Pure Motives: How to Walk After God

I want to invite you to a special opportunity on December the 17th, we have a live recording at Long Hollow Church from 6 to 8 p.m. We're going to be giving away swag, bundles, get to see us in person, and we got a lot of fun things where you're going to be able to participate in the recording itself. Will they be able to ask questions like Kandi asks questions? They will. That's right. They will be able to ask questions. That's a great question. Kandi's going to answer questions. We're going to have fun. You're going to meet the team. That's right. The whole team. The behind the scenes team. It's going to be incredible. We're going to have a special insight from the text we're saving from Matthew chapter 5 or actually Matthew chapter 6 for our studio audience to hear. Looking forward to being with you December 17th of this year. Make sure you come and be with us. Welcome to the Forgotten Jesus Podcast. I'm your host here, Adam French. I'm here with Robbie Gallaty and Kandi Gallaty. Good to be back in the studio together. Back again. Back again. Get ready for our live recording. Come on. When is that? It's at the time of this. December 17th. Airing is the next week, huh? Two days from this live, from this recording. We'll drop. We'll see you in person. We cannot wait. We got some free stuff we're giving out. It's going to be at Long Hollow. So 3031 Long Hollow Pike. Six o'clock. 615. We had to push back. We compromised. 615. 615. Now coffee shop's going to stay open a little bit later. We might, do we say they're making decisions on the food truck? Do we know, Robert? Are we still working on that? Robert has no idea. So you might want to eat before you come. Because we're going to feed you, but it's not going to be in the form of food. That's right. That's right. We got some, we're still trying to decide where we're going to go because we are slowing down. We've been taking a long time getting to where we want to get to, but we're not in a rush. Slow and steady wins the race, but we don't want to rush the word of God. But I will say, I thought we'd make, we would have made it to Matthew 6 one, but we may go somewhere else, but we'll see. We'll see where we're going to go. Regardless, I think it'll be fun. You'll be able to ask questions. You will be able to buy first, the first people ever to buy the candy. I have a question shirt. Is that going to happen? Let's hope. Robert, it's all going to be here. We're going to give away bundles too.

So we're going to have some questions for you. Some opportunities for you. You got to be in person though. Okay. You know what we ought to do? Ask them Hebraic questions and whoever knows the podcast, like what are the four ways Hellenism infiltrated the world? Or can you list the Tanakh in Hebrew and English and what it means? You know, those kinds of questions. Game show type. I like it. Okay. Those kinds of questions. All right. Where were we last week? So last week we were in, we talked chapter five, Matthew. We talked, we hit a little bit of 17, but mainly focused on 19. We're talking about... And then they had a homework assignment. They had a homework assignment for Matthew 5, 20. So hopefully they were able to prepare and study for this. There's a lot of things that you covered last week. We had some cool quotes and you were talking about the purpose behind the commands, the heaviness of it. One thing I love that you talked about was, and I've never heard anybody say this about all the different commands of Jesus. We always talk about the law, the law, the law. That's the, well, that's the command. No, that's in the law. I don't follow that. The 10 commandments are the Old Testament. Well, you taught us that Jesus had, how many commandments did you say? There's over 50 Jesus gave, but that's 50 specific ones, but he gave them in different ways. I read something recently that there are close to a thousand commands in the New Testament, a thousand commands. That's a lot of commands. For people that say I shouldn't be under the command of God or the law of God, you got to work around that one. But again, I think today we'll figure out what the reason for this is, and then we're going to get into Jesus reinterpreting the law. So let's just get to Matthew 5.20. Hopefully you did your homework. And Candy, can you quote Matthew 5.20 just for context? Actually, quote will get you started. 17, do not think. Candy, by the way, has almost, I think she's got it, but she's a little nervous to do it all, but she's got five, six, and seven done, committed to memory. Maybe she'll be able to do that at the live recording. Can you imagine? It takes me like 11 minutes or something to say. 11 minutes. That's the pre-show. I've been having to time myself. That's the post-show. Y'all are here, Candy. Stay around. We're out. 11 minutes. Wow. Did you time yourself while I time myself? Does someone know how long it's taken me to say each chapter? Because all my girls have it done too, and we're supposed to be going over it. soon and so I needed to know like how long would it take me to quote this if I

