Don’t Curate, Cultivate - Brad Jones

If you have your copy of scripture, let's go to Matthew chapter five. We are in the collection recommended for you, talking about us not being formed by the algorithm, but formed by Jesus. Not being formed into whatever we see on our feed, but being more formed into the image of Jesus. If you did not hear Pastor Louie's talk last week, please go find it on YouTube, on the podcast, it is extremely helpful. His main thought is God's recommendation to you is God. God is recommending God. Anybody grateful for that talk last week? I'll tell them 18 people clapped. It'll really bless his heart. The man's birthday is this week and I'm gonna text him, hey, the 1145, 18 people clapped about and was grateful for your talk last week. There was a moment when he let us all know that you can actually go, for those of you that are on Instagram and for those of you that aren't on any sort of social media, or you're never struggling with the algorithms at all, or you think you're not, well, just God bless you, hang in there with all of the rest of us. But he told us on Instagram, we could go find our own algorithm. And I saw a few people looking around on their phones,

being like, okay, you should have done that after the talk. I waited till after the talk. Tiago, you did it in the middle of the talk, you were sitting on the front row. I saw it. But anyway, I was nervous. Was anybody else nervous? I was like, oh no, what's it gonna say about me? This machine that watches and knows everything I linger on or click on, and what's it feeding me more of, if it understands what I like. And it turned out not to be that bad. Y'all wanna know? Yeah. Okay, I couldn't tell. It was exploring global cities, mainly through their cuisine. So apparently I like to know where to eat tacos in Mexico city or the good dessert places in London or in my feeds, all the coffee shops in Tokyo. I haven't been to them, but I just like to know if you're going to Tokyo, I pay attention to where all the coffee shops are and I can send you that way. I did get soulful worship music in there. So I was really relieved. It was in my algorithm. I was like, praise God. Anytime a worship song has come on my feet,

I've watched the whole thing because I am taking control of my algorithm. Now that I know that there can be even more accountability on it. And then lastly, World Cup was on there. Shout out, anybody caring about the World Cup right now? Okay, okay. Feeling good about the US? Oh, okay, okay. We'll see. It was one loss with our backups, guys. Let's believe, let's hope. And for the record, yes, a shout out to Norway. It has been fun watching them take over Times Square. Is that in your algorithm, in your feed? And I believe Freddie is a real person that just happened to go viral. Raise your hand if you know who Freddie is. Raise your hand if you have no clue. Okay, you're better off in life. Let's check and see where we're at. Okay, God has an algorithm for us. He has things in instructions and in thoughts and examples and his spirit that he wants to be the one forming us. Yes, for many of us, not people outside of the building, but inside of this building, we are formed by the algorithms of the world, and that is dangerous. And Jesus, in the Sermon of the Mount,

one of the most well-known passages of Scripture, some of the most famous teachings on planet Earth, not just of Jesus, but of anybody. This is Jesus' first public teaching. So he'd called his disciples, he had spent 40 days out in the wilderness, and then as he begins to announce and take his ministry more and more public in the last three years of his life, this sermon right here, recorded in the book of Matthew, like it has so much of the teachings that you'll be familiar with. But in verse one of chapter five, it says, now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside, there it is, Sermon on the Mount, went up on a mountainside and he sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them. And this is the spirit, right? This is what Pastor Louie was talking about last week, is not just being cultural Christians, but being disciples of Jesus. Not just saying we believe in someone, but actually learning their teachings, being pupils. Now, when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and he sat down and his disciples came to him. He began to teach them. Do you consider yourself to be a disciple of Jesus? Do you want to be a disciple of Jesus?

