verse 13 lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen When it's talking about temptation and evil here. I would say that it seems Like it's saying something a little bit different than what I think it's supposed to communicate and I want you to keep your finger here go to second Thessalonians chapter number three When we typically hear of the word temptation often we're thinking of the idea of like being tempted to sin and When we hear the word evil we could maybe think of wickedness or Sins or doing something sinful But the Bible does say in other passages that God's not tempting us with evil so You know the person that tempted Adam and Eve was not God It was the serpent Okay, God just said don't eat that wasn't a temptation when God says thou shalt not that's not tempting someone He's saying don't do it the tempting was when the devil came and said yea have God said Or saying ye shall not surely die or saying when ye eat your eyes shall be open And you should be as God's knowing good and evil that was the temptation Okay, but the word tempt can have other meanings Sometimes to be tempted is just to mean to be tried be tested Okay to see what you're going to do Job was tempted of the Lord in the sense sense that he had to go through persecution and God was seeing if he would stay faithful if he would go through that test successful God tempted the children of Israel marching or marching through the wilderness to see whether or not they would eat the manna and Follow all the commandments and follow the statutes. He humbled them to prove them. So proving Tempting and testing can be synonyms in the Bible So we're talking about lead us not a temptation. He's not saying God don't put me in a situation where someone will entice me to sin That's not really I believe what the passage is saying what the passage is saying is I don't want to have to be persecuted. I Don't want to be persecuted and I don't want to have to suffer harm because the word evil can mean harm and Atheists love to do this where they'll show you a passage in the Bible that says God Doesn't do evil and can't do evil and then later it'll say like God creates evil and they're like, oh see No, it's saying God doesn't do anything sinful or wicked But you know what when it comes to harm It's like God's always in control of that situation. And in fact, he often brings harm. There's a place called hell It's really harmful and he literally created it. Okay, but is hell sinful? No, there's nothing sinful about hell and there's nothing sinful about God punishing people is The capital punishment sinful. No, but is it harmful? That's the whole point Okay, the whole point is to rid yourselves of evil through evil, okay Now in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 I think this helps us look at verse 1 finally brethren pray for us that the Word of God may have free course and Be glorified even as it is with you and that we may be delivered from Unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith But the Lord is faithful who shall establish you and keep you from Evil, so if you take this three verses here and you understand Matthew chapter number six, it's communicating the same message when he's saying like hey deliver us from evil Deliver us from temptation that temptation is we don't want to be in the midst of unreasonable and wicked men What are those people look like? Well, they protested our church before And What is evil harm? Something harmful happening to you. So when we pray we should pray that God would deliver us from unreasonable and wicked men that we wouldn't have to be tried necessarily that we wouldn't have to go through persecution and Even if we do that, we wouldn't have to actually suffer any harm. That is a daily prayer That is a prayer that God asked us to pray The idea of never being enticed with sin is not something that's on the table We're gonna all be enticed to commit sin There's gonna always be that level of temptation in the world and of course it's our job to be diligent to flee from fornication and to resist the devil and to Make sure that we're not putting ourselves in bad situations But when it comes to evil people Approaching us and coming after us we're asking for God to intercede and to come before and to be a shield and to protect us and be a hedge around us and To cause that evil to be at bay and the not necessarily persecute us and not necessarily give us that evil That's what he's saying. We should pray for and of course, even if you pray this perfectly Sometimes we suffer right sometimes God tempts job Sometimes you have a thorn in the flesh like the Apostle Paul had and God did not take that away from him so it's not to say that there can't be persecution or Temptation at times but that we should pray that God would deliver us from those and you see the kings of Judah Constantly having enemies surround and then praying and asking God, you know Hezekiah has to pray that they would take Sennacherib and Rabshakey and all them and get them out of there That's an example of being delivered from temptation being delivered from evil They did have to go through a little bit three days, but eventually God delivered them and took them Took those evil people out of their way. So, you know for our church We've had times where we've had evil people, but you know God's driven them away and praise God And we should continue to pray that the Lord would deliver us from evil, especially in the month of June Because there's a lot more evil out there lurking around Trying to cause mischief. We should be praying that the Lord would deliver us from those temptations and from those