Author: ECotN

So throughout human history, the desire for fame, authority and influence has been there. Perhaps not starting with Adam and Eve. But well the next generation Cain and Abel Keynes slew his brother Abel, Cain wined the god, that everyone would be after him the implication that everybody would know what Cain had done. That is fame, although it’s probably more along the lines of infamy. But when we use the words fame, authority and influence, generally, we have a more positive, slightly tone, but we need to really think about the negative aspects of it too. Because well, frankly, there are for far too many people out there, both now and in history, and probably very much so in the future, that don’t care what kind of fame it is, as long as it’s fame. The old adage, any press, good or bad, is good. Now pastor Joanie and her prior career in public relations would definitely not agree with that statement. But in the day of social media, especially we see it, it’s Hey, everybody knows who I am, I may be not the most positive person on the face of the planet, but they all know who I am. And we honestly have to acknowledge that, frankly, about was it first Tuesday of November? There are a lot of people that tick that little box and shove it in the ballot box. Because they recognize a name. Not because they actually paid attention to who what kind of person they are, and what even what issues they stand for or against. Now, as some of you all have, everyone’s at least heard of Facebook at this point, I hope. You may not be on Facebook, but even at least heard of it and the term social media. And they’re just weird group within the social media circle that’s called the social media influencers. And I bring them up because they are perhaps not for you. But for those around you, especially those younger. These influencers are very much a part of their life. And most of them walk this weird line between being genuine and being authentic. That’s honestly what makes a good influencer is the presentation and the audience’s belief that they’re being authentic and genuine. At the same time, you have to sell yourself there’s got to be that one thing so you can get a catch. It’s just weird blend. But the reality is is what we know today, in certain circles, all they talk about a social media influencers, but it really is nothing new. Now, when I was young, there was this time in the evening. Probably when I should have been asleep. Where there was on the Nickelodeon channel, there was Nick Knight. Now Nick Knight, now, let’s just say I became very familiar with 50s era and 60s eras television shows. And I loved them. Okay. I like some of them. Some of them are still a little but you know, you’re watching them and and you get the normal commercials. Like okay, yeah, commercials. And then as I got older actually saw the unedited or I should say the original broadcast version of some of those shows. And I want to say Oh, I think it was was it, Donna? Thank you, Donna Reed. Donna Reed. I think it was Donna Reed, but it could have been one of the other ones. You know, talking about the kids talking about the kids than doing laundry and then she breaks the fourth wall goes now for getting your clothes really clean. You use this product. I can’t remember if it was, I don’t know. It was some laundry detergent. So this this television show that influences influenced moms and dads for what their family was supposed to look like. this person, this model, Mom broke the fourth wall and said, You need to use this to do the best cleaning and be the best mom. That was, yes, it’s a commercial. But it’s an influencer because she used the influence of her position to influence you to buy that product. And I mean, I got to admit, it’s not automatically bad. I mean, theoretically, maybe I might be an influencer, at least for you. Well, that assumes one you haven’t fallen asleep during the sermon. Which I know is can be a drying, trying trying at times I get that. No, but pastor Joni and I are, our job is to preach the scriptures. Our job is to influence you to be more like Christ. We are influencers in you know whether we’re really good influencers. Okay, that’s really, thank God, literally, that is way above my paygrade. And sometimes, influencers means we plant a seed. And that seed may not grow for hours, days, weeks, months, years. But we all know whether good or bad, there’s always that one person, or multiple people that crave fame, authority influence, they desire, they want people to look up to them. They want to be on a pedestal. Many may not actually care if you are truly influenced by them. But they want you to pay attention to them, or at least know who they are. Because that way they’re famous. Some of them not even seeking your change, whether good or bad, because honestly they don’t care. They just want to be known. And the reality is we all want to be known. There is a human need to be known to be seen, to be valued. We cannot deny it, nor should we and it’s not a bad thing. I mean, if you look at the entirety of Scripture, it’s God wanting his creation, to know him. But when we are aware of the need to be known and seen and valued we are we ought to realize that there’s a healthy way for that to happen. And then there’s unhealthy ways. And the unhealthy ways are pretty much the brokenness of humanity and Jesus has the healthy way and likes to eliminate our healing. So please stand for the reading of God’s Word.

