The Mask We Wear: Finding Authentic Faith in a Performative World

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:01] Good morning, Summit family. Matthew chapter six. If you have your Bible, Matthew chapter six.
[00:00:06] I'm smiling because we just got done, at least at our location, doing parent commissioning.
[00:00:11] And every single service we've done it, I walk up and I go to pray and one of the kids is like mean mugging me and another's like smiling at me. And so I'm like, I don't really know,
[00:00:19] what should I do here? But man, what an absolute gift. Matthew chapter six, we are finishing up this little three-week mini-series that we've been doing on renewal. This comes as we finished up Revelation. One of the last things Jesus says is, behold, I am making all things new. And as
[00:00:38] we've been pointing out to you, that's not some future verb tense promise of Jesus where he's like, one day I'll come make things new. No, that promise is right now, where you are right now,
[00:00:48] I am making some things new. And so we began with week one where Pastor Brian showed us how Jesus brings personal renewal to us.
[00:00:57] Last weekend, Pastor JD showed us how Jesus brings personal renewal through us to our city.
[00:01:03] And then this weekend from Matthew chapter six, what I wanna show you is how Jesus brings renewal in us, changing not just what we do, but the very motivations behind why we do it.
[00:01:17] And so Matthew chapter six, hopefully you've made your way there.
[00:01:19] Can we, at all of our locations, can we stand in honor of the reading of God's word.
[00:01:28] Matthew 6, we find ourselves in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.
[00:01:32] Jesus is preaching.
[00:01:33] This is what he says.
[00:01:34] Pick me up in verse one.
[00:01:36] He says, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.
[00:01:43] For then you'll have no reward from your father who is in heaven.
[00:01:47] Thus, when you give to the needy, Jesus says, sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may be praised by others.
[00:01:57] Truly I say to you, for they have received their reward.
[00:02:01] Instead, when you give to the needy, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you.
[00:02:11] And when you pray, Jesus says, you must not be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.
[00:02:21] Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.
[00:02:23] But instead, when you pray, go into your room, shut the door, and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, don't heap
[00:02:33] up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they'll be heard for their many words.
[00:02:37] Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Verse nine.
[00:02:43] Instead, pray then like this. Pray it with me. Say it with me if you know it.
[00:02:47] our father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven
[00:03:02] our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil i called a few trespasses in there you're waiting on for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and
[00:03:11] ever amen right that's how i memorized it verse 14 for if you forgive others their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive others their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses verse 16 and when you fast notice jesus keeps using that
[00:03:27] word when when when you pray when you give when you fast the inference here is he's saying like if you call yourself a follower of mine these are things that are expected of you these are good
[00:03:38] things but he's just showing us how we ruin the motivation behind them and so when you fast he says don't look gloomy like the hypocrites for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others truly I say to you they've received their reward but when you fast instead
[00:03:55] anoint your head wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you summit church this is the word
[00:04:05] of God for the people of God thanks be to God y'all can have a seat um quick show of hands How many of you have ever been to China?
[00:04:18] Anybody's ever been to China?
[00:04:19] It's a decent amount.
[00:04:20] All right, my man said, I wish.
[00:04:22] I know, it'd be fun to go.
[00:04:23] If you ever go to China, over in Hong Kong, just north of Hong Kong, there is a place called the Luohu Commercial City.
[00:04:31] It's more commonly known as the Luohu Commercial Market.
[00:04:34] And it's known as the commercial market because in the Luohu Commercial City, there is a five-story tall mall that is known for one very specific thing.
[00:04:44] It's known for counterfeit goods, counterfeit goods.
[00:04:47] And so people that travel to China, especially if they go to Hong Kong, it's like world renowned that if you go over there, you're probably gonna take a little detour up to the Luohu commercial market
[00:04:56] in order to go to this mall.
[00:04:58] And what's awesome is if you go in there, man, if you go in the deep recesses of the mall, you can pretty much find a counterfeit of anything you're looking for.
[00:05:04] And so if you go in and you want like a good looking watch, right, but you don't wanna pay a ton, you could probably go in and you could find like a Rolex for like 80 bucks, right?
[00:05:12] Like you can get like a Gucci bag for like 65.
[00:05:16] You can get like a Nike hoodie with Adidas on the arm and Reebok on the back because it came from the same like manufacturing facility, but didn't pass QC.
[00:05:24] You can get some like Air Jordan ones and from a distance they look all right, but you get closer and instead of Nike Air Jordan, it's like Mike Air Gordon.
[00:05:31] You're like, well, you know, it passes.
[00:05:33] And what's crazy is people go there knowing that these are counterfeits, right?
[00:05:37] And yet they still travel from all over.
[00:05:40] And so it begs the question, why do they do this?
[00:05:43] Well, people do this, you see, because they're concerned not with authenticity.
[00:05:49] They're solely concerned with appearance.
[00:05:53] And see, in Matthew chapter 6, this is exactly what Jesus is pressing in on.
[00:05:58] What he's going to show us is how that we, as his followers, can pursue all the right religious things, but that we can do it in a way that is not actually after authenticity with God,
[00:06:10] but rather it's just after appearance before others.
