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[WW] Blueprint: Pretending · The Wesley Word

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Wesley Word.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: We looked at last week Jesus talking about it's not just enough to you know say certain things, but he's concerned about your heart, right?
0:23
SPEAKER_00: And he talked about praying for your enemies and not just you know don't just don't just settle with not committing murder, but don't be angry either, right?
0:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, not just we talked about the moment of the maybe with adultery and other sins, of being careful how we let sin sort of creep into our lives.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: And you know, Jesus starts messing with your heart, Jesus starts telling you how to shine, that sort of stuff, it can be kind of kind of kind of daunting.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: And so um we're gonna keep going on.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: We got this, and I think one more week, maybe two more weeks of um Sermon on the Mount.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, it's been convicting for me.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: I hope it's been been good for you.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: Um tonight we're gonna look at chapter six.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: But before we do so, I invite you to pray with me.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: Holy and gracious God, we thank you for this day, for this time.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for apostas bar, thank you for conversations around the table.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for a good weekend, albeit a long weekend.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: We pray, oh God, that you would speak to us in some way.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that you would either speak through me or despite me, but in some way, we might experience you here tonight.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: We ask all this in Christ's name.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: So, one of my favorite holidays of all time is coming up.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite, probably is my favorite um Halloween, holiday.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: Halloween, yes, can't speak today, right?
1:33
SPEAKER_00: Halloween has been one of my favorite.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in New Orleans and we had spook houses.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Like Halloween was always done up big there, right?
1:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I love dressing up as a kid.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: I remember dressing up one year.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: I thought I was like super smart, and I went as like the mother-in-law from hell, right?
1:46
SPEAKER_00: And I had this like scary mask on.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: I wore this dress, uh, like skirt, and had this like big bra and I thought it was cool stuff in seventh grade, right?
1:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, I did not find that picture, so thank you, Steve, for not having that picture.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Um I'll see if I can find it sometime.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, I did other things I can't talk about, but I had some good costumes, right?
2:03
SPEAKER_00: I love doing it.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, right?
2:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, one thing I thought was cool to be like a streaker one year, but I had a trench coat on.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: If I'm not streaking, I had a trench coat on.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: This is all like middle school.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: Steve was kind of crazy.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I love Halloween, I love being able to dress up.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: And some of you may know, but uh about five years ago, Finley was was um getting ready.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: She her birthday is in October, mine's in October, October 2nd, two weeks, get excited and turning 40.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: Can't wait, it's gonna be a party.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: Um she said, Dad, I'm I'm dressing up for Halloween and I'm having my party on Halloween, and I'm gonna be a butterfly.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, baby, you're gonna be the beautiful butterfly, like that's awesome.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Yeah, and you're gonna be my flower.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: I was like, What?
2:41
SPEAKER_00: You know, and she's like, Yeah, you're gonna be my pink flower.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, baby, anything you say, you got it, right?
2:46
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, this is Halloween.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: You got this, Adam, right?
2:48
SPEAKER_00: This is Halloween from five years ago, maybe.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'll the pink flower, and that was my precious little butterfly, right?
2:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, she's like, Dad, you put mustard on your face?
2:57
SPEAKER_00: I was like, No, that's nasty, crusty paint from Walmart.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I made my own pink flower.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: And then um, surprisingly, some students showed up at our Halloween party because we have a Halloween party in our driveway in the senior class that year, you can go to that next picture.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: This is just like a little lanyap, I thought it was cool.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: They dressed up as all the different Steves.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: I kind of warmed my heart a little bit right.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: They got Yoga Steve on the bottom, uh, Beach Steve on our beach trip.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the baby was going on down in the bottom corner, but they got seminary Steve.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: You notice the young Christopher Nealan up there from five years ago, right?
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh up there.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, it was I just love Halloween because I love that you can you can put on all these different costumes and you can do, you can drop that if you want to, we can analyze that later.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: Um we get to put on all these different costumes and we get to pretend uh and be whoever we want to be for that day.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: The question I think that comes up for us tonight uh that I want to sort of focus on is have you ever pretended to be something that you're not?
3:49
SPEAKER_00: Or have you ever pretended to be something in your faith that you're not?
3:53
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was to impress someone, maybe it was to impress yourself, maybe it was to fit in, but have you ever pretended to be something that you're not?
4:00
SPEAKER_00: I'll go ahead and say that I have, right?
4:02
SPEAKER_00: We probably all have, but I'll own it.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: I have.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: I pretended to be something that I'm not.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, but what Jesus gets at today in the sixth chapter of Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount is we're looking at what does he have to say about pretending?
4:14
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to pretend to be a person of faith?