evils, okay Go back to Matthew chapter number six, so I just wanted to make sure we understood that a little bit more clearly Because some of those words can be used in different ways and I think it's it's easy to think like hey God Please please don't tempt me with sin today It's God's not gonna sit here and dangle Alcohol in front of you or something God's not going around trying to dangle fornication and adultery and lying and stealing That's the devil. That's bad friends. That's your own carnal lusts that's doing that But what God may do is he may allow evil people to come in your life And he can also take them away And so we should be praying that God would take those things from us and we wouldn't have to go through them Now he in the next sections of the of this chapter he's really just kind of further explaining the concepts He's already taught He says in verse number 14 for if you forgive men their trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses So he's explaining why he said in our prayer in that prayer To ask God for forgiveness for our debts as we forgive our debtors Because he's saying you really want God to forgive you it's not really about asking Entirely, it's also you being forgiving Your spirit and your heart and your character is going to limit sometimes if God would forgive you verse 16 moreover when you fast be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance for they disfigure their faces That they may appear unto men to fast barely I stand you they have their reward He's saying people that are there people are fasting and they're already gonna look a little sad and it's saying that they're like exaggerating their sadness Just to be even more attention-seeking just like obviously if I wasn't eating I could be a little bit down, but there's Oh You're so spiritual oh, you're so wonderful. Oh you guys you you don't have steak on Friday. You only have fish fry. It's how sad But you know what's sad is they I don't even think that's a reward Like I'm not giving you glory number one and number two you have to eat fish. You know. Where's the beef? I remember going to a restaurant, and it's like a it's a barbecue restaurant Barbecue Okay, and I show up and the only thing they had was catfish, and it was a Friday night I'm thinking like what's wrong with you people Like you have good delicious barbecue But it's because it was Catholic owners And they just want to cater to the Catholic community and they're so literally on Friday nights and it's for a long period of time I think it's during that the whole Lent season, but basically for like a whole month These don't even have beef on the menu on Fridays or whatever. It's just like what's wrong with you people I Wouldn't want to be in your religion just for that reason alone, okay? Obviously if you grow up in it you just you have to suffer, but people that are fasting I mean if you're not eating certain things you just really shouldn't be telling other people about it bragging and I've I've been around a lot of Catholics and They always tell me what they're fasting Like I didn't I'm not like hey, what are you fasting this week, bro, this always bring it up so conveniently Oh, well, you know, I just want to let you know like I'm fasting this or this month or whatever It's like I'm fasting sugar cereal or whatever. It's like you should just be fasten that anyways You know, it's like they're gonna tell me they're I'm fasting McDonald's. It's like for Indian food Actually getting a lot of rewards then But What does it say in verse 17 but thou when thou fast is anoint thy head and wash thy face That thou appear not unto men to fast but unto thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall award thee openly So when we do these things, we're not supposed to be doing to receive a minute So you want to know someone that's not a real Christian someone that's giving money publicly praying publicly and fasting publicly and Even if they are saved you can just tell they're a very carnal Christian That's not truly spiritual that person's not very spiritual and you'll see some time. You'll even see fundamental Baptist sometimes going around bragging about These three areas just note that person and say that person's not sincerely spiritual. They must be a hypocrite Now he says in verse number 19 lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal But lay up for yourselves treasures and heaven Where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal for where your treasure is there Will your heart be also again? This is this is in context of these passages because think about it you you they're giving money to the poor to get a reward now They're praying in public to get a reward now They're fasting in public to get a reward now Whereas the person that's giving money in private is trying to get a reward what later in heaven and the person that is praying for other people and Interceding and loving people is hoping to get rewarded later and the person that's fasting is hoping to be rewarded later in Heaven so where are you building your treasure at and is your treasure really only on this earth? Are you only trying to live for now as opposed to investing in your spiritual future in heaven? And he's saying wherever your treasure is there will your heart be also So if you're only in this life, then of course, you're going to only do things that seem to benefit you now Whereas if you actually have your heart and affection on things above well Then you're gonna be doing a lot of things that you see no benefit now. No reward now you're just simply investing in your spiritual future and This truth extends beyond