Like the friend we mentioned earlier that had come and he had been listening and paying attention. He wasn't yet a disciple of Jesus, a follower of Jesus, but he was open to it. And that would be hopefully many of you in here. And hopefully anytime we gather, there'll be many people that are on this journey of exploring Jesus. But for most of us, this is a way of life, being in a community of faith, being at church. I hope we're seeing ourselves more than just cultural Christians, but disciples of Jesus, people that want to learn from him, people that want to watch him, people that want to listen to him, and not only listen and learn from him, but embrace his way of life. This is what being a disciple or a pupil is all about. And it's this picture, just like then the disciples gathered close to Jesus. You and I often need to be gathering, moving towards Jesus. Jesus, teach me. It's not, and following Jesus and being his disciple is not about curating a playlist. I don't know if you're into that type of stuff, but it's like, hey, I'm just gonna pick and choose the songs I want, and I'm gonna make the version, the playlist that fits me best. Sadly, most of us do that when it comes to our faith. I like this teaching of Jesus.

I like that message of Jesus. I like this part of Jesus, and we're curating our own version that makes us feel better about the life we actually want to choose to live on our own, and we just ask Jesus to bless it, instead of saying, no, Jesus, I want all your teachings. I want everything, my whole life for your glory, not just part of my life, my whole life. We don't curate our own playlists. We come under the entire teaching of Jesus. So in the Sermon on the Mount, he talks about the beatitudes and the path to true happiness. You flip through, he's talking about Matthew, he's not talking about Matthew, he's talking in Matthew five, verse 13 through 15, I talk about here a lot, but being a city on a hill, a light for people to see our good works and then glorify the Father. Then he starts talking about the law and how all these ways that we should know that we don't measure up to the law, and that we've all fallen short, just reminding everyone and reminding you and me that we don't have what it takes. We don't measure up, we all fall short. We all need forgiveness, and that's why Jesus has come. That's why ultimately he has come is to fulfill the law on our behalf. But then he gets to chapter, we get to chapter six, and he starts talking about our practice of righteousness,

the things that we do for God. And he gives some really helpful instruction. This is part of his algorithm for our lives. Verse one, be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not like be the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep babbling like the pagans for they think they will be heard because there are many words. Do not be like them for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Then he goes on and he gives them the Lord's prayer,

which most of us are familiar with. He talks about forgiveness, but skipping ahead to verse 16. When you fast, Do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father who is unseen, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Thanks be to God for the power of His word. I love this text, but it's a challenging, it's a convicting text. He's telling us, let's go back to verse one. It says, be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Before we talk about ourselves, let's talk about back then, because what they were doing is they were, yes, they were giving, yes, they were praying, yes, they were fasting, but they were trying to get the most attention when they were doing those things. You know, in our day and age, it would be like, if you're gonna give a big gift and we would use to pass the buckets, it would be that spirit of like, I'm gonna hold the bucket a little bit longer

and then do the real slow motion of me putting that big check in there. Not that anybody would ever do that, but you're like, hey, did y'all see, you know, that I gave just a little bit more? And if you're not gonna give, you're passing that thing through. You know, when it comes to praying, there were people that were just praying the longest and the loudest prayers, and it was very clear that they were doing it to get attention. And maybe when it comes to fasting, it's just making sure everyone knew, hey, you know, I'm not eating today, I'm not eating today. I hate that you asked, but I'm fasting today. Not fasting because my trainer told me I should, you know, that fasting doesn't count, but you and I, that was their problem then, but it can still be our problem right now. And the challenge is, even when it comes to our practicing of righteousness, we should pray, we should give, we should fast. Jesus isn't telling them that they shouldn't do it. He's saying, he's not saying if you pray, he's saying when you pray. So these should be a part of our lives, disciplines that we're all doing in terms of practicing our faith in Jesus. But the issue wasn't what,

like necessarily what they were doing, it was why they were doing it. And he says, be careful, be careful. Beware, in some other translations, think about, pay attention to, evaluate your motivation for why you do what you do. In the age, the digital age, in the spirit of algorithms, it's not necessarily what everyone is projecting towards us. A lot of times it becomes what we're projecting towards people. And we spend a whole lot of effort curating our public life for God, and a lot less effort cultivating our private life with God. And that is a dangerous place to be. When your relationship with God is more in front of people than it is with just you and God, that more often than not leads to disaster. And he says, be careful, don't do that. It might be impressing people, is what Jesus is saying, but it's not moving the heart of God. And we pray, we fast, we give, not to make much of ourselves, but to actually honor and worship and respond to Jesus. He's the audience, he's the one we want to worship, he is the one we want to bless and to praise instead of trying to get the reward from people just seeing how good they think we are. Be careful, beware.

