Latest / Wesley at FSU & TSC / "Stop Performing" // Ash Wednesday // Rev. Bryant Manning // March 5, 2025

Transcript

"Stop Performing" // Ash Wednesday // Rev. Bryant Manning // March 5, 2025 · Wesley at FSU & TSC

• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: God, then may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable and in your sight and in your sight alone, oh God.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: God, you are our rock.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: You are our redeemer.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: You are what sustains us.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: You are what carries us.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: You are the only one who supplies.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to realize that, God.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: That it's nothing about what we do, but it's about who you are.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to humble ourselves tonight.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: To place ourselves in the background, that you might come forward.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: That you might step into our lives and to the lives of those around us in a real way.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: In a way that'll be transformative, in a way that'll change us from the inside out.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: God, that's our prayer.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Be with us, oh God, as we continue in worship of you.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: We give you all honor, praise, and glory.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Have a seat.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Help me say thank you to the band.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a few of us went to Guatemala last May.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're going again this May.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the best parts of Guatemala, the trip was we stay in this hotel.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's in a city called Pana Hachel.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: I would say that it gets pretty loud in Pana at night because there are bars and clubs, and it's like everybody bought their best, you know, cheap speaker and just blowing it like as loud as possible.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so we decided we went up there one night, and I don't know how it started because I wasn't there.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was probably asleep, dead tired.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: But uh it just we our group just started singing worship music on the top floor uh of the hotel we were staying in.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a real, real small, kind of intimate space, and it slowly got larger and louder every night.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was really cool, and I just had this kind of flashback to that moment as we were all standing here singing.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I want to point you to a passage in the Gospel of Matthew tonight.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible, and I left a bunch of them on on uh on the chair, so if you have one, it's great.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't, uh you can look on his friend, or it's gonna be on the screen.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um I want to point you to uh some passages here.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're gonna start in the in chapter six and verse five.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: When you pray, don't be like hypocrites.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: They love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners so that people will see them.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: I assure you, that's the only reward they'll get.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: But when you pray, go to your room, shut the door, and pray your Father who is present in that secret place.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Your father who sees what you do in secret will reward you.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: When you pray, don't pour out a flood of empty words as the Gentiles do.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: They think that by saying many words they'll be heard.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be like them, because your father knows what you need before you even ask.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh verse 16.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pick up there.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And when you fast, don't put on a sad face like the hypocrites.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's the second time he's used hypocrites.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: They distort their faces so people will know they are fasting.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I assure you that they have their reward.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And when you fast, brush your hair, wash your face.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Then you won't look like you're fasting to people, but only to your father who is present in that secret place.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: The second time he's mentioned that.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Your father who sees in secret will reward you.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Stop collecting treasures for your own benefit on earth, where moth and rust eat them, and where thieves break in and steal them.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, collect treasures for yourselves in heaven where moth and rust don't eat them, and where thieves don't break in and steal them.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone know?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Joint session of Congress.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: What a brilliant name.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a practice that in this kind of time frame that the president would give a report on the nation.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Last night's was really long.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and sometimes they are very long, sometimes they're a little bit shorter.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I watched it throughout, and I have watched basically every single one since I've been an adult.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's something that's fascinating to me, it's interesting to me.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: I do not care who the president is, I really want to watch uh Congress do their thing, which is hard to do because they don't do a lot, you know.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I I do want to watch Congress do their thing, and I want to watch the president uh display at least the narrative for how they think, and I say they, it's always been a he, so uh what he thinks is going on in the world and what he wants in the world.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's a chance for a president to set a vision.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I saw last night and I've seen every single time, and of course, everybody on that social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, uh, what they what they all all comment about every single time is like, can you believe the blank party, whatever the other party is, right?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever not their party is, right?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Can you believe they didn't stand, they didn't clap, they didn't cheer on every single time.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And last night, if you watched it, this was completely true.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: The current president is a Republican, so every time he said anything, and he says a lot in this time, then the Republicans all stand, and then the Democrats don't even move, not a single move every time.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody's you know, oh Democrats, Democrats, Democrats.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is the exact same way it was last year, just opposite, because there was a Democratic president, you're probably familiar with this.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: There was a Democratic president last time, and so he would say something, and the Republicans would all stand there and sometimes boo and sometimes get kicked out or whatever, but like for the most part, they just sit in silence.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking one thing as I was watching last night.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is so performative.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's so performative.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: The president, and I again, I don't want to be partisan.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: The president always, always think of your best president, your favorite president, the one that you just love the most.