[00:06:14] And so just to give you some context, in Matthew chapter six, we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of what's called the Sermon on the Mount. If you're new to the Bible, if you're new to
[00:06:22] Christianity, this whole church thing, the Sermon on the Mount is found in Matthew chapter five through seven, and it is easily the most famous sermon that Jesus ever preached. What he's trying to portray is what the kingdom looks like lived out in real life. And so he opens up the Sermon
[00:06:38] on the Mount, Matthew chapter five, and he shows his followers what he wants them to be. He says, is you live out this thing called the Christian life.
[00:06:45] I want you to be salt and light in this dark world that needs you, okay?
[00:06:50] And then he goes on to give them some warnings about sin.
[00:06:53] And so in Matthew 5, he talks about anger and lust and adultery and lying.
[00:06:58] And what he's doing is he's dealing with these inner attitudes that end up leading toward outward actions.
[00:07:04] Wrong actions, he says, that stem from wrong hearts.
[00:07:08] Well, then we move to Matthew chapter six, which deals with the right actions, But what Jesus shows is how even those right actions can still come from wrong hearts.
[00:07:18] In other words, Jesus is gonna show us how even as his followers, we can have a type of wrong righteousness.
[00:07:28] So look back at verse one.
[00:07:29] This is why he opens up by saying, "'Beware of practicing your righteousness "'before other people in order to be seen by them.'" See, when you and I practice righteous acts from wrong motivations, when we do even good spiritual activities,
[00:07:47] if they come from a sinful heart, what Jesus calls that is a type of hypocrisy.
[00:07:53] And so I just wanna tell you, if you're a first-time guest here this weekend, if you're a non-believer and you have made your way into one of the locations of the Summit Church this morning,
[00:08:01] I wanna tell you, I am so glad that you are here.
[00:08:03] I hope you have felt welcomed.
[00:08:04] I hope the parking people treated you nice and smiled and waved and gave you the exact spot that you wanted.
[00:08:09] I hope you got your first-time guest bag, our little gift to you.
[00:08:12] I hope you've come in and felt welcomed.
[00:08:14] But all that to say, I need to just full cards on the table right now.
[00:08:18] This probably was not the best weekend for you to come.
[00:08:22] Because what's about to happen is I am actually about to confirm all the suspicions you've ever had about Christians and namely all the reasons that you dislike them.
[00:08:34] And the biggest reason of all is that to some degree, all Christians are hypocrites.
[00:08:40] Okay, in fact, I just kind of want to level the playing field right now and dispel of any of that.
[00:08:45] So audience participation, turn and look at the person next to you and say you are, come on, y'all can do a little better than that.
[00:08:51] Say you are a hypocrite.
[00:08:54] Okay, like we're on a level playing field.
[00:08:57] This is the whole, this is where I should say the ground is level at the foot of the cross.
[00:09:01] That's my role, right?
[00:09:02] And so I just need to dispel that any of us are better than any of the others.
[00:09:06] And so that's what I want to look at this morning from Matthew chapter six, hypocrisy.
[00:09:12] And I wanna take this in kind of three movements.
[00:09:14] First, I wanna look at the act of hypocrisy.
[00:09:16] Let's just define it.
[00:09:18] Then I wanna look at the cost of hypocrisy.
[00:09:20] Let's expose it for what it is and what it does in our lives.
[00:09:23] But then I wanna give you the cure for hypocrisy and show you how Jesus offers a way back to a whole life of integrity.
[00:09:30] All right, so we're gonna start with the act of hypocrisy.
[00:09:33] So I think it's, we need to start with the act because when you hear the word hypocrisy, we tend to think of somebody who says one thing, but does another, right?
[00:09:43] And honestly, that's usually what people are talking about when they talk about Christians being hypocrites.
[00:09:47] Y'all know exactly what I'm talking about, how Christians are supposed to be kind, right?
[00:09:51] But you've all been in the car line and you look over and you see somebody with that little blue Summit sticker on, and they initially wave to you, but then five minutes later, you pull into that car pull line and they cut you off
[00:10:02] and they honk and they yell at you from inside their protected little car, And they give you the little finger that's like the international sign of Christian love, right?
[00:10:08] And you're like, what a hypocrite.
[00:10:10] Like, what is this person doing?
[00:10:12] Or maybe you've been a server before and you just dread Sunday afternoons because you know Christians are supposed to be generous, right, but then you've been stiffed by a tip by a Christian on Sunday afternoon
[00:10:24] and all they left you was like a little Summit Church pin and then one of those awful little tracks that says pro tip, try Jesus.
[00:10:29] And you're like, are you kidding me?
[00:10:30] Like you're supposed to be kind and generous?
[00:10:33] Or maybe you work at Target and in comes Karen with her Summit Church shirt on, ready to unleash unholy fury over her $6 return.
[00:10:41] And you're like, Karen, I don't think Jesus died for this.
[00:10:44] Why is this that big of a deal?
[00:10:45] Not coming to church.
[00:10:48] And don't get me wrong, that's incredibly frustrating.
[00:10:50] And that really does give Christians a bad name, but that's actually not the exact type of hypocrisy Jesus is calling out.
[00:10:57] See, when Jesus uses the term hypocrite, he is talking about someone who is deliberately using spiritual things in order to be seen as more spiritual and godly than they actually are.
[00:11:11] And so he goes on to give us a few examples of these things, right?
[00:11:15] Look back at verse two.
