What Do You Want?

Matthew 6:16-18

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and 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.”

Well, good morning. This is a, I have written in my notes because it’s the first thing I forget to do every time I’m here and it’s to say this well, good morning. My name is pastor Jerry, and I’m the, I’m the campus pastor at the Collinswood campus. And it is my privilege. My joy to bring to you greetings from Collingswood.

Um, we in colleagues would have been following along in this series from the beginning. We were running right now, about two weeks behind you. Um, but keep throwing us curve balls in the schedule where you guys will throw something in there we’re not expecting. And then we have to, so anyway, we do the best we can, but we have enjoyed this to me.

I believe the sermon, this sermon is the probably it is not probably, it is the most important teaching of Jesus. It’s the most important teaching we have in the, in the scripture. And the more time we can spend in it, the more we will be like our king. So first of all, just by way of introduction, I want to say, where are, where are we in the sermon and where are we in this section?

Um, if my count is right, this is the 21st, the 21st sermon in this series. Um, and we’re calling it the upside down life, which is a perfect, I believe a perfect title for the sermon. Um, the sermon that Jesus taught there on, on the hillside in Galilee, think about this. This just seems a little bit crazy if you think about it for too long, but this sermon that we’ve spent, we’ve had 21 sermons in this was Jesus’ sermon and he probably preached it in about, I don’t know, 45 minutes at the time I’m done today, we will have spent about 16 hours.

And we’re only halfway through that sermon. That is a little crazy

of the things we learn in this sermon, especially if you’re studying it from, uh, from this side, is that Jesus was a great speaker and he was a great preacher. And if you ha, if you need any other proof of that, then you just need to study this sermon because he does a great job. So as he works through it, this is the proof that he is a, he’s a, he’s a re redder.

How do you say it? Writer, writer, rhetorician. He is a, he’s a, he’s a master of rhetoric. So as he’s moving through now, listen to this. He started with the beatitudes and nine times and the beatitudes, he says, bless, bless, bless it are bless. It are bless it are. And you begin probably by about the second, second or third.

One of those you begin to realize, oh, there’s a pattern here. Your ears perk up, perk up and you start to pay very close attention. Bless it are bless. It are blessed. And then he clarifies his relation to the law, his relationship to the law. And then he moves into a section challenging what his hearers have been taught their entire life about anger and loss and divorce, oaths, and retaliation, and their relationship to their enemies, to the people around them who are not necessarily kind to them.

Six times. He says, you have heard it said, but I say six times you have heard it said, but I say, you have heard it said, but I say again, what’s the why? What is he doing? These people didn’t have pens and pens and notepads. They couldn’t take notes. So what is he doing? He’s trying to give them devices to remember exactly what he’s saying.

We would call those mnemonics. And I’ll, we’ll talk about that in a minute. He’s purposefully employing repetition in his sermon and that’s no big revelation. Two weeks ago, pastor mark introduced this section. And I just wonder if I can look, if you can just pop up that grid, that first grid I want you to see, because what Jesus does, do we lose the grid?

There it is. I’ll give you a minute to memorize that. What, if you can see what Jesus does is here in this section, right in the middle, he tightens up the repetition. It becomes so repetitive that we, that is not difficult for us to surmise that he’s really not talking at all about giving and praying and fasting.

He’s making a different point. Giving, praying, and fasting are merely illustrations. There are illustrative of the point that he is trying to make. And that’s what we want to talk about today. And that’s really what pastor mark talked about two weeks ago as well. You’ll notice in my grid verses seven through 15 are not there.

And it would seem that in his, when he gets to. Instead of just passing on and going to the next, uh, the next one, whenever you fast, he pauses, he takes it a little aside in his sermon. That happens when you’re preaching all of a sudden, like you’ll be talking and you’ll feel, I believe it’s the holy spirit drop something in there and you just stop and you take a minute.

Maybe that’s what happened to Jesus. I don’t know. He had a tighter connection to the holy spirit and he was a better speaker, but maybe that happened, maybe he just stopped. And he said, you know what? Just pause for a moment. Let’s talk about this praying for a minute before we go on. So it doesn’t really fit in that tight repetition, uh, that this, this pattern of repetition that he’s developing last week.