this context It's just a general truth of the Bible that wherever your treasure is there your heart will be also You know a lot of people would love to have a lot of nice things in this world But the problem is is your heart is gonna follow after those things if you have a lot of money in the bank It's gonna be hard for your heart not to be attached to that a bank account If you have a really nice house It's hard to not imagine that your heart will follow after that really nice house that really nice property that really nice car That really nice handbag that really nice jewelry that really nice gold. I mean, I wonder where the Jews hearts at It's in his golds in his shekels, is it not and of course, you know we as God's people as Christians our heart should not be on the things of this world and Sometimes I think that's also why the Bible says blessed be poor Because you know what your hearts not attached to anything because you don't have anything to attach it to So sometimes it's a little easier to attach your heart to the things of God when you don't have much and Sometimes you might think like I wish I had a nicer house. I wish I had a nicer car I wish I made more money, but here's a question. Where would your heart be if you had those things and If you keep laying up for yourselves treasures on this earth, how are you gonna have room for? Having a heart force towards God And what are you spending your time building wealth for? Are You spending your time? Well, I just need to spend as much time as I can building wealth for my house for my car for my 401k For my yacht for my second home for my guns for whatever it is. I need to have 50 guns Why? You can only shoot like three maybe I mean, I don't know how impressive you are And again, I'm not against owning guns. I'm not against owning property. I'm not against owning a second property You can do whatever you want, but beware that your heart will often follow your treasures And whatever treasures you have there's a temptation for your heart to follow that and you have to ask yourself this question What am I gonna spend my time in my life for? Now here's something though. You have to understand about This this passage of where your treasure is. He brings it up in the next section, too He says the light of the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single The whole body shall be full of light But if thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness How great is that darkness? No man can serve two masters for either. He will love the one or I'm sorry for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and Despise the other you cannot serve God and Mamet meaning you only have so much time in your life You only have so much time in a day What are you gonna put that time towards are you putting that time towards building Carnal treasures or are you putting that time towards building spiritual treasures, and he's saying you cannot serve both Now here's an important distinction you have to understand about this passage Anyone can be lazy This passage is not addressing the lazy person if you're a lazy person you're just a loser Okay The person that actually works That's the person that's actually gonna do something with his life. He has a choice Am I gonna do stuff and building things for the carnal world? Or am I gonna build things for the spiritual world that I have and he's saying you cannot do both Now, of course you can be lazy and do neither You can be a complete loser and do nothing with your life But you cannot build carnal treasure and build spiritual treasure he's saying it's impossible you have to pick it where you're gonna put your effort time energy and money and What is the the whole essence of this? Well, if I only believe in this life, then I'm gonna only live for this life But people that have a rich faith in their heart towards the Lord and believe in the new heavens and the new earth Where moth and rust are not going to come and corrupt and thieves are not going to break through and steal Well, then, you know what? I'm gonna want to invest in that portfolio I'm not gonna want to invest in a portfolio where I'm gonna lose out. I'm only gonna do it for a season it's not gonna benefit me in the long run and At the end of the day This is a test to see where your heart is. You want to know where your heart is? You say well, I don't feel like I have any money or any spiritual blessings. Well, you're lazy Okay, so you need to just start working But when you choose to work, here's the question, what are you working for? What are you putting your effort your energy and your labor in to making riches to having nice things? It's having the pleasures of this world. Well, you know what? Beware if you even get them Because when you get them that might be where your heart follows anyways, and then you'll just never have any right You'll never have any spiritual riches you say well if I go all-in on spiritual I won't have any of the carnal stuff. You got it You can't have both You literally cannot have both. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You have to choose No man can serve both You'll end up and and even if you say well I don't even know if I'm gonna make that choice you make that choice every second of your life What did you do last week? What do you do with your time? I do nothing. Well, you're the lazy category Okay, and there's a lot I would say almost probably everybody's in that category But the few people that actually want to serve and actually work really hard with their lives It's like what are you building? Because here's the thing if you work really hard even today if you put in a lot of energy You could make a lot of money There's a lot of money out there to be made in America. It's the land of opportunity And yeah, there's high taxes and stuff like that. But you know what? A Rising tide lifts all ships and even though inflation has gone up. Well, the prices went up too and the margins went up too and rent went up too and you know what the people that have money are making even more money and There's so many people that are wealthy and rich and the reason why people don't have a lot of money is because they're not Working hard often. They're not very educated. They're not trying very hard Okay, but there's another reason why you could not have a lot of riches carnally speaking and still be hard worker It's because you're putting your effort energy into things of God You're spending free time reading your Bible going soul-winning going to church Raising a godly family. You're trying to actually follow God's commandments And so you may not be rich carnally speaking, but you know what you're rich spiritually speaking You know the Bible talks about churches that are poor But they're actually rich and then talks about other churches that are rich and they're actually poor why because he can't serve two masters And there are plenty of churches today that they are only striving to serve mammon literally Their church is designed to serve Mammon, they have a giant building They have tons of people coming in there, but they're not preaching messages to serve God They're preaching messages to keep the mammon flowing They just want the money to keep flowing and they will literally change the message no matter what just to get the money to keep coming Whereas, you know the people that love God will say even if our church shrinks or diminishes or bad things happen to it As long as it's what God wants me to do then I'm gonna do that I'm just gonna keep laying up treasure for myself in heaven not here on this earth You know the Bible warns about being covetous Constantly thinking about the things that are quit worrying about things you don't have Why don't you why don't you earnestly covet to prophesize what the Bible says covet to prophesy? What's that preaching the Word of God? Going soul winning. Why don't you covet? I wish I had more time to go soul winning rather than I wish I had more carnal things. I Wish I had more opportunity to serve God. I wish I could put more energy into reading my Bible I wish I could do more things going more mission strips I wish I could do more things for the Lord and suppose like I wish I had a bigger house and more cars And more what it's like nuts to that stuff we see where your heart is and you know what your heart will drag you to wherever you're going and Often it'll drag people out of church That's why you don't see a lot of rich people in church because we're their heart followed them after their treasures Didn't it not after the things of God? He Says the verse 25 therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what you shall drink Nor yet for your body what you shall put on is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment Behold the fowls of the air for they so not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly Father feed of Them are you not much better than they which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature and white Take ye thought for raiment consider the lilies of the field how they grow they toil not neither Do they spin and yet I say unto you that even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these God says you can't clothe yourself as good as he clothes the the grass of the field and the flowers of this world Verse 30 wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven Shall he not much more clothe you? Oh you of little faith therefore take no thought Saying what shall we what shall we drink or wherewith shall we be clothed Boy that is in contrast to the fear mongers of today They are just obsessed with what they're gonna eat. They're obsessed with storeable foods and Having their own personal farms and just trying to resist all the government. It's like Why are you laying up all that food? I mean it could totally spoil and then it much of it tastes so bad. It's like spoiled already. Okay at the end of the day, it's like This is not my home. I'm just a passing through And look, this is not to say as a young man Providing for his family. You don't care about putting meat on the table or bread on the table What it's saying is specifically why are you concerned with that so much? Why obsessed with that? Don't be obsessed with this stuff verse 32 for for after all these things of the Gentile seek for Heavenly Father No If you have need of all these things But see first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself Sufficient under the day is the evil thereof We should be seeking the Lord first in our lives You say well if I put church first if I put God first if I put reading my Bible first if I put Soul-winning verse I'm not gonna be a wealthy man probably not Now it it could happen. I don't even think it's off the table necessarily, but you're definitely not insured to have it Whereas if you put all of your effort all of your energy all of your strength into making money It's you could you could do it probably Now a lot of people again, like I said, the reason why they don't have a lot of money is because they're lazy Because they refused to learn they didn't they didn't want to learn in school they thought education was stupid They didn't want to read. They don't want to put a lot of effort energy into actually laboring They don't want to do