did it from start to finish? Yeah. You see what I'm saying? I will tell you, she gave me a cheat code by the way you'd love this for ice baths which we love we don't do them now in the winter much but she would get in the ice bath and quote her scripture and by the time she was done she'd be finished with her five minutes and I started doing that and that works by the way. Yeah and then I'd be like it'd be like because at that point I was only into like I might have had half the chapter down or whatever but that's how I got it so good as I said it every single day. Yeah that puts it in there. Yeah. It's a lifeline for you. It works great when you get to Matthew 6. Truly I tell you do not worry about your life what you will eat or your body which will wear you out. Yeah when you're quoting that part. As you're worrying. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Matthew 5.17. Can you quote it? Alright yeah. Don't think I came to abolish the law of the prophets for I did not come to abolish but to fulfill for truly I tell you until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter nor one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished therefore whoever breaks one of the least of these commands will be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven for I tell you unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes or the Pharisees you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven or you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. Money shot. Money right in the middle of the chapter. That's pretty hard. That's pretty good. Yeah pretty good. She's got where's that where's her basketball goal? I know I need one. Robert is, the salt threw him off. There's a threat of snow and if you don't know this in Tennessee if there could possibly maybe someday be a snowflake we all shed day. We all go crazy. If there's a possibility of a flurry. If there's one little flurry we're salt and ground. We're done. Shed day. The city is shed day. No day. Alright let's let me give you one little cool sidebar here we passed over but you ever you ever understood you ever think why does Jesus say truly truly or verily verily I say to you ever wondered why he says that or what that means? It's very important. Well the word yeah well it is very important but actually the word there in the Greek is not truly where you would think it would be aletheia is the word truly in Greek it's actually the word amen it's actually amen I say to you okay now what does that mean when Jesus says amen I say to you it's from

the idea amen means something like this so if you say amen it means something like this this saying is solid or what I'm about to tell you is durable it's agreeable capable of bearing the weight of something it's like it's like it can hold it up it it's trustworthy you could say it in regards to truth yeah it could shoulder the weight of what I'm about to say okay now traditionally when someone would say something like that amen was spoken by another person in response to what they said to affirm the words okay we see this all through scripture Jeremiah 11 verse 5 here's one Jeremiah responds amen Lord after God gives him his promises you see it again in first Kings Benaniah amen when King David commands him about Solomon so you see that what Jesus does is something revolutionary though Jesus decides to say amen before he speaks you ever thought about this so he says truly truly or amen amen I tell you verily verily I tell you Jesus I'm gonna see if you can figure this out if you're listening why in the world would Jesus put it first and not last is that interesting I know okay you got a thought okay you want me to say it yeah well let me let me back up before I give you the answer let me just frame before normally not want to give you the answer normally like in the historical past I didn't give you one insight when Jeremiah says amen to God or when Benaniah says amen to King David it's normally the person higher says the promise and the person lower says the amen in agreement that's normally the prep the plant that normally it's the lower person a meaning the higher person in this case King David or God okay so just remember that she's not a hierarchy kind of right Jesus reverses the pattern so what do you think it means when Jesus says amen about his own words because there are words that come from the father yes which is what which is basically the words that come from him right so Jesus is saying without see this is why you got to say the context of the Jewish culture Jesus is giving us an insight about his identity and who he is by the way he frames the sayings even when he talks and he says truly for I tell you unless you're or you've heard it said truly I when he's saying verily verily amen amen and then he says I'm telling

you this what he's in essence saying is I have the divine authority myself to seal this truth I am the one who valid I'm validating for you to trust me because I'm validating to the truthfulness of this say I take it to the bank isn't that cool so it's an unmistakable claim just that line don't gloss over this it's an unmistakable claim that Jesus truly is who he says he right no pun intended truly truly okay let's get into what is Matthew 520 say now there's a lot of debate over this I'm not gonna say this is the end all be all explanation but I will tell you there's a couple options to understand it okay so let's just take it for I tell you or truly I tell you unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees you will not get into the kingdom of heaven now we talked about this for but just for context when Jesus in the Gospels talks about righteousness it is not you have to think about it as it unfolds to the hearers people always go to Paul and you know later in Romans and in Galatians and Ephesians and they think of the righteousness of God which is God's righteousness his perfection imputed to us Romans imputed to us because of Christ so that God counts us not as sinners but just as if we'd never sin justified or righteous that's normally when people think of righteousness okay and that's part of it but that's not how Jesus uses the word righteousness okay when Jesus uses the word righteousness and by the way this is something dead so there's a difference between systematic theology and biblical theology guy named Voss I think I can't think of his first name but his name is Voss he wrote the classic book if you're interested see systematic theology this is a way to understand scripture systematic theology was started or created by a guy by the name of what the most popular book Summa Theologica was created by a Catholic theologian by the name of and we still use his outline today Catholic theologian we use outline today you know who it is Wayne Grudem that's who we used to get that is the modern version of this ancient guy Wayne Grudem is my version Robert knows it give me an initials Thomas Aquinas let's go Robert