Pastor Jim preach on that. And I just have to say, um, don’t always seem to go. You don’t know what you got until it’s gone. Who said that Joni Mitchell or somebody like that? Now not a gym. Isn’t I believe that was, I was more moved by that sermon of pastor Jim’s last week than I was of anything else that I’ve heard, pastor Jim preach, it just seemed to me like it came right from his,

geez. I just would have used repetition like this, like, as I said, to help his listeners to hear what he’s saying and to remember what he’s saying

and remember, he’s not saying he’s not talking about giving, praying and fasting. He’s making a bigger, a broader point. And these are his illustrations. Jesus, doesn’t say anywhere that you should pray. I mean that you should give, you should pray. You should fast. He doesn’t say you shouldn’t. It seems rather that he assumes that you are, and that you will do those things now.

It falls to me to talk about fasting. A few months ago, I mentioned to mark in a meeting I was having with him, pastor mark, my boss. I mentioned to him that, uh, for my own health sake, I really was in need of doing, uh, of entering into an extended fast. I’ve done extended fast in my life. The longest one I ever did was seven days.

Fasting is a phenomenal thing for your health. I’m bragging to you right now, but this has nothing to do with spiritual fasting. So I’m allowed to do it. You can do it, you really candidate, and it is such a, a good thing for your body. And that’s, that’s a different thing I can preach for. We’ll talk about later.

But so I said to mark, I need to, I need to do a fast and he’s like, really, Jerry you fast. Cause look, look at me. I look like I fast don’t I, he said, really you. And when did you know it? Two weeks later, I get the invitation to preach this sermon about fasting. Like, this’ll be. So lesson learned, be careful what you say to your boss.

Fasting, as I was saying, fasting has become a very popular thing. It wasn’t too long ago. Uh, Dr. Atkins throughout the word like ketosis and everybody wanted to string the man up. And now almost any diet that all of the diet crazes right now, the fads all are about ketosis and slipping your body into that state, where you begin to eat the things that are in you.

Not, that’s not the energy you stored, but to go after the other things, the things that don’t belong in your body, it’s all the rage right now. So we have, and anybody engaged, intermittent fasting, has he hands it’s fabulous. Isn’t it? It’s a life changing things. It’s and it’s easy. It fits right into your life.

If you’re fasting to lose weight, it doesn’t work. If you’re fasting for health, you’re going to lose weight. I’m just saying, so we have juice fast, some, a juice, faster water fasting, intermittent fasting, extended fasting. And it is like I said, you can pick up any number of books will tell you, um, we’ll preach the gospel of fasting to you.

And I know that’s not my plan tonight, but in Christendom, fasting really has fallen on hard times. There are not, we do not often here are not even often encouraged to fast for spiritual reasons. Now there are, and there always have been some who have incorporated fasting into their regular spiritual disciplines.

But again, not many of us done my fair share of fasting, both for my health and for spiritual reasons. And I would want you to just say this about that. These are just a few words about fasting for me. And what I understand about fasting is that fasting is to the body. What prayer is to the soul. It’s not an easy thing.

It’s effort. It requires concentration. But when we fast, somehow when you get to that place where somehow food begins, and this is if you’re not, if you’re not a faster, you’re going to not believe when I say this, the longer you fast, the less you think of food, it becomes, uh, uh, of secondary nature to you.

Instead you do begin to come in tune with in a very spiritual way, your own body, and all of a sudden, there’s this opportunity that opens up where your body and your soul together as one whole, the way God made you engages or can engage with your maker. Why. Because you are in a very different state, a state that you are not accustomed to walking in, God created us body and soul and fasting does allow us to engage with our maker.

In that way.

I would also say this about fasting. Fasting is very natural. It’s very natural. Actually. As a matter of fact, each one of you fasted last night, fasting begins when you finish your last meal and it ends when you take the next bite. That’s simple. So you ate dinner last night or maybe a snack before he went to bed.

Soon as you finished that last bite, your fast began. And then you woke up this morning and you did what you broke your fast. You had break fast, right? You broke it, you do it. We all do it all the time. It also happens. Naturally. Your body will tell you I don’t want food right now. When does that happen?