anything hard So they want to actually own their own business and manage people and learn things I mean it takes a lot of effort and a lot of energy and Here's the worst part about it is if you even have a little bit of morality It's hard to make a lot of money because the people that are making tons of money are very unscrupulous They're very shrewd Very wicked they hold back wages from their employees with the Bible says in James chapter 5. They're ripping people off selling defective products Making money from unjust gain doing all kinds of things that normal people just have a problem doing In their heart, but you know once you rip a couple people off the next group's even easier And then the next group and and pretty soon when you have such a love of money your heart can become so hardened That you're just Ebenezer Scrooge But you know what we should seek ye first the kingdom of God and his rights What is seeking the first the kingdom of God? I think that's really just getting saved A lot of people aren't striving to figure out even how to be saved They don't care about the truth. You try to expose them to it and they're like, I'm Catholic I don't want to change or whatever like they should be seeking how to even get saved That's how you enter in the kingdom of God and then after we get saved we should be seeking what and his righteousness Every single commandment every single thing that Christ commanded us We should get baptized and we should get into church and we should follow all the commandments This is the life that God wants us to live this is the true spiritual person But think about it from a carnal perspective. Here's a guy that doesn't have a lot of money. I Never see him giving money to poor people. I never see him paint praying in public I never seen him fasting He doesn't have I mean he has normal clothes He doesn't have any thing going like he doesn't have a lot of extra money and they'll think how is that person a godly person? Well, you know what? It's inside. It's not this outward show of Well, look at me. I I give all this money to the poor Look at me. I pray publicly I fast publicly Look at my mansion that I have and you know what? Let's go to the rich areas and I'll show you all the rich Catholics and all the rich Presbyterians and all these people that put on a great show and their Beautiful Church in the middle of downtown on a 20 million dollar acre of lot That they have and I'll show you all look how spiritual we are and we're God's chosen people But you know what? They don't have a spiritual bone in their body And they don't love God and they're hypocrites Yeah, and you know what? Jesus is warning you to not have that type of Christianity Jesus Christ Christianity is not one that's for this world or of this world or looks like this world It's one that denies the flesh and takes up the cross It's one that says, you know what? I'll pray in private. I'll fast in private I'll give money in private I'll love God in private. I'm not sitting here trying to see how many carnal pleasures I can rack up to myself rather I'm trying to see how many spiritual rewards I can get and Frankly speaking even soul winning. I mean most people don't come to church after getting saved. So you have no idea We really don't we don't really know who's getting the most people say because they're not coming to church I mean, we don't know what's going on out there. How do we know? I mean look at someone like a vanjos-urbanic Going over to the Philippines that guy is rich spiritually speaking and he's just adding to his portfolio every single day But you know what carnally people would say you like you're out of your mind You gave up I mean he gave up American life and American culture Let me tell you something. It is it is suffering to be in that part of the world Maybe some people like it and God bless you. Okay? Just I Do not like that culture at all Like it would be it would be very difficult for me to live in that it would be a it would be a sacrifice Okay But you're definitely not getting rich over there. I mean their peso is 50 to 1 on American I mean many of the people over there are working 80 hours a week to make like $20,000 a year American. I mean think about that You complain about inflation you complain about your situation, are you working 80 hours a week to bring in? $20,000 and in many cases their prices aren't even that much better There have been to live in shacks eating rice and beans Just having just you know, the same clothes They're not going out and eating out all the time. And even when they do it's like what's the point? I'm just kidding There's some cool places. All right, I know a lot of people love the Philippines Some people tell me they have the best beaches ever, right? I got the best beaches. Yeah I mean, hey, I'm sure it's a beautiful area, but at the end of the day America is the land of prosperity and nothing compares to it. I don't care what country you go to Mexico Go to Canada if you like to freeze to death, you know, I mean it's like Like go anywhere. I mean, there's not that many people living as high on the hog as we are But at the end of the day it's easy for us to get infected with the love of money with the Pleasures of this world and just seek for that as opposed to being someone like a Vanges or Bannock who's saying you know what? I'd rather serve God and store up spiritual riches and He may even have this question of like what am I gonna eat tomorrow? But what does the Bible say in verse 34 take therefore no thought for the morrow? For the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the days the old there You know This verse is