Robert gets three good job Robert he's not afraid of the snow he's one in three go ahead and redeem yourself back Thomas Aquinas okay that's a high level insight but here's the thing Thomas Aquinas basically Thomas is a Western Roman Greek Hellenistic influence nothing wrong with this and he's taking a Hebraic document the Bible and he's trying to quote systematize it for the hearer or the or the or the student of the Bible the Christian okay and it's helpful because what he does is here's what systematic theology is systematic theology is you take a topic like justification or soteriology salvation or eschatology in times or glorification where we'll go after we die okay you take a topic the qualities of God and then you get all of the totality of the Bible and the scriptures think about think about the work that had to be done Calvin did this with his institutes and and others but think of the work that has to be done to take every scripture without chat GBT without Google without the internet I mean these guys I mean you're talking scrolls brother you're talking like ancient but I mean it's a lot of work and basically and ancient books too but they took and they systematize or they put in order like what is the topic means so justification by faith Romans 5 what we are now therefore justified by faith we now peace with God you have that scripture and then you have others okay that's nothing's wrong with that but the question we ask is is that the way the Jewish culture the Hebraic culture viewed theology what do you think were they thinking and clean neat categories were they thinking in this comes after you know this is connected to this and Paul's right here and David's writing here they didn't think that way they thought differently in what's called what biblical they call it biblical theology okay I'm not saying don't hear what I'm not saying don't email us don't probably that's just I'm just giving you

for context I use systematic theology I take D groups I've had through system through Wayne Grudem I love Grudem I like Erickson as well I like all those theology books I read theology books William I mean John frame I've read a lot of the question though is how did the Jewish people receive or understand theology watch this biblical theology is more of a revelation of something unfolding over time. So that's why covenantal theology or covenantal relationships with the Jewish people, they build upon each other. First covenant was Adam, the second covenant was Noah, the next covenant was Moses, the next, you see what I'm saying, the next covenant was David, the Davidic covenant, and you have these covenants, so they unfolded over time and they build upon themselves. So for a moment here, all I'd say, I just want you to think Jesus here. I'm not saying throw Paul out, I'm not saying we're not righteous, imputed righteousness, I'm not saying any of that's not true. What I'm saying is we have to take the words to hear them the way Jesus used them and put aside all our presuppositions and post suppositions we learned and hear it from Jesus. So for Jesus, all that by way of intro, for Jesus the word righteousness is the word tzedakah, tzedakah, okay? The word tzedakah is normally, to reduce it, it's almsgiving. That's really at the core, it's almsgiving, which almsgiving is just a old word for what? Anybody know? Ben, let's go with Ben, see what Ben's got today. He's been sick Ben's awake, can't see him with the lights. Could be, yes, yes, in that vein. Like benevolence? Give him one, like a benevolent, yeah you got two, like a benevolence, yes, like taking care of those less fortunate, the poor, the widow, almsgiving, it's acts of kindness toward another person. So at the root, tzedakah would be something you do. It's more than that, obviously, because Jesus is going to explain after we get through this section, when he starts, remember you got to understand the words, remember, Adam you know this one, quote, Adam's got this one, quote it, be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others, to be seen by them, because if you do, you'll reward in heaven, you'll have no, you will not have a reward in heaven. Okay, here we go, look at Jeremy, you got that one too, okay, so here's what, so here's what, here's what Jesus does, LSU fans gotta step it up, you gotta step it up big time after y'all got this gift,