You’re ill. You’re sad. There’s a tragedy. You receive bad news and it has troubled you to your core. And so what do you do your body starts? Your body says to you, somebody says you should eat and you say, no, I’m really not hungry. Well, that’s fast. And you’re in a fast, your body responds to disaster, to distress with fasting.

It’s a very natural thing in the law. There is one time where fasting is prescribed and that was as the children of Israel were entering into their day of atonement. And God said on that day in preparation for the day they were to afflict themselves, that’s the word, a flicked. And this interpreted, this affliction is fasting, not a fun thing, right?

I’m going to flick myself. They were preparing their hearts. Why? Because this was the day when their sin would be a tone. A major thing would happen in that tabernacle in there camp. And on this day they would be to be preparing themselves. That’s the only thing time, the only prescription, but what we do see throughout the old Testament is that the people were called the fast.

There were national days of fasting. When an enemy was at their gate, the king would say everybody fast and pray. We need to get God’s attention and maybe God will relent. And maybe he will turn them away. When there were times of natural disaster, they would fast, there were famines or droughts, they would fast and they would pray.

There were times rare as HRA and Nehemiah and coming back from captivity, there were fast. Of repentance. We were all put on sackcloth and Ash. Nobody is going to eat among all of us, the city of Nineveh, that wicked city, they, they put on sackcloth and ed even put it on their animals and they stopped because maybe that God that we just heard about, maybe he will relent and maybe we can do something.

So everybody from the king to the animals were sackcloth and cash, and nobody ate at some point point in the old Testament, private fasting comes into the picture. It comes on to the religious scene in Jesus’ day. By the time Jesus is on the scene, the devout was fast twice a week. It was on Mondays and Thursday.

They would, there was a whole, there’s a, it’s called the scroll of fasting written. It gives us a great bit of detail about it, but what is not mentioned really until after the destruction of the temple is why are they fasting? What’s the point of this private fast. See me taking two days a week. We’re from sunrise sunset the day before, until sun set of the next day.

I’m not going to put a food in a bite of food in my mouth. And instead I’m going to pray what it seems like. It had something to do with ideas, notions of atonement, of a man or of men standing bef between a holy God and their, and his and his sinful wayward people. There was a rabbi who fasted two days a week for 40 years, 40 years, two days a week.

Honed hint was that he would, could hold back the judgment of God. And that may be God would not destroy Jerusalem.

People participate in this type of fasting are devout. Nope. There’s no two ways about it when Jesus stood on that mountain. And he said to those people, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will not see the kingdom of God. The people who were not fair farracies on that mountain, their shoulders dipped a little bit.

That means I can’t do this. Can I? These are devout people. Now, maybe that’s why Jesus saves, saves fasting in his list of three giving, praying, fasting. Maybe that’s why he saves fasting to the very end, because it’s almost it’s. It’s like the capstone of our devotion of devotion to God for these people.

Everybody gives everybody praise, but not everybody fast. But there are those men in the synagogue who we know they’ve actually gotten permission so that they can continue their fast. Even if it falls on a feasting day when fasting is not allowed. So they’ve made their intentions known. Everybody knows who’s here and who’s fasting.

There’s that picture? Jesus gives us in Luke, the man who walks into fairs, who walks into the temple and says, Lord, I fast twice a week. And I give every I have, and I’m not like that guy over there.

These people were devout. They may have been misguided, but they worked with that. But again, this is important. Fasting is not the point. Fasting is not the point that Jesus is making. So what is Jesus’ point? I think the answer is found in Jesus repetition. It’s in his mnemonics mnemonics. I had a conversation with pastor van the other day.

He was looking at my notes and he said, that’s how you spell mnemonics. I didn’t know that he said, I use that word all the time. I started to started with a P my wife told me today. She thought I started with a P it starts with an M right now, to be honest with you, how often do you even hear the word mnemonic?

And so I think just me standing up here and saying it all these times, that I’m saying it is at least worth the price of admission, right.

He crafted this section in his sermon so that his heroes will know what he’s saying. And so that they will remember what he’s saying. If you can get my chart back up here, there are only in, in this tight. Um, th th th th the tightened repetition, there are only two phrases that Jesus says verbatim word for word, he repeats.