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of people in order to be noticed by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. And whenever you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corner so that they may be seen by people. I tell all of you with certainty. They have their full reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is hidden, and your Father who sees from the hidden place will reward you. When you’re praying. Don’t say meaningless things like the Gentiles do because they think they will be heard by being so worried. Don’t be like them because your Father knows what you need before you ask him therefore, this is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven May your name be kept holy. May Your kingdom come your will be done on earth, as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. And never bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Because if you forgive people, their offenses and their the your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive people, their offenses Your Father will not forgive your offenses. Whenever you fast Don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites because they put on sad faces to show others they are fasting. I tell all of you with certainty they have received their full reward. But when you fast put oil on your head and wash your face so that you’re fasting will not be noticed by others. But by your phone Father who is in hidden place, and your father who watches from the hidden place, reward you the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. You may remember this verse from a couple weeks ago. You are the light of the world, a city located on a hill cannot be hidden. Yet, here we are. Shortly after that with Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of people in order to be noticed by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. God wants a heart overflowing with righteousness, not us dressed up in righteousness. I’m not sure if it’s luck of the draw, or the God is working on me in particular, because honestly, when you write a sermon, you work on a sermon, God works on you. Yeah, here we are talking about nature versus appearance. Again, I seem to have gotten this one a couple of times in the last few weeks. It’s all well and good to have the appearance of righteousness. But it is of no value without a heart of righteousness. Why does one perform acts of righteousness to be seen or because it naturally flows from your heart. I love how this verse challenges the churches general, including ours. Earliest earlier this week, there was actually a pastor discussion about this sign. So you know, free every Wednesday, dinner, six to seven haircuts five to seven. My initial thought on this picture was awesome. These are great ideas. No, I’m not expecting us to start giving away how to haircuts. Now, unless you know, somebody wants me to bring the little razor thing, and you can just have a shaved head, because that’s pretty much the the, that’s about as short as I’m gonna be the best kind of sharing I’m going to do. But I think it’s great because, honestly, a lot of people, people who would often take advantage of this are those that need a haircut, before a job interview. Or honestly need a haircut to feel human again. I think some of the families who come to our church to get bread, they have a few kids. They might even be able to use a haircut, five haircuts 100 bucks or more. Well, the pastor who shared this picture was pondering whether this was a bait and switch to get people into Sunday service. Others looked at those two offerings, a haircut and a meal. And we’re happy that needs were being met. There was a lot more to the to the discussion, but I have to admit, I chewed on it a couple of days. And I realized this as I was going home. Here’s our little sign that says free baked goods Thursdays nine to noon, free community meal, Fridays at 530. Is this showing our righteousness before others? And this isn’t a small question for me. I remember a number of years ago, there was a church that went to the homeless community in their city, the name of their mission was on the sidewalls of their truck could not be missed. Plus the logo of their church where they showing their righteousness. We can evaluate or judge the church who Sinai showed first for that is pretty much all we know about the church. And I haven’t insured anything else because I don’t know anything else about the church either. So we really actually can’t make a valid decision about that church. We can only pray that free haircuts and a dinner are offered freely and without any obligation. We can pray that through the acts of a haircut and dinner, relationships are formed. Just as we pray for that in our community meal and praying that just by coming up and picking up bread and baked goods. We then we can pray that those relationships become a place of healing and reconciliation, then we can pray that their hearts will be moved to begin a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. But our righteousness is to be for God’s glory, not ours. So if that being the case, what am I going to do about our announcements? Ain’t nothing will change it as needed. But the reality is our Church no longer has the presence in the community that it once did. And the church in general does not have a presence in community as it once did. So what we do for others, even when we share it on social media doesn’t have the weight the other churches do and other organizations do. We want people to know about it. Those who serve the community meal. And those that serve for the bread ministry first, thank you. And I do mean that from the very depths of my heart. Second, I think I have a pretty good pulse on your hearts. You’re not doing this because you want fame in the community, or even praise from others. But the truth is, we’re not Jesus, we can only evaluate signs and offerings like ours, or other churches, when we are in relationship with them. I wonder how many people that first came first time that came to the community meal, or came to pick up bread, expected that we were about to pull them into our worship service. I wonder how many were dreading that someone was going to thump the Bible on their head. I wonder how many worried about how people would judge or condemn them because they have how they were dressed, how they were bathed, were not bathed. Whether it was because they partook in the meal or picked up bread. And there’s really nothing we can do about their fears or concerns. We can only treat them with courtesy and respect and pray one day, that we might be in a place to invite them to join our worshiping community and our relationship with Jesus Christ. We have to earn trust and respect. They must believe that they are known and loved to get to speak about Jesus.