really important and and I think that especially for ladies. You need to embrace this verse with your life. I Feel like 90 plus percent of things that women worry about never even happened Like stop worrying about stuff in the future because most of the time it doesn't even happen It wasn't even a reality And you know, there are there are podcasts and TV shows that are dedicated to worrying about things that never happened and it's like we made a million predictions and ten of them were right and then we brag about how we were right about those ten and It's just like quit obsessing about all the problems that you could have. Why don't you worry about the problem you have right now? Want to worry about today? What are you gonna do today? Are you gonna make the right decisions now as opposed to well what's gonna happen five years from now? And this is what's important. Am I gonna do right right now regardless of what's gonna happen future? Hey, if someone's telling me that I got a bow down to the sodomite flag What am I gonna do? We can sit here and think well, how am I gonna if I if I don't Then what if I lose my job and what if I lose my business? What if I lose my house and what am I gonna eat and what am I gonna be clothed with? Well, you know what just do right today and don't worry about tomorrow yet Yeah, but I don't know I don't know I don't know what I'm supposed to do I mean stupid landlords It's like hey, there's a protest today and they're worried about what's gonna happen ten years from now. It's like worry about today Because you know if you just say hit the road jack and don't you come back tomorrow probably fine It's that you just keep worrying and obsessing about your money and your house and your building and whatever And it's just like then you end up making bad decisions People that have taken bold stands for God they might have been worried about the moment, but you know what God pulled them through anyways Shadrach Meshach and Abednego, they're probably thinking like how am I gonna eat if I'm burned alive? You know what in hindsight? Do you think that they regretted that decision taking the stand for God? Well, but you don't understand pastor Shelley if I go if I put more effort into going to church if I go Times a week and if I'm going out soul-winning and I'm doing these things I'm not gonna get ahead career-wise the way I think that I should Don't worry about tomorrow just Do right now right now Because you know you may not even have tomorrow. I Mean our country is on a bobsled to communist hell Yeah, I don't think you understand how bad it is. I don't think any of us understand how bad it truly is Our country is just getting so bad and I'm not a black-pilled person But I'm black-pilled on America Like I'm not black-pilled as a person, but let me tell you something. It's so bad and If you think that things are gonna get better in the future, you're only lying to yourself And if you're storing up riches in this world, I will not be surprised if we lose a lot of them tomorrow There is but you know, what can't be taken from you people you got saved today The spiritual treasures you get today cannot be stolen from you But let me tell you something. There is a lot of carnal things that are very likely and could be stolen from you in the future From inflation to taxes to just all kinds of insanity that's happening I mean, we've literally been stolen from so much and you don't even realize it I mean the money that we printed and just given to Ukraine and given to Israel We've they've literally stolen so much money from us The prices of goods have almost doubled in the last four or five years and so many categories Because they're just literally taking all of your hard-earned money and just stealing it from you And they're ripping you off and if you don't even own possessions you are just getting just destroyed economically and It's like why would I even want to continue worrying about that game When it's it's so close to just even being completely stolen from you Like why wouldn't you just worry about spiritual things like how bad does America have to get for someone to become spiritual? Someone that's already saved like it's it's baffling to me It's baffling to me It makes me think of Jeremiah and the children of Israel how it's just getting so bad and the Babylonians are Surrounding and they're just sitting here like we're gonna have peace, you know, Donald Trump's gonna save us all That's like saying the king of Egypt is gonna save us Like the same talking points you literally think the king of Egypt is gonna save you Look, you have the same hope as literally believing the king of Egypt. I don't even know who that is He's just as likely to rescue you folks The only hope for America is people turning back to God, but here's the problem They've already refused and stiffened their neck and they keep refusing. I Would like to think about how bad the government is Oh, the government is pro sodomites and stuff But I was in a trial of my peers and they voted against our church in this Bible Think about that that wasn't just you know, a random government official that's paid off or something This was just regular people who are just brainwashed and They're weak and they're cowards and they're made to just be destroyed. Basically They're just cannon fodder You should be investing in your spiritual future because your carnal future isn't even certain anyways and How ashamed and embarrassed are you gonna be when you just rack up all this money and then it's just gone tomorrow You know some countries have gone through like 5,000 percent inflation in a year because of how they've