4:16
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to pretend about our character and our integrity?
4:19
SPEAKER_00: And he gets into what does it mean to have an authentic faith and to be, you know, when you peel back the mask, you're still the same person that's there, right?
4:27
SPEAKER_00: So Matthew 5.48, I think we had that scripture.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: We looked at this a little bit last week, uh just a touch.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: He says, Matthew 5.48, uh, be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: And we mentioned that word perfect there is telios, and it's not necessarily perfect, like never make a mistake, but it's more Jesus saying, I want you to be complete.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: I want you to be mature, I want you to be the person that God has created you to be.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means in that perfect there is to be the person that God has created you to be, right?
4:55
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean you don't make mistakes, but what does it mean to mature and to be into that person, right?
5:00
SPEAKER_00: And then we go from there and we get to our text tonight, uh verses six, chapter six, verse one.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: He says, right after that, he rolls into be perfect, and he says, beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your father in heaven.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna stop there for now, right?
5:16
SPEAKER_00: So we go from this idea of like be perfect, but then also be careful practicing your piety, right?
5:21
SPEAKER_00: And two weeks ago, we started this series and we looked at Jesus saying, I want you to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: He's like, go practice it before everybody so they can see it.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: And then like one chapter later, Jesus is like, yo, don't practice your piety before people, right?
5:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Jesus, what which one are you, right?
5:37
SPEAKER_00: We got Old Testament, New Testament going on.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: What's happened here?
5:40
SPEAKER_00: Make up your mind, Jesus, right?
5:42
SPEAKER_00: What's he talking about there?
5:45
SPEAKER_00: I think what he's saying is you can have the same action, but very different motives.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus is talking about in chapter six is this idea of what are you pretending to be or not be, and what are your motives in doing what it is that you are doing, right?
6:00
SPEAKER_00: And he gives us these three actions.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's finish that.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Right.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: So, verse one, be aware of practicing, and it goes into this.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: He says, Whenever you give alms, right, whenever you give money, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: But truly I tell you, they have received their reward.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you, right?
6:27
SPEAKER_00: Now, Jesus is speaking hyperbole here, and we talked about that last week as well, right?
6:31
SPEAKER_00: It means like a big thing, right?
6:32
SPEAKER_00: People were not actually going out and blowing trumpets before they gave to the poor, right?
6:37
SPEAKER_00: Um most of our bodies, like we're gonna, our left hand is gonna know what our right hand are doing, right?
6:41
SPEAKER_00: They're they're synced up there, right?
6:43
SPEAKER_00: But he's saying, right, again, what is your motive in in giving?
6:47
SPEAKER_00: What is your motive in doing these generous gifts and these generous acts, right?
6:51
SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, like, we all like a little affirmation, though, right?
6:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, or I would say I like to be affirmed, right?
6:57
SPEAKER_00: That's actually one of the love languages out there.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: And actually, I've grown into like words of affirmation, they've sort of grown up on mine, right?
7:02
SPEAKER_00: We like to have ourselves patted on the back as a young kid.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: We want to be affirmed, right?
7:06
SPEAKER_00: And we don't have that affirmation, you know, that we want even more when we grow up later on.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: But he's saying, be careful.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: What's your motive in giving, right?
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Don't just blow the trumpets.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Don't do everything so that people can see that you're doing it, but instead just get it done and be giving.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: He goes on another example there in Matthew 6.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, we're gonna kind of blow through these pretty quick.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: He says, And whenever you pray, right, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in synagogues on the street corners, so that they may be seen by others.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: But whenever you pray, go into your room, shut the door, pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: And when you're praying, do not heap on empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because there are many words.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: Right?
8:00
SPEAKER_00: So be careful how you pray.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, right, Paul tells us to pray without ceasing, right?
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Never stop, all this kind of stuff.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: And it's okay to pray out loud.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: It's not what the message is saying here.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you, like, preparing for this last week, knowing that I just prayed in front of 80,000 people in the stadium, um, Death Valley, I was kind of like, ah, Jesus, did I mess up?
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Right?
8:21
SPEAKER_00: So I not do the invocation before the football game, what's happening there, right?
8:25
SPEAKER_00: But instead, he's saying, again, what are your motives?
8:29
SPEAKER_00: Are you being authentic in your prayer life?
8:32
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to pray out loud, it's okay to pray in the circle at the end, it's okay to volunteer to give thanks before um meals and even out here before um our big deal.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: But are you praying in an authentic way?
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Are you praying so that God might hear you, God might know your heart, and it might transform your heart?
8:49
SPEAKER_00: Or are you praying in a beautiful way so that others can say, ooh, good prayer, right?