In the discussion regarding that church sign I said the following, I am deeply concerned about the perception of bait and switch. On the other hand, I don’t think we ever hide the fact that we want people to belong to our community. Duh. The statistics for our community meal and bread giveaways are abysmal regarding church growth. I’m okay with that. I know I must be okay with it for the love to be poured out. So that we might at some point, have the opportunity to worship together with them. That, you know, I’ll be honest. That is often one of the biggest Oh, you’re going to try to get them into church? Well, yes. Because we want them to have a relationship with Jesus. But it’s not, hey, you’re here. We’re dragging you into service. So they can beat you over the head with a Bible. It’s Hey, tell me about yourself. Who are you? I know from our community meal that we have someone who well was antagonistic to the church, shall we say?

She’s still may be antagonistic to the church. And not so much here. She doesn’t come in with a frown anymore. I see a smile. Even the evil scary pastor gets a smile. Will we have this chance, opportunity some day? Hope so. But little by little, we’re healing some wounds. We are being a light unto the world. So I hope I just want you to understand that I do not think that we are being a failure, because we’re not bringing in 10s or 20s or even one person because of the community meal or because of the bread. Who knows we could be looking at something six months, one year, two years, three years. 10 years down the road. Gods days are accounted for differently than ours. We have to be okay with not increasing our fellowship Numbers. Does that mean I don’t want us to grow? Of course not. On the other hand, if someone attends the meals and picks up breads and worships elsewhere, it’s still a win for the kingdom. If a belly is filled and a heart gets filled, isn’t that being Jesus to someone? If someone evaluates a ministry solely on numbers, then Jesus’s admonition about parading one’s righteousness before others is actually correct. Is there a time when one stops doing a ministry? Even if it isn’t about the numbers? Yeah. If there was only one person at the community meal that was outside of our church, we might actually have to have a conversation about that. For that as a lot of work for a team of people, for one person. On the other hand, we are called to the person before us, our neighbor, even if it is only one person, another way to think of it, is it for a fleeting reward? Or is it for God’s eternal glory? There is sadly some truth that some of the most arrogant rinche And frankly, manipulative, so called pastors and preachers have brought God eternal glory through gaudy and questionable ministries. Because Jesus Christ was accepted as Lord and Savior, this does not justify a bad behavior or bad ministries. But it shows us that God can use even false prophets and pastors to bring glory to God Self. And to draw people into a saving relationship. That does not mean that we want to encourage it. But it can be done. So whenever you give to the poor, don’t blow a trumpet before you like the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets so that they will be praised by people, I tell all of you with certainty, they have their full reward. But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. So that you’re giving maybe done in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Just to be clear, there is not a literal expectation that your right hand will not know what your left hand is doing. You have a brain, it is the same brain that controls set hands. I and I have I say this because I’ve truly actually had that conversation. But so but the reason that what really Jesus is driving at is here, you have to be so so solely focused on the giving, that you’re not worried about the what you’re receiving in return. Did people literally blow trumpets? Probably not there is there are some commentaries and historians that believe that because there was the giving box had actually kind of a trumpet shaped thing. So you actually, it just gathered everything into one spot that they that Jesus was talking about? Trumpet. Let’s what that is the trumpet, okay. But I’ll be honest, that’s a distraction. It is how people brought attention to themselves. And they were looking to do so. I don’t know if he is, but there’s yet there’s something about this that we need to process. So I don’t know how many of you remember, or have participated in the Susan G. Komen race for a cure. It still remains one of the most successful breast breast cancer awareness events and fundraisers for breast cancer research. However, it was just a blip until they hired a marketing firm. That marketing firm did their job very well. Race for a cure became nationally recognized it became a fundraiser Juggernaut, as such people started looking at things to pick at. And they chose to pick up the marketing firm. You see the marketing firm was a for profit company. The outrage began, How dare a marketing company