God gave y'all alms there, so y'all gotta start stepping up, a little clay and kiffing there. Well here's the thing, Jesus, remember we're trying to frame Jesus here, Jesus is going to say don't practice, that messes people up, because if you're only looking at it through the lens of Paul, which righteousness is never practiced but received, righteousness is never done but accepted, then your whole theological system falls apart. For Jesus, now is not saying you work for God to earn salvation, put that aside, Jesus is saying to his followers, remember the Sermon on the Mount is, how do we live as changed, born-again believers of a Messiah who's a king with a kingdom of another world, as we usher this kingdom on earth, so it's how we live, it's not how we think, remember the Reformation wrongly, this is where the Reformation hurts us, not helps us, is the Reformation took a faith and belief system from a motive, experiential, and corporate, and made it intellectual, individual, and philosophical, and you have to have both, I get this, but you got to put it back into Jesus' context, so when Jesus says, unless your righteousness, which for Jesus is what? The way you live, how you respond, the things you do, now, is it part of what you believe? Of course, because you can't act upon that which you don't believe, so you've got to believe right to act right. Right, now watch this, unless your righteousness, your almsgiving, now Jesus, I was gonna say, Matthew 6, 1 gives us the big three, isn't it interesting? Jeremy knows this, but Jesus says, be careful practicing righteousness, if you do, you have to be seen by them, you have no reward from your Father in heaven, and he says, and when you give, and then he says, and when you pray, and when you fast, that's the big three, so Jesus is doing what we expect him to do, so what he says is this, how, because what bothers people is, and I used to, I used to believe this, I used to debate people about this, I used to think wrongly, and I think this is wrong, that the Sermon on the Mount was Jesus' manual for how he lived perfection, and it was unattainable for the average Christian, or any Christian for that matter, so I used to preach this, I used to believe this, so that you read the Sermon on the Mount, Jeremy, you probably heard this, you read the Sermon on the Mount, and you see all these high bar things, like don't lust, don't call a person a fool, don't, and you think, who can, keep your yes, yes, and your no, no,

turn the other, go the extra mile, who can do that, and the answer is nobody, which is why you need Jesus, aren't you glad, you don't have to do any of it, Jesus does it for you, now, I mean, that sounds sanctimonious. It sounds holy, that's not what Jesus is doing here. Jesus is saying, no, you need to live a certain, because of what's happened to you, I made you different, listen, to make a difference. You should live differently because of me. Okay, all that to say, so when Jesus says, unless your righteousness surpasses the scribes and Pharisees, we only have two options, because the word surpasses is an interesting word. It means to go above and beyond. Another, I looked it up on Longos, it can mean a couple of things. It's the same word that is used in, same root word that's used in, here it is right here, Philippians 3.8, I consider everything a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ. So what he's saying is, the greater value, the better value, above and beyond, you gotta go above you. So you only have two options, okay? Unless your way of living, your righteousness, the way you live, carry yourself, is above and beyond the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, scribes and Pharisees, just because we know, are those, you're gonna give them a grade. F-tier Christians, they don't come to church, they're lousy, you know, or lost.

C-tier Christians, casual, they're in. B-tier, ah, they're in Bible study life here. Or A-tier, these are the best of the best of the best, they never miss anything, they're always at church, they're always reading, always get. Where are the Pharisees and Sadducees, A through F, where do you rate them? From a religious perspective. Religious. They're an A. A plus. They're an A plus. A plus. Which I think it's. From the world's perspective. From the world's perspective, I think it's important to note that this is Matthew 520, right? All of these verses before, it's built on the back. Okay, you're getting there. Of everything that you've already taught. I wanna get ahead. You're getting somewhere now. Cause in my mind, the whole time you're talking, I'm thinking the humility this requires, right? Like we think of, it's almost like, and this is maybe just me, I think if I do these things, it comes from almost like a place of my pride. I've gotta take pride in what I do. I've gotta, you know, grab my bootstraps and do these things.

Actually, what it means is I need to empty myself completely, I need to become nothing so that God can become my all. And then the righteous acts that I commit are in his power, in his strength, through his spirit because of what he's done. So it's just a different heart place that Jesus is. You've walked us through, I don't know how many episodes, but you, I just wanna make sure we put that. Like this is on the back of a lot of teaching. So maybe I gotta admit, I apologize. Okay, yes. So based on where we came from, this is on the back end. But watch this. If you take where we're going for the next six little sections, it's, you're getting somewhere, it's sandwiched between something. Watch this. It's sandwiched between something. Yeah, because where my mind is going is the whole time is six, chapter six. So yes, she knows where, yeah, we're going, you know where we've been. Okay, so the point is you're both right. So what Jesus is basically, so in our mind, and let me just, for context, remind you, Jesus, contrary to popular opinion, did not hate the Pharisees. Let's get that on the record. Jesus was not angry with the Pharisees

because of who they were. The Pharisees, just a sidebar, do you know, the Pharisees eventually became the rabbis after Jesus died. That's who took over the rabbinic role that Jesus played. And then the Pharisees are the ones who believed in the coming Messiah. Yeah, the Pharisees were the most like Jesus' teaching of any sect back then. The Sadducees weren't. They didn't believe in the resurrection. They questioned certain books of the Old Testament. But the Pharisees and the Sadducees were part of the corrupt priesthood. They were kind of out there. The Pharisees were just like Jesus. So then the natural question becomes, why was he so hard on the Pharisees? It's a coach who knows the players can do better. I always tell my kids this, you know this, because you coach with me. But the guys we used to be hard on, it's not because we're mad at them. It's actually just the opposite. We see something in them we want them to see in themselves, and we know they can do more, so we're harder on them. If we didn't care about them, like the rest of them, we wouldn't care. Jesus is the hardest on the guys who know what to do, but don't do it.