[00:11:17] He says, thus, when you give to the needy, giving's a good thing.
[00:11:20] He says, but when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.
[00:11:31] Now just context, you need to know they didn't sound literal trumpets back then.
[00:11:35] However, when they would meet in the temple for their worship service before God, they had, just like we have today, they had a time of offering before God.
[00:11:42] And so what would happen is their offering boxes kind of were shaped like trumpets that were upturned.
[00:11:47] So it had this wide mouth and it would funnel down because when they would put their change in, it would help the change funnel down.
[00:11:52] And so what was happening is some of these hypocrites, when it was time for the offering, they would come over and they would pull out their change.
[00:11:57] And instead of just placing it in there, man, they would chuck it in there so it would make this loud rattle so everybody would just be so impressed by how much they were giving.
[00:12:05] And likewise, along comes Jesus, and he says, "'Hey, don't make noise with your generosity "'in order to be seen by others.'" Generosity is supposed to be about thanksgiving, not praise-getting.
[00:12:17] He says, you've taken this good thing and you've turned it into a wrong action.
[00:12:22] And then look at verse five.
[00:12:24] Not only giving, but he says, and when you pray.
[00:12:27] Praying's a good thing, right?
[00:12:29] But when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.
[00:12:32] For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.
[00:12:40] Likewise, if you were a Jew back in this day, you would pray no less than three times a day.
[00:12:45] You would pray at 9 a.m., at noon, and at 3 p.m.
[00:12:48] And at nine, 12, and three, wherever you were at that exact moment, when the clock would strike nine, 12, or three, you would stop and you would pray exactly where you were.
[00:12:56] And that was a good thing.
[00:12:58] However, there were some people using this as an opportunity for visibility.
[00:13:03] And so what would happen is, man, they would check their watch and they'd be like, oh, it's 11.45 or I'd have got 15 minutes.
[00:13:08] I need to get down to the city.
[00:13:09] I need to find a street corner where lots of people can see me, okay?
[00:13:12] And they would sit and stare.
[00:13:13] And then right when the clock would strike noon, they'd stand up and they would lift their hands and with a loud voice, they'd begin praying these long loquacious prayers, not in order to connect with God vertically,
[00:13:25] but in order to be praised and seen by others horizontally.
[00:13:29] And along comes Jesus and he says, hey, you weren't caught praying wherever you were.
[00:13:34] You planned to be here.
[00:13:36] And Jesus says, that's not prayer, that's performance.
[00:13:39] That's what hypocrites do.
[00:13:41] And so he talks about giving, he talks about praying.
[00:13:43] And then for good measure, he throws one more in here.
[00:13:45] Look at verse 16.
[00:13:47] He says, and likewise, when you fast, a good spiritual discipline, he says, don't look gloomy like the hypocrites for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.
[00:14:00] Same thing as the previous two.
[00:14:02] Fasting was a normal and respected and even expected part of the Jewish life.
[00:14:07] But there was actually only one command to fast in all the Bible.
[00:14:11] It was found in Leviticus 16 and it was called the Day of Atonement.
[00:14:14] And on the Day of Atonement, that was the only day in the entire calendar year that Jews were required to fast.
[00:14:20] However, with the Pharisees, these New Testament kind of religious elite hypocrites, what they've started doing is they've said, we're not just gonna fast one day a year, we're gonna impress everybody by fasting no less than twice a week.
[00:14:31] And so normally Jews chose to fast on Mondays and Thursdays because those were the busiest days down in the city market.
[00:14:38] So what they would do, they would wake up on fasting days and man, they wouldn't brush their hair, they wouldn't take a shower, they would just look all unkempt.
[00:14:45] Some of them would even rub ash on their face in order to look extra devout.
[00:14:50] They'd go into the city and then they would try to impress everybody with how devout they were in their fasting.
[00:14:56] And along comes Jesus and he says, hey, you're totally missing the point.
[00:15:01] Fasting is not about impressing horizontally, it's about connecting with your heavenly father vertically.
[00:15:08] And so he says to us today, when you fast, man, wake up, shave, brush your hair, tuck your shirt in, okay?
[00:15:15] Like go about your day with a smile because it's not supposed to be about impressing others.
[00:15:20] your hunger is supposed to drive you towards God.
[00:15:25] And so he gives us these examples.
[00:15:27] However, you know, one of my roles is to help you be a good student of the Bible.
[00:15:31] And we need to realize that this is all comes in the context of the Sermon on the Mount.
[00:15:35] Told you, Sermon on the Mount is Matthew five through seven.
[00:15:37] And so if we were to back up to Matthew chapter five, cause you gotta like put yourself in the audience of somebody hearing Jesus preach the Sermon on the Mount.
[00:15:46] You realize they didn't have like chapters and verses back then.