make money doing its job for nonprofit? The marketing company was canned. The marketing company did its job, too well. But the funny thing is the amount of money that goes into Breast Cancer Research ballooned. I mean, yes, they made a lot of money. However, a percentage that they were taking did not change, the value of that percentage changed. But what that marketing firms successfully did? Well, let’s say it this way. They took a six inch pie and made it into a six yard pie. Their percentage didn’t change. It’s just that the pie got bigger. And what also got ignored, which was fascinating to watch when you looked at the numbers wasn’t just the Race for the Cure the Susan G. Komen Foundation and growing. It was all the other research foundations that also grew. Because of the awareness of one thing. Others were raised up. And they had nothing to do with Susan G. Komen. So there is something to be said, about trumpeting. It can encourage motivate others to climb on the bandwagon to help each other. The marketing firms job, honestly was its clients success, and they succeeded. I was even thinking in this whole thing about Alabaster, which we do twice a year. And for those of you I mean, I know some of you keep forgetting you can still bring your stuff and we still have it again in February. But in other churches we didn’t alabaster March. So you, they put put put the wheelbarrow up front. And it was it was a wheelbarrow, they had seen many years of use. And actually had gone on work and witness strip. So that was even kind of cooler, come out, sat there. And then they played the music. Whatever the music choice was. And people would literally all stand up and marched down the aisle and place their alabaster offering in there. I’ll be honest, I kind of went what? I was newly attending a Nazarene church. So there are a lot of lit are these people doing? And I honestly used to think it was kind of ridiculous. I don’t think it was like, isn’t this kind of the trumpeting thing? But yet, should we not be proud and joyfilled that we are giving to a mission to build churches and schools and houses? Should we be declaring how much? No. And honestly, it’s kind of the reason why I wish people didn’t put their names on the boxes. It’s only a box. It’s okay if you get a different one next year. Yes, there is social pressure to give for alabaster. But on the other hand, if you’re all everyone’s focused on a common mission, it is amazing what can happen. It is when we are all divided in our hearts are divided. And we are not united even in the mission we pursue that the church falls apart. So trumpeting isn’t necessarily bad.

But declaring that you give requires knowing why you declare. Underlying all of this as Jesus notes is the is the reward from God versus the reward from man, Jesus, his statement that God will reward us and secret is a strange statement. Yet many people over the years have been faithful to God but wondered where the blessings were. This is not about the disobedience of the Israelites to the Old Testament. This carries through to today. I’ll go back to a piece of advice that was given to me at the beginning of my pastoral journey. If you find anything to do that honors God is calling on your life that isn’t doing being a pastor do it. I probably get it wrong. Just about every time I say that quote. Because I don’t I think as that time has passed between that initial advice, I think I kind of forget it. But the funny thing is I’ve repeated it many times and I’ve said it to pastors and horrified other pastors when I say that. Yet the hidden reward of being faithful to God in my calling isn’t about the fantastic pay For the great people, the great community, or even about the denomination. It is the indescribable feeling of being certain that you are in the will of God, even when frustrated, sad, despairing, angry, confused, happy, joyful, and grateful. The reward I receive is in secret, because I cannot share it with you. I can’t even share it with my wife, Pastor Joanie, it is in the very depths of my soul. The reward from God is just the same. Now there is a character in the passage that we haven’t talked about. And we should because it’s a word thrown at Christians today. So effectively, to shut them up, discredit them, and basically to allow the ignoring of God’s Word. And it’s our favorite one. Hypocrite. It’s right. I like how da Carson defined it. Hypocrite. A person who feigns or pretends goodness, but is actually evil, and knows they’re being deceptive. This first definition is is the one that is my general default understanding of hypocrisy, evil is evil. There is no argument for me on this one. Thus, the first definition really, neither needs doesn’t really need to be studied any further for us. Because it really is a breed all their own. It’s the other two definitions that are our issue today. Second one is a person carried away by their own acting, who ends up deceiving themselves, but often, not others. And I think this definition ought to be our primary concern. This is where the signs