So now we clarify. So surpassed means above and beyond. Righteousness means the way you live. We're defining all the terms. Pharisees and Sadducees, that talks about the elite, the pastors, the professors, the Billy Grahams, in a sense, you look at in the world today, you know, Chuck Swindoll and those respected guys. Now watch this. This has been a hard saying to hear, right? When you hear that, you're like, oh, I'm done. No, you're thinking. In my current room, people listen, they're like, unless you surpass Robbie's knowledge of the Bible, you won't get into heaven. Or let's take it back, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or Candy's scripture memory. That's right, if you can't do 5, 6, and 7, average person's like, we're out, yeah. Okay, that's what you would. 11 minutes of scripture. We're done! But just seriously though, just to think, like to drive your point home, like imagine what that sounded like to the people sitting on that mountain. Yes, they're like, what? Unless you know what Jesus is about to do, okay? So you got to take the whole Sermon on the Mountain context. The last part's important. Unless you surpassed righteousness, crime, and fire, what does it say at the end? You will not, what? You will not get into the kingdom. Okay, get into the kingdom of heaven. Now you got to restructure your mind. What do we think that last section means? Here and there, here and now, or there and then? What do we normally think?

We're thinking we're in glory. Yeah, we think, again, and we try to correct your thinking every time we can. Jesus was not, the Jewish people, the nation of Israel, they were not concerned about going to heaven when they died. They believed they were part of the chosen nation of God. They didn't think about there and then. They wanted a messiah redeemer today. They needed help today. And I know a lot of people listening, those in prison, incarcerated, would say, hey, you're speaking my language. Yeah, I know I'm going to heaven. I said a prayer, whatever I believe. Yeah, that's all important. I need help today. If you're an addict, I need help today. Alcoholic, you know, marriage, I need help today. So kingdom of heaven, entering the kingdom of heaven, don't think of some place in the sky to go to eternity. No. He's talking about entering into a realm and a reign and a dominion of kingship today. The journey starts now. Now. He's saying you can walk through that door right now if. It's time. Okay. So you can, let's reframe it. You can enter the kingdom of heaven today if your way of living surpasses the scribes and Pharisees. Now, you only have two options. Either a it's impossible, which is what most people say this means, or Jesus is teaching something profound. And here's what he's teaching. You're going to love this. Jesus is teaching this. I, the Pharisees know what to do because they teach it correctly. They know what they know the word of God. They know to tie. They know, but they don't have the right heart motivation. They do the outward actions. They know the letter of the law, but they don't have the right motivation of the heart. They're doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, which is wrong in the eyes of God. Here's what I mean. What he's saying, here's another way to think of it. Unless your way of living is different than the way of living of the scribes and Pharisees, which is my way of living. That's how you enter the kingdom of heaven. Basically what he's saying is this. In the first century to follow a rabbi, here's what it meant. I was just studying that this, this, this week. It meant to take, so if you heard this, this idea of Christian, you're going to love this, to take on the yoke of the rabbi. You ever heard the take on the yoke? So a yoke is a, is a farming term where you, you've seen that they have the two, they have two holes in a, in a piece of long wood and one hole, the ox goes in one side and then you have another hole for the other ox. And together collectively, they pull together, right? When one gets tired, the other one exerts energy. And so together collectively in their studies done on this,