And they’re this. The first mnemonic is. Amen. The word amen in Greek is amen. Amen. I say to you, they have received their award. He says that three times, this is related to the, the warning, the BeAware that pastor mark talked about two weeks ago. Amen. I say to you, they have received their reward and he says it word for word.

I can show you in my Greek, if you want. He says it exactly the same way in Greek, as he does in English. I said to you, they have received their reward. He said it three times, they heard it three times their ears have perked up. They know he’s making, he’s making a point that we need to remember. It’s really important.

And I think it’s kind of really fascinating that Jesus really isn’t making a moral judgment here at all. Is he, look, you want to receive praise of men, you do things to receive praise of men. You receive praise. You got what you wanted, no harm, no foul. It’s what you wanted. It’s what you got. We can move on

in our world. This is right side up thinking, isn’t it? This is the way the world works,

this doing things. So we will be noticed by people. This is what makes the world spin around you. And I were raised in this world. Weren’t we? Our parents, our children, our grandchildren are being raised in this world. Teachers, coaches, bosses, friends, even enemies, doing things to be noticed and rewarded is what makes our world spin around.

And it’s because. Jesus is speaking to people who live in this world. Who’ve only known our entire lives, this kind of right side up thinking that he gives a warning and he says, beware, this kind of thinking thrives in religious settings. Matter of fact, most religions, including ours, encourage and promote this kind of thinking.

Think about it from what you wear to church. My wife told me, I look handsome today. I come in, you’re all wearing shorts and t-shirts, but I have to just say, my wife trusts me this morning and she’s told me three times how handsome I look. So, so it was worth it. Um, my clothes were hanging on the back of the door.

Not ready for me wear those shoes to look over it. Those shoes, um, Lynn, my wife, Linda is right here. You can talk to her later, but from what we wear to church, not as big a thing as it used to be, but what we give to how well behaved our children are to how ragged and used our Bible looks. Maybe somebody down the pew will look at, look at all those look at all that outlining that he does in his Bible.

All of these things have the potential to become nothing more than a display for others to see. And I know it’s true in my heart and I can only assume that it’s true in some of yours as well.

So the second mnemonic is this. See if you can pull up that second one for us. You already did. You’re good. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. Jesus offers an alternative, an alternative rewarder and an alternate reward to two weeks ago.

Pastor mark made this point. The reward is God. He stood right here and he said it, the reward is God. And in the time I have remaining, I just want to drive home that point. Hebrews 11 says this, um, right in the middle of Hebrews 11, is that great? That hall of faith, we call it right. Um, right between Enoch and Noah.

He’s moving right along right between Enoch and Noah. He stops, he interjects this statement and without God, it is impossible to please, without faith. It is impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he is the reward and that he rewards those who seek.

He says for whoever would draw near to God, must one believe that he exists to believe that he rewards those who seek him believe who exists. I think our first song said that something about he’s the God who is he’s the God who is not that there is a God, we don’t believe that there is a God. There’s a lot of people who believe that there is a God or more than one God’s.

It’s not that we believe that there is a God it’s that we believe in the God who is the God who is the God who has made himself known to us. If you want to know who he is, look at what, who can, who he says he is. Don’t look around, look at him, he’s revealed himself. And that one who has revealed himself, that is the one that.

And then we believe that he rewards those who seek him. Let me ask you a question. If I’m seeking buried treasure, what’s my reward, finding it tink. I found it and I’m rewarded. If I’m seeking a career in the field of my choice, what’s my reward. You can talk, you get a job offer letter. I could pay off my loans.

What’s your reward for seeking a healthy lifestyle health. What’s your reward for seeking God, God, God. The reason that if I’m seeking him and he’s going to reward me for, for seeking him, what am I going to? What is he going to get? He’s going to give me him as a matter of fact, it’s the best thing he’s got to give.

He’s got nothing better, nothing. And so he gives me him. Not only is God, the rewarder God is the reward. Not only has God the reward, God is the rewarder. The writer shoves this in this kind of is funny thing. It’s like he doesn’t, he doesn’t, he can’t take for granted or assume that you’re going to know what it is.

He’s saying as he’s talking about faith, so right between the Enoch and Noah, he just shoves this in there. And when an author shoves something in there, you got to stop and pay attention.