[00:15:49] and so it's not like jesus you know they show up for church one week and jesus is like week one matthew chapter five week two matthew chapter seven that's not what this is just one sermon
[00:15:58] that he's delivering and so what would have happened if we were one of the original listeners is matthew chapter five jesus would begin preaching and one of the things he would say in matthew chapter five he would say hey as one of my followers you should let your light shine
[00:16:13] before others in order that they might see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven and so you as a good listener right you'd write that down you put it in your little
[00:16:23] notebook you'd be like man that's good jesus let your light shine before others they may see your good works give glory to your father in heaven and then jesus would keep preaching and all of a sudden you don't know but matthew chapter 6 opens up and then jesus would say
[00:16:34] however beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them and so you'd write that down okay i need to be aware of practicing my righteousness but all of a sudden
[00:16:45] you'd look at your notes and you'd be like well and and if you're bold enough you'd raise your hands be like jesus am i supposed to let my light shine before others so that they can see my good
[00:16:55] works or am i supposed to be aware of practicing my good works in order to be seen by them because that seems kind of contradictory right and what jesus is putting before us is a wisdom principle
[00:17:07] what he's saying is it's not wrong to be seen praying or giving however it is wrong to pray or give in order to be seen see the key lies in that little phrase in order to be seen by them
[00:17:21] you see that the keys in the motive and so how we approach whether letting our light shine or be wearing of practicing our righteousness it's a wisdom principle i love the wisdom of 19th century
[00:17:33] scottish pastor a b bruce on this this is what he says he says we as followers of jesus we should show when tempted to hide and we should hide when tempted to show so taking these things together
[00:17:46] what he's saying what jesus is saying is when your flesh wants to shrink back and stay silent out of fear or cowardice that's probably when you should show if that's you if you have trouble
[00:17:59] living out the christian life for fear of what others are going to think about you as a follower of jesus to you jesus says you need to let your light shine before others so that they might see
[00:18:07] your good works and give glory to your father who's in heaven however on the flip side when your pride wants to step into the spotlight out of vanity in order to be noticed that's probably
[00:18:20] when you should hide to that person jesus says you need to be aware of practicing your righteousness in order to be seen by others see what jesus is trying to show us is that it's not simply about
[00:18:33] what we do or don't do it's the motive behind why we do it or don't do it what jesus is trying to get us to understand is that the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart the hypocrite
[00:18:48] is the person who uses right good holy spiritual acts for the wrong personal sinful reasons and see when jesus uses the word hypocrite that's a word that was actually really familiar in his time although again he used it differently than we use it today because in Jesus's
[00:19:07] day the word hypocrite literally meant actor it meant like a stage player it was the word who Pocartes it's obviously where we get the word hypocrite it referred to somebody who performed on a stage behind a mask in fact it would
[00:19:20] have looked something like this because spoiler alert Jesus back in his day man when they were making movies they didn't have CGI they didn't have AI they didn't have green screens right they didn't have any special effects any of that
[00:19:31] They didn't have makeup.
[00:19:32] And so what they would do is when they would go to a play for entertainment, which they had in his time, one of the actors on the stage, if you were acting, like if you were a good guy
[00:19:41] in the play, right, you'd wear the good guy mask.
[00:19:43] You'd wear the good guy mask.
[00:19:44] If you were a bad guy, you'd wear the terrifying bad guy mask.
[00:19:48] In fact, tell me which of our kids was a turd this morning and I will wake them up in the middle of the night with this mask on and teach them a lesson, okay?
[00:19:53] It's just good parenting, free tip for you guys.
[00:19:56] And so when Jesus was using the word hypocrite, This is what they would have understood.
[00:20:02] This is the image that everybody would have had in their mind.
[00:20:05] They would have had the image of somebody who gets up, stands on a stage, puts on a mask, a mask that is in no way indicative of the actual person behind the mask, because they were just standing on a stage,
[00:20:19] delivering a play in order for the applause and the approval of others.
[00:20:24] That's the image Jesus wants us to have when he's using the word hypocrite.
[00:20:28] He wants us to understand that hypocrisy is all an act.
[00:20:33] And so the application here, what Jesus is saying to us in essence is, hey, you hypocrites are the ones who have learned to take the Christian mask, to step on to the stage of religiosity
[00:20:47] in order to put on a display for everybody else.
[00:20:51] It's a performance.
[00:20:52] And so he says, you've learned to take the Christian mask and you put it on when it's really convenient for you, and then you take it off when it's inconvenient for you.
[00:21:00] And he's so upset because he's like, you've taken these good spiritual things that I've given you in order to grow in godliness and to know God more, and instead of using them in that way,
[00:21:08] you've become a performer who has stepped onto a stage to play a part that is in no way indicative of who you actually are behind that fake Christian mask.
[00:21:18] And so what this looks like is like this morning, regardless of how you've been living the other six days of the week, You're like, well, honey, it's Sunday morning.
[00:21:28] Let's grab our Christian masks.
[00:21:30] Let's head on to church, right?
[00:21:32] And you show up in the lobby and Bill's like, how are you, brother?
[00:21:35] And you're like, blessed and highly favored, Bill.
[00:21:36] Thanks so much for asking, even though my kids are acting crazy and I've been an angry, bitter, terrible person to my wife the entire week and we're not doing great in our finances and we haven't been here in forever.
[00:21:45] And man, things could not be worse, but I'm just here putting on the smile because it's Sunday, I'm gonna put on that Christian mask.
[00:21:51] And then the second you get out of here, you take off the mask, you get in your car, you go sit in traffic, super frustrated about traffic, by the way, and you go do that,
[00:21:58] and you just fall back into this angry, bitter person that you are the other six days a week until next Sunday when you come put the mask back on.
[00:22:06] And maybe for some of you students, Wednesday morning, FCA, right?
[00:22:11] Well, let me grab my Christian mask.