the amount of power two people can pull is not double. It's sometimes it's like five or six X. So it doesn't go from like one got one animal, Robert, you can fact check this, but you can look it up. It's a great sermon illustration. If you ever want to use this, really cool. So you would think if one person could pull 50 pounds, one animal, then you put two in the, in the yoke, then two can pull a hundred. It's not that the two could pull like two 50. It's crazy because it's the collective power of the two. Now in the ancient world that Jesus and rabbis use this term to talk about what it meant to follow a rabbi. Basically what it means is when Jesus says, take upon my yoke, which is this, this way of living, you know, you're going to be in this yoke, the way of living. But when you take on my yoke, it's not burdensome like the world. It's actually light because there are many times when you can't pull, but I'll pull for you. And so the idea here is you have Jesus saying, you go under my teaching. It's different than the teaching or the yoke of the rabbis or the Pharisees of the world. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. Come to me all who are what weary, overwhelmed, heavy laden, and I'll give you what rest for your soul. So here's the thing. It's just the opposite. It's not Jesus saying you need to do more, try better, work harder. That's what some people think. I'm saying I'm not saying that all what Jesus is saying is I'm giving you a new way to live that is different than the Pharisees. They know what to do. They say it, but I'm going to show you the issue. The issue, the heart of the problem is a problem of the heart and notice He says next, the next section is, let me reinterpret the yoke. Let me tell you what righteousness looks like. Because the Pharisees are saying, oh, we keep the letter of the law, we don't murder. But Jesus says the whole time, you're critical, calling people fools. The Pharisees are saying, we don't commit adultery, that's what they do. But you're lusting after every woman walking by. They say, we don't lie, we say, and Jesus says, no.

But the motivation of your heart is raw. Oh, we serve the Lord, but you won't walk an extra mile. You see what he's saying. So what he's saying is, they have a righteous way of living, a way of carrying out the commands, but they're missing the heart of the command. And if you miss the heart of why you do what you do, you miss the whole thing. Does that make sense? Oh, it does. And I think that's where we get bitter Christians, is because what happens is, they always say, I've heard this, this is kind of a recovery thing, but they say, what is it? Expectations are premeditated resentments. And so if our motives are wrong, if I'm doing this for what I get, then I'm gonna get what? Disappointed. Because that's not the reason why we do it. We do it, our whole heart posture is to serve. We serve the Lord because he's good, because he's kind, because he's gracious. All those reasons why we do all the things he goes through and lists. I think it's why sometimes we have people, you may wonder, why do I explode all the time? Or why am I getting upset at things that I shouldn't? Why do I feel like this bitterness? And a lot of times it's because we think

we deserve more from God, because the reason why we're doing it is because of what we get. You know, I think that's kind of the Pharisees too. Think about the Pharisees, they're saying, they were getting what they want, prestige. They wanted, he says, when they prayed, don't be like them who pray, so that everybody looks at me. It was, look at me. It was all for show, it was feeding the ego. I mean, the walk with Christ is a walk of humility. I think that's going to be my word in 2026. I was sitting with the Lord this morning and I was just thinking about that. What would it look like if I had this focus of practicing humility? Like if that was the main thing. So if everything, if all sin really is rooted in pride, and so if our focus as Christians, the baseline was, I'm going to focus on practicing humility, trying, right? We're using my faith, using my strength to practice humility. What would be different? Well, the first thing you just put on, my heart would be different, because I'm doing this for who? If I'm going to practice humility, who would I do that for? It wouldn't be for myself.

And I think that's where they were completely off. And I think that's where a lot of times in Christians, we get that, look at me, look at me, I'm doing this for, I'm doing this for, and I want to ask you a question, how do you think that we can stay there? What are some things that we can do? You know, that's what I was thinking this morning, just like, how do I, I don't want to get there, right? You've kind of posed the opposite. How do we stay in this sort of heart posture that Christ is telling these, telling the listeners to stay? Yeah, I would say, here's a question I would ask. Would you do what you do if no one knew, or gave you accolades, or pats on the back, and it was only for an audience of God? Like, would you still do what you do? Would you work the job you did without the accolades or the achievement? Would you preach the sermons you do? Would you go to a venge, if you don't get accolades or money, and you're getting down to these, the root of it, why do you do what you, why are you posting online? That's why I don't, I mean, honestly, I'm not gonna be hypercritical of people because it's between them and the Lord, but I know the propensity of my own heart. And I know, and when, and this happened

when I would sit with the Lord on the porch, I would ask the Holy Spirit, really, as soon as the revival happened, day one, you go back and look if it's on Instagram, I posted, as soon as that Sunday happened, because that was Old Robbie, it was 99 people got saved. I don't think I put the number because I'm not a big numbers guy, but I just put, we just had the greatest movement of God come Tuesday, because remember, I would invite people back, come Tuesday for another night of prayer and worship. And what's crazy is that night, the Lord said, why did you post that? I would sit with the Lord. And I was, and you gotta understand too, when you really get really serious with the Lord and you allow the Holy Spirit to speak in your life, he has an ability to really call you out and put his finger where it needs to be. But he says, but the Lord's like, why did you do that? And I'm trying to justify like, well, I'm doing it for you, Lord. I mean, I want people to celebrate, golly. I mean, I'm praising you. And then the Lord's like, really? Did you do it for me? Or did you do it for you? And then I said, you know what? I'm not gonna post. I'm not making this up.