I don't know about you, I want to live an iceberg life. An iceberg life. That's when what you see is only a small portion of what there really is, because most icebergs, different statistics, but only 10% of the mass is above water, and the rest is underneath, and that's strong and that's sturdy. So I want my life with God to be an iceberg life, and that there's a whole lot more that people don't see than what they actually see. Let's jump back down. And when you pray, the giving spot speaks for itself. We have some incredible opportunities coming up. Thank you, Dave, for your encouragement this afternoon. Really looking forward to this next season of our church. Let's be givers, not takers. Jumping down to verse five. When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. And I think we've all been disappointed in people. We've all been harmed by people. Our faith has been hindered by people that said they believed one thing, but then did something completely different. And the word for hypocrite, what he's talking about there is being an actor. And at that time, there would be Greek actors and they would wear masks when they were in these plays. So they were pretending to be, or they were projecting to be somebody

that they really weren't. And he said, don't be somebody in your faith that wears a mask. That presents one way, but lives a different way. And so just simply put, don't be a hypocrite. Can I get an amen? Amen. None of us are perfect. None of us are gonna get it all right. We're all gonna fall short. You're gonna fall short. I'm gonna fall short. There's gonna be plenty of times that what I do and what you do doesn't match with what we believe. That's not a license to sin. That isn't do whatever we want. But that is a reminder for all of us is that God uses people and we want to model for people, but Jesus is the only perfect person. And we need to fix our eyes on him. Other people can help us. Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. But at the end of the day, our eyes need to be on Jesus because he will never fail. He is not a hypocrite. Who he says is who he is. What he taught is how he lived. So let's fix our eyes on Jesus. But here it comes, God's recommendation, the algorithm. Verse six, but when you pray,

I want you to ask for a moment, when do you pray? And I want you to think about your rhythms. And this isn't a, prayer should not be a duty to perform or an obligation to complete. It's more of an invitation from Jesus, an invitation to have a relationship, an invitation to commune with God. And so all of us, even though it sounds simple, we make it so hard or it sounds so important, but based on our actions, we neglect it all the time. But when we pray, Passion City, let's continue to aim to be a more praying people. Yes. I want to be a more praying person. I don't know how you feel about me saying that on stage or not, but I need to put more concentrated effort into being a robust discipline in my daily life. It says, when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen. What is God looking for us, for, from us in prayer? It's actually the same thing the world is looking for, from us in the algorithm. The same thing, our attention. God wants your attention. He desires your attention. So in his recommendation, and yes, he says, come is the great assembly. Let's come and lift shouts of praise and let's worship together.

Let's pray together. The early church, there were plenty of moments they were gathering together to see breakthrough in the lives of people praying. Yes, and an amen to all that. But he also says, no, I want you to come to me. And when you come to me, go to your room and close the door. Don't let anyone in and you don't go out for a while because I want your attention. And I want you to want my attention. But the algorithm, they want our attention. That's why it's always saying, here's something else to look at. Here's something else you might like. Here's something else that if you just hang on for a little bit, then I'll give you some more content. And it's just immediate, next thing, next thing, next thing. And they've got us. Reminds me of the show 24. That's the first one I really, like I remember being like, it's so hard to turn off. Has anybody watched that show? Okay, a few of us are willing to admit it. I heard about it. I never watched it. Just kidding, I watch it all the time. But it's like, you got 24 seconds to make a decision if you're gonna watch the next one or not. And you're like, I'm in. Algorithm wants your attention.