treated their money and everything and With the way the government's going the way the country's going. I Mean that stuff is not Far-fetched. I'm not saying it's gonna happen But if you experience the 5,000 percent inflation, we're all poor Overnight like it doesn't even matter how much money you have laid up I mean think about just a loaf of bread. What is it today? I don't know like five dollars What if we just jack that up five thousand percent? I Don't even know what the number is on that. It's like extreme. Let's see a hundred percent would be $10 and If you were gonna do by five, that would be $50, but we did it like ten times more I think so it'd be like five hundred dollars Someone could check my math. What if a loaf of bread was five hundred dollars tomorrow How many loaves of bread are you gonna buy? What would that do to steak? I? Mean we're gonna all have to eat Indian food. Okay, and I'm just kidding. I Mean, I'm not I'm just I'm not trying to be hyperbolic folks, but it's like it's so stupid to live for this world Only a fool that has no faith would live for the things of this world You know what? You should put your heart and your treasure in heaven not on the things of this earth and if this world Burning alive cannot convince you to serve God. I don't nothing will Maybe you need to lose some treasure. I This is what's sad is Joel Osteen's in every one of these Prosperity preachers constantly saying that God wants to bless you and give you more money There's some people that may need to have less money that May need less things If you're not if you don't want to serve God and you're afraid of losing something because of serving God You need to check your heart We need to be ready to kiss the things of this world Goodbye to have the right attitude and when the end times come it's gonna be so much harder if you can't kiss Goodbye the things right now. It's gonna be way more difficult in the future and You know god-willing we'd have a revival or god-willing some people get spiritual god-willing He'd be merciful to us, but I'm just telling you that like our country is is going this direction Like what? What do you think has stopped it at any point? The legislation has gotten worse lately The government officials have gotten worse more people are going to be put in prison more people are losing legislatively More people more countries and more companies are just doing more you think that we're gonna reap any benefits I mean, what have we been sewing that anybody else want to reap as a country? And we just brought in tons of illegals. What do you think? We're gonna reap from that We've literally just inflated our dollar so much and there's more wars. There's more Ukraine war They're talking about NATO troops going over there recently. The government said that we're gonna bomb Russia We're gonna use our military weapons Ukraine has authority to take our u.s Weapons and bomb Russia. Do you think that's good? You want to reap what that's sewing? I Mean, what are we sewing that you think are? Well, we're gonna vote hard in November If you think that we can just sew all the stuff we're sewing and then just so one vote in November and it's all gonna magically be fixed. You are a fool You might as well believe the earth's flat too, okay Because it's just you know The only way we could see a positive turn is we saw a lot of people like getting into a church like ours Or start reading the Bible again or more people going so anymore people, you know But it's it's sad because even God's own people are like no, I don't even want to do anymore No, I didn't want to go to church him. That's even worse Say I want to fix America. How do you want to fix America? Well, I bought more storeable food That's how is that fixing anything? Well, I'm gonna build myself a farm You're just living for yourself, you know what you're not gonna benefit anything from that Quit being quit being sucked into the lies of this world. There's only one way to fix anything It's always turning to God and if we don't turn to God how much less the world how much less are our Dying nation. That's just so corrupt It's so evil. There's always hope. I mean you read the book of Jeremiah you read Isaiah There's always hope but we have to first seek God We have to seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness If we want any kind of prosperity in this nation if we want any kind of blessing in this nation And if we won't do it, no one will Let us be the people that seek God first. Let's close in prayer. Thank Heavenly Father so much for giving us this passage I pray that we wouldn't be sucked into fake religion to fake spirituality And as dark times may approach I pray that we would seek to be more spiritual not less I pray that you'd motivate us to get our hearts not on the things of this earth, but rather on the things above I Pray that you would help us to not worry about if the world thinks we're a Christian But rather we would seek to please you in private and I pray that you would reward us openly I pray that you would deliver us from the temptation is the evil That are going to come on this world and come on this this country and on this nation I pray that you would just give us grace I pray that you would help us to be motivated to turn many people to righteousness And we just thank for all you give us in Jesus name we pray. Amen All right for our last song let's go to song number 45 when I can read my title clear song 45 When I can read my title clear When I can read my title clear When I can read my title clear When I can read my title clear Oh Oh Oh Thank you all for coming god bless you are dismissed