[00:22:12] Gotta head to FCA because I'm the Christian athlete.
[00:22:15] But then Friday night in the locker room, cutting up with your boys, man, that Christian mask is nowhere to be found because that mask on Wednesday morning is in no way indicative of who you are actually are.
[00:22:28] For some of you on social media, you put on that Christian mask so everybody thinks you're a good Christian.
[00:22:33] You're posting the verses.
[00:22:34] You'll probably take a picture today and service would be like, so good, right?
[00:22:38] But then when you're alone in your bedroom tonight, the way you use your phone and use social media is in no way indicative of being a follower of Christ.
[00:22:48] Bible study night, let me grab the mask, put it on.
[00:22:52] Girls' wine night, take that sucker right back off, right?
[00:22:55] See, hypocrisy makes faith something you wear instead of something you live.
[00:23:03] It's a type of costume Christianity.
[00:23:06] Y'all, it's when we use money and prayer and fasting and church attendance and cross necklaces and Bible verse tattoos and whatever in order to try and make people think that we are more spiritual and godly and holy than we actually are.
[00:23:23] It's when you're so quick to post the photo of the mission trip you went on, but you have never once invited your neighbor to church.
[00:23:32] It's quoting scripture in your bio on social media, but then on the side, you're sliding into DMs.
[00:23:39] It's being kind to people who can help you advance, but then just being cold and dismissive toward those who can't do anything for you.
[00:23:47] It's every single morning when you open up your Bible to have quiet time, you get the right camera lighting and the right angle and you take a picture of your Bible, praise god and then the second that thing posts you close your bible slide it out of the way and
[00:23:58] just keep scrolling it's being the fun dad in public but then at home you're just harsh and short and emotionally absent it's treating your co-workers awesome all day at work and then getting home and treating your spouse like they're an interruption or an inconvenience in your life
[00:24:21] hypocrisy is not simply in what we do it's why we do it it's when faith becomes a performance before others instead of a pursuit before our god in heaven who sees in secret anytime there
[00:24:37] is a desire to be seen by others or to be praised for something you're pretending to be or to make people think you are holier than you actually are that mask goes right back on and listen i've
[00:24:49] I've always tried to be real with y'all.
[00:24:51] I'm not up here throwing stones at all.
[00:24:53] And so if you're like, here's that judgmental Southern Baptist preacher, like, that's not me, I promise.
[00:24:56] I know this better than anybody.
[00:24:59] For 21 years, this was my life.
[00:25:01] I'd be high and hammered, yet trying to be holy at the same time.
[00:25:05] So you're drunk as can be at 3 a.m., you drop a GD, I'd be like, don't say that, because I'm a Christian, that's super offensive.
[00:25:10] Like, don't like, I know what it's like to live this type of hypocrisy.
[00:25:15] And man, I wish I could tell you that that stops the moment that Curtis got saved.
[00:25:20] I wish I could tell you that post-Jesus, Curtis didn't struggle with hypocrisy, but not only does post-Jesus Curtis struggle with it, Pastor Curtis struggles with it, okay?
[00:25:27] Like, let me just take the list.
[00:25:29] I was telling my wife earlier, like, this is easily the most convicting message I have ever put together.
[00:25:35] Like, I just need to lay my soul bare before y'all, almost in repentance.
[00:25:39] Like, if we just take Jesus' list, if I'm being honest, my, I feel, my giving makes me feel really good about myself.
[00:25:47] It just does.
[00:25:48] So sometimes it's not even performance for others.
[00:25:50] It's just performance for me.
[00:25:52] It's not out of thanksgiving before God always.
[00:25:54] It's, man, I just wanna feel good about the amount that I'm giving.
[00:25:58] And I mean, even like even telling you guys that, there's part of me that wonders, like, am I just telling you that because I want you to be like, I bet Pastor Curtis gives something.
[00:26:04] Like, see how jacked up this is?
[00:26:07] Or even when it comes to praying, it's easily the most convicting one.
[00:26:11] I understand, there's a level at which, as a pastor, I am held above reproach.
[00:26:16] I'm supposed to model for you what a good Christian life should look like lived out, right?
[00:26:20] Like I understand that, that's my responsibility.
[00:26:22] But as I've been thinking about this week, one of the things that I've realized is that the way that I pray on stage with a microphone in my hand is pretty different than the way I pray
[00:26:35] with my wife at home.
[00:26:40] When it comes to fasting, just cards on the table, fasting is by far my least favorite spiritual discipline.
[00:26:48] Your boy likes to eat, okay?
[00:26:50] And so I still partake in it, especially when we do things as a church, but what I realize is my fasting is always centered around some initiative or some prayer request or something that I need God to do for me. And then guess what? The days that I'm fasting,
[00:27:03] you're going to know about it, okay? Because I need you to think about how holy I am. So I come into work, I'm like, yeah, man, it's good morning with the Lord, but I just, gosh, it's lunchtime.
[00:27:12] Sorry, I can't do that lunch meeting. I'm fasting. And what I think is that you're like, dang, that's so impressive. And I'm like, it is, isn't it? And I'm like, God, aren't you impressed?
[00:27:22] like the things, God, you realize the sacrifices that I'm making for you, God, everything I've given up for you.
[00:27:28] And I think he's in heaven looking at me being impressed.