So first let’s talk about the reward and I need to move quickly through this. Cause what time are you supposed to be done?

I heard two. There you go. Thank you. I like you. The reward. An exit is 33 and 34. And I don’t have time to read these. So you’re going to, I asked you take the time today, go to Exodus 33 and 34. We find that Moses set up a tent outside the camp. He called it the tent of meeting. Anybody could go there seeking God.

But when Moses went there, you know, the story Moses goes to the tent. The pillar, the glory of God picks up from over the holy place in the tabernacle. So Moses is walking into the tent of meeting and the presence of God lifts up and sits down. And it says there that all, all of the people in the camp you’ve never seen anything like this before all of the people in the camp would go to the front of their tent and they watched the glory move and it would sit down where Moses was and they would worship God for the time that it was there.

They would worship God.

Now, wouldn’t you think that’s enough? God, I go to my secret place and you meet me in my secret place. That’s not enough. I don’t know what it is. And all of that, you better believe he’s receiving the praise of men here too. Right? Everybody knows Moses moves. Why? Because the cloud moved with him,

but Moses wants some more. And he said, ask God in one of these encounters, God, show me, show me your glory. And God’s immediate response is we can do that. I know just how to make this happen. And he says to him, come back up the mountain, he’s got to go back up the mountain. He’s got to take up his own stones.

Cause he already smashed the stone tablets that God gave him. So he’s got to go back up. They already have a date. And God says to him, when you come, there’s a spot near me. And I. Hide you in that spot. And I’ll put my hand in front of you cause you can’t see my face friend. Cause if you do, you’ll die, nobody can see me.

So I’m going to, I’m going to cover you up and as I cover you up, my glory will go by you and I will speak to you my name. And when I get past I’ll move my hand. You can see my back. That way you can live and you will know my glory. So the next morning Moses gets up, wouldn’t you? And he goes up Mount Sinai.

He’s got his tablets with him and the Lord meets him there,

tucked away in that secret place, just, just Moses and his God and the Lord passes before him. And he proclaims this, the outweigh Yahweh. A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving inequity and transgressions and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation God meets with Noah in secret.

He rewards him there in secret. He reveals to Moses who he is and proclaims to him. Name. Remember that name y’all way y’all way a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Keeping steadfast love has said for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgressions, and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty visiting the inequity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children.

The third and the fourth. He gives him his name. He tells him, this is who I am. Moses, if you want it, me, this is the me that you want. This is the me, I am me. I am the one. And if you’re going to come to me, you get me or nothing else.

That’s his reward. Moses, that Moses gets God and his God is delighted to give his servant himself. So now let’s move on to the rewarder. And this is the tricky part. This is the part I’m going to say, and you’re not going to like it. You’re not gonna like it. I don’t like it. They didn’t like it when he first said it.

And I don’t like saying it to you. We don’t like hearing it. They didn’t like it when Jesus said it and here it goes, you can’t prepare a sermon on fast. And not come across Isaiah 58. Can’t happen now, Isaiah 58, the word fast is you seven times, seven times. That’s more than any other more than it’s used in any other book in the Bible.

And so as you’re doing your study, you come here. Why? Because this is dense. He’s talking about fasting and we’re going to talk about fasting. We got to talk about this. Here’s the rub. We don’t want to hear this part. This is the part that’s going to talk about a God and about a people who want God, but not that God.

So here we go. God says to Isaiah cry aloud to not hold back, lift up your voice, like a trumpet declare to my people, their transgression, to the house of Judah, their sins ready? Here’s their sins. Yet they seek me daily. And delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that did righteousness. It did not forsake the judgment of their God.

They asked me for righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God and that people reply. Remember fasting is the capstone of devotion. They say back to their God, why have we fasted? And you not see it? Why have we humbled ourselves? And you take no knowledge of it and God answers them. Tell me this doesn’t sound like seeking the praise of man behold.

And the day of your fast, you seek your own business, your press, all your workers. You hold you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with the wicked fist fasting like yours this day will not make your voice heard on high. Is this. The fast that I choose the day for a person to humble himself. Is it the bow down his head, like a read the spread sackcloth and ashes under him.

Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable way, but this is the fast I choose to lose the bonds of wickedness to undo the straps of the yoke to let the oppressed go free to break every yoke. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house? When you see the naked to cover him, not to hide yourself from your own flesh, then shine your light break forth like the Dawn and your healing shall spring up.

Speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall cry and Lord will answer. You shall cry. And he will say. Here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, the speaking wickedness, if you pour yourselves out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noon day, kind of hits hard.

The truth is, and this is a true statement. If you really want to know someone find out what makes him angry, what pricks his heart. If we’re going to deal with this, God, then this God is the one that we have to deal with. And when he reveals himself to us, he’s the one that we have to deal with.

God’s people here want God to act on their behalf, but they refuse to act on his behalf. And how do we know. What does y’all way say to them, just look at the way you treat your neighbors, especially those who are in greatest need need to hear me. When I say this to you, this is not about, this is a message about you and your God.

And if in any way you hear me saying something that might sound political, or somehow you think I’m banging on a, uh, social justice drum, you need to hear me. This is a message about you and that God, before whom you stand period, period, that’s all I’m saying. It’s all just, Jesus is talking about.

This warning is as pertinent to us today as it was in Isaiah’s day. Why? Because we are the people of God. We are that people and this risk is always before us, that we would make God into our image because he’s so much easier to worship when he just cooperates with us

and our God, doesn’t cooperate with us in this regard. He is who he is. And if you’re going to come to me, then you’re gonna come to me, who I am, who I’ve declared myself,

Jesus in his warning and in his offer, beware of practicing your righteousness before men, that you can be seen by men that you’d be seen by men, that you can be seen by men. You have your reward, you have your reward, you have your reward. And in his offer, your God who sees in secret will reward you two of those repetitions.

He says, your God, who is in secret. That God in that hidden place, the one who hides his servant so that he can reveal himself to his servant,

this is who Jesus offers. And what Jesus is saying is you can have one, you can have one reward or you can have the other, you can have the praise of men and all that that entails, or you can have God, but you can’t ever have both. You can’t ever seek both. He’ll say just a few, just a few minutes in his sermon.

He’ll say you can’t serve God and possessions. You can’t do it because you’re going to serve possessions. And somehow in serving possessions, you’re going to decide that the better thing for me is to change God so that I can, I can worship my possession. Because it’s not a very convenient God. This really gets to the heart of all of Israel’s idolatry, all of it.

Well jettison our God to go after that. God, cause that God makes his people rich. That God makes us people happy that God brings rain. We’ll go after him. And he doesn’t care that God lets us clean up. Clip, pick air green of every, every, um, yeah. Kernel of grain from our field. We don’t have to leave any of it, but our God makes us leave grain, hanging a good grain that we could sell.

He leaves, it tells us to leave it hanging there. Why? So the poor can come and pick it up after so that they can eat to our crazy. God says every 50 years you let every, all the slaves go every 50 years. And it doesn’t matter. Where in the cycle you, you took out your mortgage. I took out my mortgage at year 47, near 50.

Guess what your mortgage is? It’s forgiving. That’s a crazy God, that’s an upside down kind of thinking it doesn’t fit in any world in any system in this world. And yet that’s our God. So here’s the real question. This is really what it gets down to is what it always gets down to with our God to get us to this point.

And usually in our lives, he does it gently. He does it kindly and patiently because he knows you way better than you know you, but he always pushes us to this place. And the question is, what do you want? What do you want? God works at this place. It’s what do you want? What’s in your heart? What is your heart desire?

What are you pursuing? Is it me? Or is it a thousand other things that keep you from me?

And this is the beautiful part about Jesus in his sermon and his life. I said, Jesus is crazy about his father. He doesn’t love anything in the universe. As much as he loves his father. Jesus has known his father forever, right there hasn’t been before. There were moments. Jesus knew his father there. And he’s crazy about him.

What does Jesus offer these people sitting on this hill when he says, but when you pray, when he’s talking to his disciples, not the Pharisees scattered around, who already had figured out God who already had dismissed God or recreated God in a way that was convenient for them and their lifestyle. When he, when Jesus says, but when you fast, make yourself look pretty clean yourself up, nobody needs to know your fasting, but your God, your father, who is in secret.