Algorithm desires your attention. God desires your attention, but there's only one who deserves your attention. It's Jesus. He deserves it. He's worthy of it. He's infinitely glorious. There's always more to see. There's always more to receive. Like God is worthy of our full attention. That's why it says in Colossians chapter 3, verse 1 and 2, it says, set our hearts and set our minds on things above, right? Where Christ is seated as the right hand of God. He's like, hey, not only do I desire it, I deserve it. This is where you need to be putting your heart and mind. Not on the things of the world, but on me. But then here's the thing. God doesn't demand our attention. And when I say that, I mean, he doesn't force it. He gives you and I a choice. So it's up to us in our times with God, if there's ever moments where the door gets closed. In our offices here at 515, God provided an above and beyond season through somebody that was in the marketplace, had a glass company, different story for a different day. Just saying God uses people in unique ways to bless this church. And we're so grateful. And he funded all this glass for us to fit out our offices. And it's pretty awesome. But you can see everything that's going on in the office. So it's like you can wave, you can get people's attention. There's like not much, you know, privacy. And sometimes you don't know if the door's even closed or not.

So we've had plenty of times you just hear a big bang. And that means somebody thought the door was open. Turns out it was closed and they just hit it with their nose. I'm not mentioning any names of who did that, but it's happened. But the symbol, it's pretty easy. If I'm open for conversation, you need some help, like you want to talk, we need a plan, we need a dream, ready for the meeting, the door's open. But if the door's closed, I'm trying to lock in, trying to get some stuff done. It's what I'm working on, just me. And in your time with God, and in my time with God, He's just saying, have plenty of moments where you close the door. Get rid of the distractions. You're not going to live there. You're going to eventually open the door and go out into the world. But have plenty of times where you close the door. Nothing else is coming in, and I'm not going out. I'm here to meet with you, God. And I'm praying you'll meet with me. And I believe that you will, because it says, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. And sometimes it'll be quick moments, but we need to have moments where we linger with God. And this is a discipline that we'll all grow in, right? Because I've talked to plenty of people who are like, Brad, great encouragement makes all the sense in the world, but I'll get alone with God and I'll block out all the distractions, and I'll try to start praying, and then I'll be like, oh, I'll start thinking about all the other things I got to do. Or I'm just like bored. I don't know what to say, and I'm like, am I supposed to hear God? Does it come in an audible voice, an impression on my heart?

Like, do I start just reading the scripture? You know, like, then next thing you know, I'm in like Habakkuk, and that didn't make any sense to me. And so I just flip over and then I'm back in Matthew, but I've only, only ever read Matthew because it's the only thing that makes sense, but it's like, no, give God space. Give Him some space. Prioritize the relationship. Make a choice. Just consistent rhythms of sitting there. Give Him space and see if He fills it. See if He fills that space. And then over time, you'll grow and like, man, I really, I really desire this relationship. I need this relationship. We need time together. If we're going to grow close, we got to, we got to spend time together. It reminds me of a trip just a few weeks ago, Caleb and I, my son, 11-year-old son, we got invited to go on a trip to the wilderness of Utah. If you know anything about me, I'm not the greatest wilderness guy. So not a big hunter, fisherman, I, you know, don't know a ton about, you know, what all I need when I go on a camping trip. So I'm calling all my friends. What do I need? Do you have this? Can I borrow that? Da, da, da, da, da. So I gear it up to like kill my own food, you know, catch my own fish, really wasn't all that. There was one big thing we were all pretty nervous about on this trip. And it was that for four days, we were giving our phone up. Crazy.

I know like four days, there's a Pelican case and all these dads were like shaking and trembling. Like, can we do it? Can we do it? Like, here we go. And then they, they locked the phone up. Like once you put it in, I'm like calling Brittany on the way out, I'm like, babe, I'm gone. And the words on the Pelican case, as you put your phone in there, it just said, it'll be okay. And for four days, we just roamed around Utah and we didn't know where we were, we didn't know where we were going, we were just following the guide and doing what he told us to do. And we were like, when are we stopping for lunch? He's like, I don't know, we'll see. Where are we camping tonight? I don't know, we'll see. We were asking lots of questions. It was the Stanley Cup Finals and we were wanting to know who won the game the night before. And so we actually wandered, we went into a gas station and then some people came up, we were talking to them, they're like, what are y'all doing? We're telling them a story and they're like, hey, can we ask you a quick question?