that we talked about church signs from earlier come in. We don’t want to be the people who believe we’re doing the right thing by having community meals or food giveaways, and then cause people to feel unloved and unwanted. While this does not mean that there are no boundaries, we have to pursue consistency and our attitudes toward others from beginning to end. We also need to talk about challenging sinful and unrighteous behavior, which is often our own. This is the other aspect of Christians that people perceive when given a mirror of perspective, if we see only our own goodness, we deceive ourselves, we can only truly talk to others about their sins, their failures, their unrighteousness. After we share ours, the closer ours is to theirs, the better if our perspective is anything other than by God’s grace, we are saved than we need to be better. Because we need to be in submission to God. And it is about our gratitude to God. Third definition and this is kind of a long one, a person that deceives their self into thinking they are acting in the best interests of God and man, and so deceive others. Recipients of such generosity are unlikely to complain. But instead of their gratitude, instead their gratitude flatters and bolsters the givers self deception. The third definition I would say generally applies to the honest TV and online preachers and it might seem strange to call many of them honest. But they’re self deceivers. They’re honestly self deceiving. They’re clueless. They’re not like the first definition that knows they’re evil. And such people again have done great things for the kingdom. But their lies fall apart, because eventually self deception catches up with you. There are other instances when an issue becomes the centerpiece and people glom on to it. And we have us wide ranging perspectives that we that may use common sense or even the scriptures to back up their perspective, especially when the situation is in the church itself. Dividing the church, let alone a wider culture. This is when the church ought to be getting out of its silos and into conversations. Sure, God has given us to each other to keep from going off the rails or being like lemmings and jumping off the cliff. We are not to allow ourselves to be self deceiving. This leads us to our most famous section, or most probably most familiar section for today. And whenever you pray, don’t

fool reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is in heaven, who is hidden, and your Father who sees you from the hidden places will reward you When you’re praying don’t mean a meaningless things like the Gentiles do, because they took, they think they will be heard by being so wordy. Don’t be like them because your Father knows what you need before you ask him, therefore, this is how you should pray. So I’m going to actually go past that part

this is not a declaration against written prayers. Okay, the church has been using written prayers. The Jews have been using written prayers. It is not against written prayers, because I’ve actually heard that accusation. You know, if that’s not a real prayer, it’s written down. Now. I’ve also heard from the more liturgically minded folk, oh, those evangelical Baptist Nazarene Yatta, yatta, Yatta, yatta yatta. People who with the extent emphasis temporary Aeneas, prayers that go on. And ah, those are honest prayers, either those aren’t good prayers. Okay, let’s, let’s not say that. It’s about why. What is your motivation? The room that Jesus was talking about was likely the storage room of the house. You know, which we think of closets were like, Hey, I have a closet. Yeah, yeah, there was. And it had everything else in it too. Well ask it sounds real comfortable for prayer, right? Close in, step in, share, share the space standing room only.

I have friends who use their bathrooms this way. Their prayer closet? It’s a little weird. But who am I to judge? The right place to meet God is where you meet God? Did people really pray on the street corners like Street Preachers? Maybe there is little cultural evidence I’ve run across, including from all the commentaries I get to read. But Jesus often uses exaggerated statements to get his point across. So there’s something there who knows, maybe there were people in the temple courts that were like, I’m gonna pray really loudly. And you’ll all listen to me. So when we prayed earlier, did we violate Jesus’s instructions? No, we did pray corporately. As a community of believers who bring their prayers in unity to our gracious God, our goal and desires that got here, which God does an answer, which God does just not as we want, always, while our while our prayers are between us and God, if our witness drives others, to also pray to God, that is good. And I’m not talking about sometimes, you know, you go to one of those public events and somebody leads, leads in prayer, and everybody knows the cultural norms, and just Bowser head and is more of going, when is this person going to stop talking? So the game will start. I’m talking about honest public prayer.