[00:27:31] And you realize how ridiculous that is?
[00:27:34] Like Jesus is not impressed in any way, shape or form with any of our religiosity.
[00:27:39] And newsflash, neither is anybody else, okay?
[00:27:42] So what happens is you come into small group and you're bragging about all the awesome things.
[00:27:47] Like you're sidebarring with people.
[00:27:48] You're like, hey man, don't tell anybody, but you should, man, there was this couple in need this weekend, we gave, but don't tell anybody, right?
[00:27:56] I just keep that between us.
[00:27:57] I'm just trying to, you know, be transparent, right?
[00:28:00] And so you come in and you're talking about these good things that you did and everybody's like, oh, that's awesome, man.
[00:28:05] You know what's happening when you leave small group?
[00:28:07] Everybody goes and gets in their cars and rolls their eyes and talks about you, which is also a form of hypocrisy, which just means we're all jacked up and we need Jesus, amen?
[00:28:17] Like the reason Jesus is so irritated by us taking these good spiritual disciplines, giving, prayer, fasting, worship, evangelism, all these things and using them the wrong way is because he understands what we're missing out on.
[00:28:32] It's not because we shouldn't do them.
[00:28:34] When you pray, when you give, when you fast.
[00:28:36] Like y'all, as a church, we literally have nights called nights of prayer and worship, not nights of hypocrisy, right?
[00:28:45] To the point that we believe in these so much, we're gonna start doing them once a quarter.
[00:28:49] Our first one's next month.
[00:28:50] once a quarter, we're gonna come together as the people of God for nights of prayer.
[00:28:54] And what I don't want you doing is coming in on the night of prayer and being like, am I doing this right?
[00:28:58] Am I praying right?
[00:28:59] Is God okay with this?
[00:29:00] Am I just doing this for others?
[00:29:01] Like, no, I want you to come in and connect with God and have an unhurried time with him.
[00:29:05] And Jesus is so upset for us misusing these things because he understands it's a matter of the heart that's got us in that posture.
[00:29:13] But then he also understands that when we misuse them, there's some rewards and some good blessings we miss out on as the people of god see hypocrisy is living your spiritual life like you're on a
[00:29:25] stage you step on to this religious stage you put on the mask you play a part and you perform for an audience instead of worship before a king and so the heart shift that jesus is calling for
[00:29:41] is for you and me to stop acting spiritual to take off the mask to step off the stage because if we don't he knows it's going to cost us some things it's going to cost us some things
[00:29:56] so you and i need to expose hypocrisy for what it is and what it does because at its core hypocrisy is a thief there's a cost to it it robs you and see the first thing it robs you of is authenticity
[00:30:11] the first thing hypocrisy robs you of is authenticity this is what we've been looking at. The hypocrite lives on substitutes. It lives on a counterfeit Christianity. You trade it for the real thing. You trade genuine faith for something that just looks real from the outside.
[00:30:27] And so you stop living out of, from a place of authenticity and you start performing for approval. And when you do that, a couple things end up happening. Number one, your reputation becomes more important to you than your actual godly character. Your spiritual life turns into
[00:30:44] of theater before others. And so everything you do and everything you say for you in the Christian life becomes about image management rather than building godly character. And see, just super practically, if I'm more concerned about my reputation before you, if I'm just pandering
[00:31:03] to image management rather than godly character building in my life, there's some things in the Christian life I'm just not going to partake in. There's some things I'm not going to do.
[00:31:11] like if you think like if I'm concerned about what you think you know what I'm not gonna do I'm not gonna confess sin I'm not gonna do it because I'm confessing to you something that I struggle with that might make you think
[00:31:26] less of me or I might confess in but in a way that's sanitized enough to make you think better of me for confessing sin you get the point I'm not gonna tell you things I struggle with because I'm supposed to be pastor I'm supposed to
[00:31:38] have it all together I need your approval and so I'm not gonna tell you things i struggle with because i want you to think less of me or maybe it's not even about me maybe
[00:31:46] it's about my brother or sister in christ maybe they're the ones who have gone wayward and act in a certain way and my call as a brother in the faith is actually to call them to repentance
[00:31:56] and to bring them back in line with the word of god however if i care more about my image management and my reputation than your character or even my character then i'll tell you i'm not
[00:32:06] going to approach you on that thing because i'm more concerned about what you think or breaking the relationship or fear of man rather than i am actually calling you into alignment of god's word you get robbed of the authentic christian life because you become more concerned about your
[00:32:21] reputation than you are with your character and so you end up using these good things as props in your religious performance you end up giving which is a good thing but you end up giving not
[00:32:35] out of love or devotion to god but you give in order to look generous before others jesus says Or even worse, some of you think that your giving is actually earning you favor with God who is in heaven,
[00:32:46] the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
[00:32:48] And you think your measly little paycheck is earning you favor with the God of the universe and making you spiritual.
[00:32:53] And what God is saying to you is actually, for some of you, your checkbook is what's making you unspiritual.
[00:32:59] It's what God says.
[00:32:59] And back in Hosea 6, Psalm 51, he says, I want your heart, not your sacrifices.
[00:33:06] It's when we use props like prayer.
[00:33:08] We step onto the stage.