We don't need to borrow money, we don't need anything. Could you just tell us who won the game last night? And then I went in, the next day I just yelled, who won the Knicks game last night? And somebody's like, Knicks won by one. I was like, oh man, I missed it. But one Knicks fan gave a little shout out right there. Me and the other dads made that choice to prioritize the relationship with our sons, to give them our full attention, to give our friends our full attention. And all of us, we were out there like, God, would you be moving in power in our lives as we give you more of our attention? It's a choice. And what God is recommending to you and me, and what sadly you and I too often tend to neglect, is that he wants to meet with us in the secret place. And he wants to pour out his grace and his mercy and his help and his wisdom in our lives. And the invitation, not the demand, but the invitation. Because if he demanded it, he would actually force you to do it. It's a choice. He's commanding it, but he's not forcing it, right? He's saying, close the door. Don't spend all your time curating a life for me and forgetting to cultivate a life with me. Don't spend all your time

thinking about what everybody else sees. But remember that I see everything and I'll reward you. Close the door and let God pour in to your life. Just a little footnote. This is the example of Jesus also. I'm not gonna turn there, but there's a couple of stories. Like early on, Jesus and his disciples are traveling around together and they get up. Jesus gets up early and he goes to a solitary place. And his disciples wake up and they're looking for Jesus. They can't find him. And then finally they track him down and they're like, hey, Jesus, everyone's looking for you. Jesus lived a very busy life. His time was in high demand. Everybody wanted something from Jesus. Many of you can relate with that. I'm not the biggest morning person in the world, but at the same time, there's got to be moments where you and I have the capacity to withdraw and get to a solitary place and just pray to God that the kids don't wake up for another 30 minutes, right? But this is what our souls need. But I also love that picture of kids waking up. Like for me, I do want, just like the disciples went and tracked Jesus down and he was praying, the disciples had lots of stories and you can read them through the gospels of Jesus going off by himself to pray.

There was one time that he put him in the boat, right? Right after he accomplished the feeding of the 4,000, then he put the disciples on the boat to go back across the sea. The same story where he walks on water. Well, he had sent them on so he could stay back and pray. The son of God needed to pray. The son of God needed help. Sometimes it doesn't make sense. The son of God needed time with his father. He chose the relationship, the communion. And just like the disciples had stories of Jesus going off to pray, I want my children and the people in my life to know that, oh, Brad, he pulls off every once in a while. Or early in the morning, late at night. You know where you might find Brad? Sitting in that chair, reading his Bible, praying. I love it when I'm around, I won't say that part, I'll say this part, for Passion City Church. More than just like, hey, will you come to church? You serve as a door holder team. All these are important, we love these things. Will you give? Yes, that would be so helpful, especially towards the end of the year. Will you help us pull off conference? Will you lead a connect group? All this is a part of growing in our faith and being the church, right?

But what if all of us read our Bible and prayed every day? It would be a whole lot easier to talk you into serving. It'd be a whole lot easier than trying to invite you to give. And what if people, what they knew about Passion City Church, when they go on trips with you, or when they're hanging as close friends, these people set aside time to spend with Jesus, just Jesus and them, they close the door, they read the Bible, they pray. That's the example of Jesus. I hope it's the example of us. I gotta hustle up. I want you to think lastly. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. I want you to think about the reward. Because Jesus promises a reward. And he says that the public attention or just getting human approval, that reward comes and goes. But the father who sees everything, he has a reward for you. And you know what the reward is? More of him. Is that awesome or not? And we're not talking about like a ranking system in heaven, like we're gonna get there and there's just gonna be the top 25 list of who had the most quiet times.