He’ll know, and he’ll reward you. He offers us his father. He offers the world, his father. This is Jesus’ mission. It’s the one thing he’s here to do. He’s here to offer us his father. He said, you know what? Those miracles that I do, they don’t prove that I’m God. They were never intended to prove that I’m God they’re intended to prove to you.

Stiff-necked people who sent me, the father sent me, I don’t speak a word. He didn’t say he didn’t tell me to speak. I don’t do a work that he didn’t give me to do. I am here to show you him.

It says eternal life. He says to his father, this is eternal life that they might know you and Jesus Christ whom you’ve sent. Listen. The father is all that Jesus has to offer. The father is dead. It’s not the father plus something else. The father’s hit. And when I say the father is all that Jesus has to offer, you need to hear me saying that Jesus is offering us.

Everything is father. There is everything is everything. There was a moment in a garden. Sometimes that garden is displayed right here as a moment in a garden where there’s nothing in between God and the ones that he created to image him, nothing in between. That’s the good moment in our history. That one, she just wants to get us back to this moment.

There’s one good moment that we knew for such a brief period of time. Let’s get back there and how are we going to get back there? It’s gotta be with God. It’s gotta be with the father. You have to know the father. This is all that I have to give you. And if he’s not enough, please don’t make up a religion around me.

That supports anything else

I want to end on this God, through the prophet, Joel, Joel wrote, Joel’s a minor prophet, but Joel wrote like Isaiah, he wrote to those people who are just about to be carted off God is going to bring great calamity upon his people. And they’re just about to be carted off and they’re gonna be there for 70 years.

Well, 70 years is like a death sentence, right? So whoever’s leaving Jerusalem. Now isn’t coming back. And if there’s any hope, it’s an, a next generation, a new generation. And the prophets had to bring this bad news to the stiff-necked people of God. And the prophet, Joel says, this returned to me with all your heart.

This is, this is you always speaking to his people. He’s talking about the time that’s coming, when I’ll bring you back. Returned to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning and Ren your hearts, not your garments. Okay. If you tear your clothes, you don’t get my attention by ripping your clothes.

Tear your hearts, wrench your heart in front of me. Return to the Lord, your God. Now listen. Remember this name, return to the Lord. Your God for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast. Love that sound familiar. Have you heard that name before? It’s exactly what God said to Moses return.

Not to some God you can make up returned to me for. I am gracious and merciful. I am slow to act. I am abounding in steadfast love. I relent over disaster and the good news, and this is Jesus’ good news is that our God is still there. That God who revealed himself to Moses is still there. And he still delights to meet with you in that secret, in that secret place.

If you want him, let me pray.

Lord God draws to that place where you are to that place, where it’s just you. And as you draw us to that place, Lord in largest to receive you the God who you are. Not petty gods of our own making, but the one God who made us for yourself, that we might know you, that we might possess you, that we might be possessed by you alone.

Lord, we, your people, Paul tells us that we, your people living now in this new covenant era inaugurated by our Lord Jesus at his death because of what you’ve had done for us in Christ, that we’re no longer hidden in the, in a, in a hollow spot. It’s no longer unsafe for us to see your face. Rather, we, your people stand before you face to face.

We see the glory of our. In the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it’s their Lord in that posture, in that face to face encounter with our God that we’re transformed from one degree of glory to another Lord. It’s that place next to you? Where you do this work in our hearts to make us like yourself.

Lord, I ask that you will give us the courage, give us the faith that we need as we learn to delight in you. Our father, can I ask Lord that you will make us like you, that our hearts will be like your heart, that our thoughts will be your thoughts that the mind of Christ would be our mind collectively and as individually.

That we would have the mind of Christ. And from there that we would engage this wicked world that doesn’t know you at all that to them, your way seems upside down. But in proximity to you, we realized, Lord, this is not the upside down life. We only thought it was because we were living upside down. Lord, yours is the life.

Yours is the way yours is the goodness. Yours is the reward. Lord prepare our hearts to receive you and make us seekers of you. I ask these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom you have done all of the work that will ever need to be done or behalf what’s his name? I pray. Amen. Go in peace.

You’re dismissed.