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: That person too, yes, always says things that are less than fully true in that space.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Always.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And their party stands up and claps and applauds.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Then they'll say something else and their party claps and stands up and applauds.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of the reasons it takes an hour and a half.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then they'll say something else and they party stands and claps and applauds, and the other people hold up the signs or wear the clothes or whatever.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I noticed too, though, and you may have noticed this, that the Supreme Court, with the exception of that one time that Ruth Bader-Ginsburg fell asleep, the Supreme Court does nothing the entire time.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: They just sit there.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're supposed to be what?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Nonpartisan.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they're the tell us your real thoughts, Brooke.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: They're supposed to be nonpartisan.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So they sit there and they're trying to honor the space that they're in.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're trying to honor the role that they're in, and they do not in that space perform.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: It might be because they have lifelong appointments, it might be because their jobs for the rest of their life are secured, it might be all of those things, but they do not perform.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone else in that room performs.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: All of them, even the ones you love, they all perform.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Man, so much of our life is performative.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: We perform all the time.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: When I was in uh, I was at one time a worship leader and music person, and I was taking piano lessons with this brilliant pianist, and uh, and she knew kind of what I did at church and that sort of thing, but I was playing guitar, you know, and so I was trying to explain to her that I was not an actor.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't perform.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: I just, you know, I just like to get up there and lead people in singing, which is uh we want to say genuinely what what we try to do for sure.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And she was at the same time trying to get me to be in a musical.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I was saying, like, listen, I don't act like there's this is Into the Woods.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Has anybody seen Into the Woods?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she wanted me to be uh Cinderella's Prince because it was going on my high school, and she was the pianist for it.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Cinderella's Prince is also the wolf, by the way, kind of a dope role.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and so the wolf gets to be this like scary, very bad person, and then Cinderella's Prince gets to be a nice person that's also bad, right?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh you get to play this dual role.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: She was trying to convince me to do this.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, listen, you don't understand, I don't perform.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not an actor.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, You are an actor.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, No, no, no, there's no chance that I'm an I'm just not an actor.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just I'm just not.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's like not who I am.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, you act.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: You act when you get up on the guitar and you leave people in singing.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, no, no, no, that's genuine.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Two weeks later, two weeks later, I was having a really bad day.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I had to lead music that Sunday morning.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was having a really bad day.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was just, you know, those moments, everybody has bad days, whatever.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of those bad days you're like, I can remember that, and it was 12 years ago.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I remember the emotions I felt that day.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody has some of those.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: That was one of these days, and I had to get up and lead worship.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I remember telling my friend who I was doing it with, I had a guy named TJ who played drums with me.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, man, I don't want to do this.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he was like, no, no, no, you're gonna be fine, you're gonna be fine.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, no, dude.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's literally nothing else I want to do right now than sing songs to Jesus.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's just not what I want to do right now at all.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he was like, no, no, you'll be fine, you'll be fine.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so I went and grabbed my guitar and I put it on, and I heard her words saying, like, you know what you do?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: You get up there and you act a little bit.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, yeah, she's right.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: We act.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: We act.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: I would be willing to bet that you behave differently around different groups of friends.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: I would be willing to bet that you act differently around your professors than you do around your best friends.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Correct?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Jerry's in the roof.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: I would be willing to bet that you behave differently.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: You definitely write emails and texts differently.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like a hundred percent.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: You use a different voice.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nowadays with Chat GPT, you can just be like, hey, make it more formal, right?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like make it so that my teacher thinks that I'm a smarter person than I am, right?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like make it so that they think that I actually put the thought into this, whatever.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: We act all the time.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's what we do.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a bad thing, but it's real.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think we do it in our faith life.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I worry about that part being a bad thing.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is talking to his disciples.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is in the middle of what they call a Sermon on the Mount.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, When you pray, don't be like a hypocrite.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: They love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners so that people will see them.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: I assure you, that's the only reward they'll get.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: But when you pray, go to your room, shut the door, and pray to your father who is present in your secret place.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Your father who sees you will do in secret, will what you do in secret will reward you.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: When you pray, don't pour out your flood of empty words as the Gentiles do.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: They think that they'll be saying those words, they'll be heard, but don't be like them because your father knows what you need before you even ask.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then, by the way, the part we skipped, he goes into the Lord's prayer.