No, the reward is we get more of God. And there's nothing better to get. There's no one better to get. And so instead of like getting more content, oh, I get to watch this, I get to see that, I get to listen to this. No, God says, I want you to see more of me. I want you to experience more of me. Going back to my global cuisine journey, right? Like when we were doing a trip to Tokyo, I spent hours because this coffee shop in Tokyo and this other one would just pop into my feed. There's an estimated 7,000 coffee shops in Tokyo. I've been to like four of them. With God, I don't want it to be just me seeing your experience on Instagram or your experience through what you tell me. I want my own experience. I wanna go there. I wanna know God for myself. I want to experience his goodness for myself. There's more to see of God. More than we can fathom. More than we can comprehend. More than we can understand. And I wanna know him more. I want more of you, God. That's the song I was singing all week. Set a fire down in my soul, fan the flame, make me whole. I want more of you, God.

And with God, there's always more. There's always more. 2 Corinthians chapter three, verse 18. I'm gonna read two more verses, then we're done. And we all, who with unveiled faces, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. So, our times with God, a lot of times we call them quiet times. And it's called quiet because we need less distractions, less algorithms, less things of the world. But the actual time shouldn't be quiet. God talking to us, God's spirit moving in our hearts, us talking to God, this communion, not endless content, but endless communion. And when we're doing that, it's not like, well, I won't talk about you for a minute, I'll talk about me. If it's me, I'm gonna do it because I'm a pastor and I probably should, that's when I'm in the flesh. My job requires it. I wanna be able to tell people I did, I spent time with Jesus. I wanna be able to tell people I did it. Or it is more like man this is this is a duty this is a rule this is something I have to do yet the Father it is an invitation He said come meet with me come draw near to me

come and contemplate my glory think about my glory think about how awesome and powerful and majestic sovereign loving and merciful just just think about my glory so instead of me showing up tomorrow morning or too late tonight or in a little gap I have instead of being like well I'm a pastor at Passion City Church and I got a sermon coming up next week and I'm gonna I'm gonna read the Bible no I'm gonna come and I'm gonna I'm gonna cultivate this moment and I'm gonna hopefully see something grow I'm gonna start thinking about the Lord's glory this morning because if I want to be formed in His image it starts with contemplating His glory that's what it says this is the invitation and when we do it there's always more to see you'll never hit the limits His glory and His grace are inexhaustible not only is there more to see there's more wisdom to receive I've been surprised when I've talked to certain a few different people that they've started going to chat GPT for advice I'm like man I think we're all wondering where this you know journey's heading and it's a slippery slope but I'm not sure going to a machine for advice is the way to go could be knowledge could be facts it could be based on scripture who knows what we need is wisdom and wisdom comes from getting a glimpse of God wisdom comes from the fear of God wisdom comes from the mouth of God so we we need to draw near to Him to get the wisdom to live this life He knows best He knows us He knows the beginning He knows the end He knows what's going on going down He has the power to control it all we need His wisdom not human knowledge and then there's always more hope to believe. Go to Romans 15 Romans 15 says may the God of hope

fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit it's called doom scrolling for a reason because the more we do it the worse we feel about life the world and ourselves it's not a hopeful environment when we're controlled by the algorithms of the world but when we tune in and catch wind of the Father's algorithm what what is He's the God of hope and what does He do He wants to fill you with hope so that you would overflow with hope so some of you are in here today going man I just don't know Brad I'm running out of steam I don't know if it can get any better I'm not sure if anything can change I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to change the way it is is the way it is and you've just given up and what you desperately need is hope because the algorithms of the world are leading to despair and depression and stress and pressure and anxiety and comparison and God wants you to come meet with Him in the secret place and when He does that He's going to give you wisdom He's going to give you revelation He wants to give you grace. He wants to give you mercy. He wants to give you hope He's got it all under control You can trust him He knows what he's doing There's joy even in the suffering He's working all things together like he said he would He's he's always faithful he he'll always be faithful Go meet with God in the secret place and overflow with hope

by the power of the Holy Spirit Church let's not be a people that spend all our effort curating a life for people to see Let's be a people that cultivate a life with a God who sees