[00:33:10] we put on the mask and when it comes time to pray y'all you know all the right words you can quote all the right verses you know like when somebody else is praying in a circle you know exactly when
[00:33:20] to do those like holy hums to sound spiritual you're like yeah that's good uh yeah and you're thinking like everybody must be so impressed that i know exactly what i'm doing and god in heaven is
[00:33:28] in no way impressed with you he's like i just want relationship with you but your prayers have become empty vain repetition and so he says it might look holy to everybody else but the words just
[00:33:40] ring hollow to the heart of God. This is what hypocrisy is. You trade the true experience of godliness for this false appearance of holiness. It substitutes performance for authentic presence with our heavenly father. So it robs us of authenticity. Secondly, it robs us of integrity.
[00:34:03] It robs us of integrity. If you've never thought about this, integrity literally comes from the root word, integer. Integer means whole. It means one. What he's getting at is that, see, a person with integrity can live as one whole consistent person before God and before others. They're the
[00:34:23] same person at church. They're the same person at home. They're the same person at work. They're the same person with their friends. They're the same person on the golf course. They don't live a divided life. There's not like a public version of them and then a private version of them.
[00:34:36] however what hypocrisy does it comes along and it robs us of that integrity it splits us in two it's what the New Testament author James would talk about the person who is double-minded and he says the double-minded man becomes
[00:34:50] unstable in all his ways and so somebody who doesn't have integrity what happens is they're one person at church they're one person in small group they're one person at home they're one person in their friendships and their
[00:34:59] relationships they're another person online because they are not a person of integrity. And if that's you, you know how utterly exhausting that can be to try to keep keeping up this facade. I know how exhausting that can be. I mean, the six months before I actually surrendered
[00:35:17] my life to Jesus, I had never been in church more than I had in my life before, never been in the Bible, yet I'll still live in this other life. And so I'd go to church and try to have this church
[00:35:25] version of Curtis and go to Bible study, try to have this Bible study version. Then I'd step back into the party scene. I'd have this party version of Curtis. Then I'd go online. I'd have this online
[00:35:32] version of curtis i'd go to work i'd have a work version of curtis and it was absolutely exhausting some of you know what i'm talking about because you're so tired from acting and performing like
[00:35:44] a christian in public while secretly you are drifting from god in private and it is wearing you out listen the mark of a hypocrite is when you are a christian everywhere except for at home
[00:36:00] Who you are in private, who you are when you are just alone and you're in the secret place, it's just you and God, that's who you really are.
[00:36:12] I don't care who you pretend to be in public, that will never blind God to who you are in private.
[00:36:21] Don't let hypocrisy rob you of the wholeness of a life of integrity, of being one consistent person before God and before others.
[00:36:30] So it robs us of authenticity, it robs us of integrity, lastly it robs us of reward and there's actual rewards in this christian life and it robs us of those notice jesus says over and over again verse 2 verse 5 verse 16 he says truly i say to you they
[00:36:48] the hypocrites they've already received their reward now first reading if i'm being honest even as i was preparing for this i was like wait i thought hypocrisy was a bad thing so why would they get rewards and what jesus is saying is hey you're gonna get rewards if you want to live for
[00:37:02] the applause and the approval of others, he says, that's your reward. But he says, when that applause stops, so does your reward. However, he says, if you want to live for the approval of one,
[00:37:13] if you want to live for God, that's an approval that's going to last forever. And I don't know about you, but I don't want to live a life that gets approval from all of you as much as I'd so
[00:37:22] need it. But then I get to heaven one day and God says, I have nothing to say to you. I have nothing to give you because you already received your reward. And I tell you that because again, this
[00:37:30] is so hard for me. I'm like a recovering, like words of affirmation needing from others, a holic, whatever that is. I want you to like me. I want you to think good of me. I want you to think
[00:37:42] I'm holy and good and funny and put together and all that. Like I want that from you, but I recognize what Jesus is saying is Curtis, you can have that. You can have it in this life if that's
[00:37:51] what you really want. But when you get to heaven, you don't get anything else because you already received your reward. Y'all, I want to get to the point that even if nobody praises me this side of
[00:38:00] heaven, that when I get to heaven, God says, well done, good and faithful servant. Church father, John Christensen said it this way. This quote's been messing me up for last week or so. He said,
[00:38:11] if you knew how quickly people would forget about you after death, you would not seek in your life to please anyone but God. That's not being pessimistic or a downer or morbid. That's reality.
[00:38:27] I want to live from a place like Galatians 1 that says, for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? For if I was still trying to please man, I would not actually
[00:38:36] be a follower of Christ. I want to truly believe in the deepest recesses of my soul, that the approval of people will always fade and that when it does, my reward is over. But I want to believe
[00:38:47] that the approval of God and that reward lasts forever. And when you come to understand that, that's where real renewal begins. See, the good news is that Jesus doesn't just expose hypocrisy.
[00:39:00] He offers us a way back to this life of integrity, this life of wholeness.
[00:39:04] So he gives us the cure.
[00:39:07] See church, the cure for hypocrisy is not about trying harder.
[00:39:12] It's not about doing more spiritual things.
[00:39:15] It's not about adding good looking things to your spiritual resume.
[00:39:20] It's not about performance at all.
[00:39:23] It's about your audience.
[00:39:27] It's about learning to live even the Christian life solely to an audience of one.