That night I walked in. I still remember, Robert remembers this. I was at the sound booth and I pulled up my Instagram. You remember this? And someone hacked it. And here's how they hacked it. They sent me a private message. that said, hey, you need to open this up now because somebody's talking about you or something. And I clicked on the message, and when it did, it gave all my password information, and they hijacked my Instagram account. This is a true story. I remember this. I didn't. You remember this? Robert, how long did it take us to get my Instagram account back? It was probably, what, a year? A year, at least. One year, Chris. I had no Instagram, and the Lord knew me. Thank God for this gift. The Lord knew me. The Lord said, you'll try to post this revival and make it about you. So what I'm going to do, big boy, I'm taking your accounts down. Facebook and Instagram down. Okay, here's the point. It was really good for me because I got to do a lot of soul searching, and I realized that I really only could please an audience of one. I only could talk with the Lord. I mean, my staff, but I couldn't go online and say, hey, look at us. Look at me. And so you have to ask yourself a couple questions. Why are you posting the pics you are? Why are you posting about your new ex? Why are you posting about your sermon? Why are you even posting about anything? Now, you say, well, I'm trying to promote. Okay, maybe, but is it laced in? You know, C.S. Lewis, I think said, I think it was Lewis. He said there are three types of people. There are the irreligious, the non-religious who do not repent or confess sin. So they don't confess it. There are the religious who know how to repent of things they did wrong.

So the irreligious don't confess or repent of things they did wrong. The religious know how to repent of things they did wrong. The spiritual man or woman confesses and repents of why they do good. The spiritual person confesses because the spiritual person knows that even in good doing, it's laced with pride. And that's what he's talking about. Those guys were doing the right thing and the world was bowing down. You're the holiest guy in the world. And you may be, but the reality is God knew these guys were playing games with him. And so I would ask you, you got two extremes you fall into. On the one hand, I would ask you, which one do you lean toward? Are you following the Lord in a sense where it's become mechanical and routine and you've forgotten why you follow the Lord? Or better yet, have the commands of God become a burden for you? Like the Pharisees where it's like, oh man, I got to do this. And you're just going through the mechanism and the motion of being a Christian. Or on the other hand, do you live it up? On the other hand, it's like, I'm free to do whatever I want. Do you live it up and sin and do it? And then ask forgiveness. God's going to forgive me. Of course he is. And so you got two extremes here, right? And I've lived in both. You got two extremes. And what Jesus says is, it's one thing to know the right thing to do. It's the other thing to know why you do what you do. And at the heart of it is, are you practicing righteousness for you? Because if you are, you'll have no reward in heaven, i.e. Matthew 6.1. So what Jesus is going to do is he's going to give this command,

or he's going to give this challenge. Do not practice your righteousness, or unless your righteousness surpasses the scribes and Pharisees, you won't inherit the kingdom of God today. And then he says, let me give you six examples. I could have given you all 6.13, which is the Old Testament, but I'm going to give you six because you know these six. Don't lie. Don't commit adultery. Don't curse. So he gives the big ones, but you can extrapolate this to every other command. And basically what he's saying is, get down to why you do what you do. That's the point of what he's about to do. Oh no, I wasn't going to say anything. Well, I think he changes the finish line. What are you striving for? And I think it's good. That's what journaling is helpful for. I love you talking about silence. I've been reading a lot about people saying that even neurologically, you should turn your phone off for 30 minutes to an hour, three times a week. Your brain actually changes the chemistry when you turn it off and sit in silence. There's healing properties. I think what he's saying is, I think it's good for us as Christians to stop and go, why am I doing what I'm doing? Why am I striving for what I'm striving? Have I just spent the last... I asked myself this question. I was looking, did I accomplish what I felt like I wanted to accomplish in 2025? I wrote some things out.

Why didn't I? Because I was maybe striving for things that really weren't God's target. They were my targets. Was I busy? Was I distracted? There can be a lot of different things. I think that's what Jesus is saying. Hold on a second. You're striving for this? This ain't the goal, buddy. No. This ain't it. He's saying, let me tell you what righteousness truly is. And then let me tell you how you... Well, I think you nailed it. It's the beatitudes. It's a heart. He spends all this time in a heart posture. And then he takes the commands, which is the outward facing big, you know, classic sins. And he says, let me get to the heart of the issue. It's not murder with your hands. It's... Anger in your heart. It's not adultery with your body, it's lust in your mind. You see what he's doing here? So he goes lower. I would say, I was gonna say one more thing about, what were you saying before that? You were saying something that got me, clicked me to think.