But it’s not just about words. I mean, Paul, Paul reminds us that the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, since we do not know how to pray as we should. but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words, and the one who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, for the Spirit intercedes for the saints, according to the will of God would. So is it about how many words No, is it that they’re written? No. Is it about a heart that groans to God? The why that and what you pray is more important than how you pray. If you’re praying to be seen, especially as being seen as holy, righteous or pious, it should just stop. God may hear God may even respond, but the reward will not be yours. Sounds harsh, and yet people tried to earn the praise of men by their prayers. That does not honor God. It does dishonor prayer. The Gentiles bargain, pleaded tried to get their false gods to act. On the words of prayers are the sacrifices. It was like, hey, Zeus, last week, I gave you five lambs, you need to do this for me and make that person whatever. I did this for you, you need to do this for me. Or, Hey, by the way, I’m going to talk to you so much, you’re going to just say shut up. Now, the reality is, is Jesus had his own parable about the persistent widow and the unrighteous judge? Jesus honors that. But no matter how many words or sacrifices we think we’ve made in our lives, those do not matter to God if the heart is not seeking a relationship with God. That brings us brings us to the last verse for today. Whenever you fast Don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites because they put on sad faces to show others they are fasting I tell all of you with certainty they have their full reward. But when you fast put oil on your head, wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by others. The by your father, who was in the hidden place and your father who watches you from the hidden place reward you I don’t know how many of you have fasted it used to be a significant part of the ancient Christian

That’s right. I did it right. I forgot to put a blank. Sheesh. Apparent parently the back front front pew driver. I don’t know how many of you have fasted I used to that used to be a significant part of church culture. I mean for generations, those of us who are which is generally what we would call this the quote unquote low church and I really hate that term. But they often and often opposed a passing because it’s what the Roman Catholics do. As if somehow because someone else who is perceived as being an error, automatically discredits the passage. The Orthodox the Roman Catholic, Lutherans and Anglicans have many fast days, it is kind of ridiculous. How many fast days some of them have? Do I think it might be a bit much Yeah. On the other hand, in our country of bounty, and plenty, for so many, we honestly could do with a bit of fasting, not to lose weight, or because or eating certain foods is unhealthy. But because we often could use a reminder of how blessed we truly are. And to awaken our souls to how content we have become. That has led us into complacency and laziness. Fasting was an expectation of Jesus, you are expected to fast. So in the early Christian community, there was a teaching. It’s called the data K. And it flat out said you will fast now, so and I think, let’s see, thought ahead because the Jews did it. Let’s say Tuesday and Friday, you had to do it Wednesday and Saturday. I’m sure I got the days of the week wrong. But fasting was an expectation. So the public fasting that Jesus is talking about, were either fasts that were not part of the larger community, or someone is acting as if a particular facet was more severe for them. Fasting is not a tool to be seen. It is a tool to get closer to God. And I bring this up because in the last decade or so, the Church of the Nazarene. I know and other Protestant traditions, the low church traditions, there’s been this renewed interest in fasting in particular during the season of Lent, I’m all for it, obviously. But or the inlet being the 40 days before Resurrection Sunday or Easter. People would announce that they’re fasting some faster to Facebook about thing, then they would say, Look at me, I’m fasting from Facebook. No, that’s not what you’re supposed to do. You’re done. But then there’s those people honestly, if if somebody stopped posting on Facebook, I would actually be concerned for their existence because they live on Facebook so much and so if they went silent, I would actually be worried they’re okay to say hey, I’m going to be off Facebook for the next 40 days. All right, cool. But why do you want to announce if a forgive a person forget for ghosts Facebook for Lent? They shouldn’t be out there saying oh, it’s me. I forgive it up Facebook. I’ve seen it and it’s ugly. But it doesn’t matter whether it’s Facebook, movies, TV, sports, books, food, you gave up whatever it was the what and why is really between you and God it should not barring for health and welfare concerns be brought up by you. Even if the lack of whatever it is driving you nuts. Like for example, giving up coffee. I see I see. I would I I would know that all of you have given up coffee. But you wouldn’t tell me that you’ve given up coffee? Well, actually, you probably would. But that’s okay. But my point is, it’s not about what you’ve given up. It’s that you’ve given up and you’re not supposed to really share it. In the beginning of my career in manufacturing, there was this little sign on the poster on a on a bulletin board. That said, in effect 1000 attaboys is wiped out with one failure. It used a different word. So I had to bleep it out. But when and when it comes to manufacturing, that makes sense, because honestly, what, where I worked. One part, scrap meant the entire job was dead. We’d love to lose all our profit. God doesn’t work that way. Thanks be to God. The world on the other hand, does work that way. When we do things, especially spiritual or church of Jesus like things, the world will wipe away all the good with one bad with one mistake, it can all vanish. The whole time we may be looking at how the world is following or judging us. But it is only God’s judgment that matters in the end. The danger of course, is that we can find ourselves in the trap of the hypocrite where we think we are doing good, but we are not. A wise man from a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, said, Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them. Or as the God told the prophet Samuel, people judge others by what they look like. But God judges people by what is in their hearts. We are not to do everything before man, for God judges our hearts. Let us be aware of how and why we do what we do. But always remember that we are to bring glory to God to grow the kingdom.