[00:39:33] Notice how Jesus keeps using that phrase over and over, your father who sees in secret, your heavenly father who sees in secret.
[00:39:41] That's not a command, that's an invitation.
[00:39:45] The cure for hypocrisy doesn't begin with your public life, doing more things for God or stopping doing certain things.
[00:39:53] Begins in the private life, begins in the prayer closet.
[00:39:58] It begins in the secret place.
[00:40:00] It begins in the place that only God sees who you are in private when it is just you and God, that's who you really are.
[00:40:09] So that's why Jesus says things like when you pray, when you give, when you fast, go into your room, go into the closet, go to that place that nobody else sees, go into that place that only you and the Father are.
[00:40:21] In fact, that's exactly, if you've never thought about it, that's exactly why he drops the Lord's prayer right in the middle of this.
[00:40:26] I think one of the things we as preachers sometimes do a disservice to you in the Sermon on the Mount is we wanna preach one sermon about hypocrisy and then we want to step over and preach one sermon on the Lord's Prayer. And what we've done
[00:40:35] is we've taken the Lord's Prayer out of its context. See, y'all realize the Lord's Prayer was never something that we were supposed to memorize and recite back to God 2,000 years later and God be like, God, you're so smart. It wasn't the point. The Lord's Prayer was Jesus saying,
[00:40:51] hey, go into the secret place. I want to show you what prayer from a real relational heart looks like not a rehearsed one and so he says pray like this our father who's in heaven hallowed be your
[00:41:03] name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven he's giving us a framework he's giving us a model for how to pray from a real heart so when i pray our father who is in heaven
[00:41:14] what that should make me think of is how god saved me plucked me up from the depths of hell brought me into his family not just uh spiritually but relationally he brought me into the family of
[00:41:25] of god so i should say thank you god for saving me thank you god for giving me brothers and sisters in christ regardless of how my earthly family treated me your kingdom come your will be done
[00:41:33] on earth as it is in heaven should make me say god i want to build not the kingdom of curtis i want to build the kingdom of god i want to be used greatly for you and so god knock me off my
[00:41:42] pedestal would i decrease that you might increase so i can build your kingdom god show me today how to build your kingdom that's how we're supposed to pray that's what giving and praying and fasting in
[00:41:53] the secret place does it realigns our motives and it renews our hearts where we learn to stop using spiritual things in order to be seen by others we take off the mask we step off the stage of
[00:42:05] performance and we step back into the relationship that we were actually created for with our heavenly father the cure for hypocrisy is not found in doing more religious things it's found and returning to the relationship with God
[00:42:20] you were always meant to be in.
[00:42:23] Jesus isn't shaming you for wanting to do good things.
[00:42:27] He just wants to expose why we do them because he's saying, I don't just want your behavior, I want your heart.
[00:42:35] Because Jesus knows that if we surrender our lives and we give him our heart, that our behavior actually change.
[00:42:44] It's not I do good spiritual things in order to be loved and approved of and accepted by God.
[00:42:48] No, it's I've been loved of and approved and accepted because of Jesus Christ on the cross.
[00:42:52] Therefore, now I want to go do these good spiritual things.
[00:42:56] And so that's exactly where some of you are.
[00:43:00] If I were to ask you, you know all the right answers, you know all the right verses, you pray, you give, you serve, but somewhere along the way, you have traded your relationship with God
[00:43:08] and you've replaced it by a performance for other people and it is exhausting.
[00:43:16] And so the invitation for you today, if that's you, is to take off this mask, step off the stage, about performing for others.
[00:43:27] Return to the relationship with your heavenly father that you were created for.
[00:43:32] You know what?
[00:43:32] That's done through repentance.
[00:43:35] Even with your mixed motives, bring your mixed motives.
[00:43:38] Say, God, change my wanter.
[00:43:40] I don't want to want this, yet I do want this.
[00:43:45] So God changed it in me.
[00:43:47] Come before him and let grace change and renew what performance never could.
[00:43:57] But see, for others of you, it's not about taking off the mask from a life of hypocrisy.
[00:44:02] It's about finding hope for the very first time in the sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf.
[00:44:12] What I want you to hear from me is that Jesus didn't come to make bad people become good or irreligious people religious.
[00:44:20] He came to make dead people come alive.
[00:44:23] He's not waiting on you to clean up your life.
[00:44:27] Jesus didn't die for some future, better, cleaner version of you that does better things.
[00:44:32] I don't care what you've done.
[00:44:35] He died for you right now.
[00:44:36] and when you accept him, when you lay down your life and pick up his, he comes into your heart in the form of the Holy Spirit and he begins to renew your life.
[00:44:47] It's the beauty of the gospel.
[00:44:51] And so whether you today need to take off the mask or whether you need to receive Jesus as your Lord and savior for the very first time, the call is the exact same.
[00:45:00] Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and heavy laden and tired of performing, just come to me.
[00:45:09] And he says, I will give you rest.
[00:45:14] And so Father, I thank you for the rest that we find in Christ.
[00:45:17] I thank you that it's a rest that we cannot perform for.
[00:45:23] It's a rest that was paid for on the cross at Calvary.
[00:45:28] God, I pray that we would be people who take off the mask, that we learn to live for the approval of one, that the Holy Spirit would come and direct us.
[00:45:39] God, we pray, we ask in Jesus' name and all God's people said.