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you forgive others their sins, your heavenly father will also forgive you, he says.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: In 16, when you fast, don't put on a sad face like the hypocrites.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: They distort their faces so people will know they are fasting.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: I assure you that they have their reward.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: When you fast, brush your hair, wash your face.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because we all need that reminder.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Then you won't look like you're fasting to people, but only to the Father who is present in the secret place.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Your father who sees in secret will reward you.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: How many times have you heard the word secret?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody counted.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Stop collecting treasures for your own benefit on earth, where moth and rust eat and destroy them, where thieves break in and steal them, and collect treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moth and rust don't eat them, and where thieves don't break in and steal them, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's as if he's saying, don't do this for the show of it.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I would say that if any of us are here in this space for the show of it, we probably need to start asking ourselves some introspective questions, some important questions.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Am I only here so that other people see me as being here?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Or am I here because I love this cross?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Am I only here because I want people to know that my faith is so strong and I'm reading the Bible like I'm supposed to, and I'm praying like I'm supposed to, and I just want to see, am I doing that just so they see that and they think, wow, what a cool Christian, or am I here because I love bowing to this cross?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that's hard to hear.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes I put on that guitar and I play a song I didn't want to play.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: I try to wake up every morning at 5:30.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: For being honest, it's more like 5.45.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: I do Wordle.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: I just lost my streak.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me about it.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even think about it.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: I had one of those days where you wake up a little late and you're like scatterbrained and whatever, and I didn't even think about the fact that I didn't do Wordle, and then the next morning it was like, begin your streak or something.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, I want to crawl back into bed.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I do Wordle and I try to read the devotion on my Bible app.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed that in the morning depth perception is really hard?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's really hard with Wordle, by the way.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like I always press the wrong buttons because I'm like half awake.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then I try to read the Bible app.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: The other day I was like starting a new one and it asked me if I wanted to do it in public or in private.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that's interesting.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because he says, don't pray like the hypocrites.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: He says, don't do that stuff.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you're fasting, you're gonna look a little flustered.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe brush your teeth, wash your hair, or brush your hair, wash your face.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Wash your teeth too.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I click private.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: We all put on this show.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's really interesting too.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: During Lent we talk about our own brokenness and sin.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: We do this with our own sin too.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed that it's very easy to point out someone else's sin, and not so easy when it comes to yours.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's because we're performing.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're performing.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: In the season of Lent, uh one of the invitations that we make as pastors to you as congregants is to give up something.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Traditionally, a lot of people have given up things like chocolate and soda and things that are not so great for you that you might have uh a problem with it.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: One of the other practices that you might uh practice in Lent as taking on something.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um so if you don't do babe daily Bible reading, I might encourage you.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: That might be something that you do.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Take on daily Bible reading.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can start with the Bible app, it is free to download, and you can read every translation in history of the world.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how they do that financially, but they do it.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I would encourage you to do that, and there's tons and tons of good devotions on there.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to do that.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you uh have not been coming to church on a regular basis, we meet Sundays at 11, except for these next two because of spring break.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I would love to see you here as we enter toward the Easter season.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be a good time for you to just get back into it.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Take on something.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in a place where you're like, man, I just need to take on this part of my relationship that needs work, or I need to give up a relationship that needs work, like I just need to take a break from that for a second.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'd encourage you to do that.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I don't encourage you to do is to go blabber about it to your friend.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Don't go talk about it to your friend, to share about it to your friend, because this work, this work is internal.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: This work is internal.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter what that person says or thinks or does or believes about what you believe.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: What it matters is whether you're willing to come to the cross.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter about the rest of it.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Do it internally.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I might encourage you give up something for land, take on something for land.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Don't tell a soul.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Use it as a chance for God to find you in the secret place.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: He said it a few times.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: To God to find you in the secret place.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know, those rewards that you're looking for, the approval that you're looking for, it ain't there.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's not in the public.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's not in the wow, look at me.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's not in the look how that better my sin is than theirs, or look how less that I do, or maybe their sin is worse.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's not in any of that.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's in the private space, in the secret place where God says, Hey, come to my cross so that I can show you your need for me.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what Lent's about.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: That we might humble ourselves enough to come to the cross.