What did you say before that? I got sidetracked. Come on, JB, come on. What did he just say? Big time, were you listening? He just said something. It got me side, it got me to think of something. You can memorize something, come on, right? Come on, yeah. I don't know what I was talking about. No, that's good. Yeah, I just think the question we end with is, oh, it was about why we do what we do. Oh, you'll realize, somebody told me this years ago, they said most people spend all their life trying to please a bunch of people who don't care with things, or please a bunch of people they don't know with things they don't care about. Let me say that again. Wow. We spend all our lives trying to please a bunch of people we don't know with things they don't care about. They don't even care. I mean, I don't know, I don't think that's you listening, but I've heard there are people out there. But that's all of us, that's all of us. Okay, so I think the final closing remarks, I'll let Candy give them, but I think for me, it's just examining

why you are living a righteous life or a life of honoring the Lord, why you do what you do. And the cool thing for me is I ask a bunch of why questions. I always ask myself the question. And I used to ask this before I post, every time before I would post something, I would say, why are you posting this? Because I want our church family to know what happened at the event. Okay, why? Well, because I want them to know we had a great turnout. Why? Because I want them to know we had more people than last year. Why? Because I want them to be impressed with me. Okay, don't post it. And normally, I mean, that's the truth. And normally, that's why you don't see me posting much anymore. I mean, I'm not saying I'm sanctimonious or holy or no, but what I'm saying is I've learned, and I'm not saying I'm immune from this, I still mess up and post and after I'm like, why did I post that? It's so dumb. But it's a work in progress. And I would say as long as you're aware and conscious,

you're on the way to growing, so. That's good. Anything else, Candy? She's been strangely quiet today. I've just been listening. Okay. I would just say that the Lord, I think, cares more about the secret life of the person. And how are you living when no one's watching? Like when it's in secret, because that's all of chapter six is talking about is the people that are out there living publicly and doing the right things, but yet, you know, what are they doing in secret? You know? Because he's constantly saying, you know, the Father in heaven sees what you're doing in secret, in private. And so I think that's what he's concerned about is how are you living when no one is watching? Yeah, the greatest gift Jesus gave the world, and you got me thinking, is he presented what a true, authentic man was. Think about this. Jesus was exactly the same, whether he was praying alone, whether he was on his face in a garden, or whether he was in front of a crowd of five, 10,000, he was the same guy. And I would say, if you're listening, that is the greatest gift you can give to the world

is your authentic self, not your false self. You know, I got a guy, I'm not gonna mention his name. You would know him if I mentioned it. Everybody would probably know him. It's a guy in one of my discipleship groups. And I feel like one of his biggest challenges is he has this persona online, and everybody watches him and they think, you know, he's this way. But then behind the scenes, he's not the same guy. He's totally different. And I feel bad for him. And I'm not saying that's wrong. I used to do that a lot. But I feel bad because I think, wow, the weight of that, to gotta be on and be somebody. It's like pastors, you know, you see some pastors, they're talking like this, and they go, open your Bibles, the second Timothy, chapter three, Haman. And you're like, is that Ralph? Is that Ralph? We just talked to Ralph, you know, he just, and it's like- Who's Ralph? I don't know, I made it up. Pastor Ralph. Oh. Wreck-It Ralph. Wreck-It Ralph, yeah, he wrecks it up.

But you know, they get up there, Brother Haman up there. It's like, who's, what happened to Ralph? And it's like, I'm not trying to tell you how to preach, but the greatest gift, and the greatest gift you give to the world is to be authentic you. You're the same person on the stage, off. Jesus was the same behind the scenes in front of people. And I think that's a good thing for all of us. Let's try to be sincere and authentic and real. It's a journey that we all have to take to where you can get to a place where you're comfortable in your own skin. And doing that is like you said, spending time alone with the Lord, having people that'll look at you and say, hey, I see this, having good accountability. Those are all things that we can take that soul career journey and do the hard work. Powerful episode here. I loved it. Remember to like, share, and please subscribe. And leave a comment for us if you have any questions, you can put that on. But if you don't mind subscribing to this and maybe share this with a friend, we want to get the Word of God out and let people know about the forgotten Jesus.