8:53
SPEAKER_00: It's been weird all week for me, right?
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Because I was like, I loved your invocation.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I just said words, but thank you, right?
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's kind of a weird spot in that because it's not about me, it's about hopefully showing a little glimpse of thanksgiving towards God.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: But again, this idea of what is your motive?
9:06
SPEAKER_00: Who are we pretending to be?
9:08
SPEAKER_00: Are we doing this in an authentic way?
9:10
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, I don't know if you do much fasting, um, he says, and whenever you fast, do not look dismal like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: Truly I tell you, they have received a reward.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: But when you fast, put oil on your head, wash your face, right?
9:26
SPEAKER_00: Get cleaned up, um, so that your fasting may be seen not by others, but by your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you, right?
9:36
SPEAKER_00: He goes on to talk about this again.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Everything you do, make sure you're doing it for the right reasons.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: I had a podcast, here we go.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: I had a friend in college, may or may not be my roommate, he was my roommate, and he would like fast a few times a semester.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: And when this person fasted, everyone at Clemson University knew that they were fasting, right?
9:55
SPEAKER_00: Um anywhere he went, he's like, oh, I'm fasting, I can't do it, I'm fasting, I'm fasting for Jesus, I'm fasting for Jesus, right?
10:01
SPEAKER_00: And it kind of gets at what Jesus is saying here, right?
10:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're doing something for God, if you're doing something authentically, you shouldn't be doing it so that others know that you're doing it and you're putting it on display.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: Instead, if you're gonna practice a spiritual practice of fasting, you know, clean yourself up a little bit, wash your face, make sure that people don't know.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're like giving something up like for lent or something, um, or you're fasting, it's okay if you go to someone's house and they're offering you something to be able to say, Oh, I'm fasting, no, thank you.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's okay.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: But to be wearing a big sign or holding up the sign saying, I'm fasting for Jesus, look at me, is what Jesus is getting at here, right?
10:33
SPEAKER_00: Be careful how you fast.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: Don't disfigure your face, don't walk around saying, tell anybody you're starving.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: But what is your motive?
10:40
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing behind this, right?
10:43
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus gets at here is he talks about these hyperboles from the the hypocrites who blow their trumpets on the street, the hypocrites who play uh who pray uh in a wrong way, the hypocrites who put on their face, right?
10:58
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus is getting at here, and he uses the word hypocrite, um, was actually back there in the first century, the word hypocrite was actually for like play actors.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: And it was people who were actually putting on costumes and pretending, playing the role of someone that they weren't, right?
11:13
SPEAKER_00: That's where Jesus gets that from.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: And so he's saying, What role are you trying to play, right?
11:18
SPEAKER_00: What or do you have integrity in what you're doing?
11:20
SPEAKER_00: Is a better way to look at that, right?
11:22
SPEAKER_00: Do you have integrity with what you're doing that?
11:24
SPEAKER_00: Or another another way Jesus, I think, is getting at to us tonight is does your faith or religion serve your own ego, or is it serving God?
11:33
SPEAKER_00: And if we're honest, or if I'm honest, I won't say we, I'll I'll just be honest with myself, that I struggle with this.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: We all struggle with this at times if we're honest with ourselves.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: We come down and Jesus says, you know, which God are you gonna worship?
11:44
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna worship the God of you, the God of your own ego, or are you going to worship me?
11:50
SPEAKER_00: Right?
11:50
SPEAKER_00: Now we struggle with this, and I want to make a distinction here because uh John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, is actually where Wesley comes to Wesley's named after a long time ago, struggled with his own faith, right?
12:00
SPEAKER_00: And what I'm getting at is not about struggling with your own faith.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: So I don't want you to think um, you know, I'm a fraud, I'm pretending because I don't really have this Jesus thing figured out, but I'm here at Wesley tonight, and I'm not sure.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: That's not what we're getting at.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: In fact, John Wesley struggled with his faith so much.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: He was a pastor, a preacher, and believe it or not, preachers struggle with this sometimes.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, where he was had this moment where he was talking to this other pastor, Peter Bowler, and he was like, Look, I don't I don't think I should be preaching anymore.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if my faith is up to snuff.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure that I've got this all figured out and I'm really struggling and I'm wrestling, and I I think I should just stop preaching.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
12:34
SPEAKER_00: And dude said, by no means.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: We don't use that language anymore, but we should bring that back.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: By no means, right?
12:39
SPEAKER_00: He said, by no means, keep preaching.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: He said, keep preaching faith until you have it, and then once you have it, you will preach faith even more.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: And what he was getting at there is not saying you're a hypocrite if you don't have your faith life all figured out, because I'll be the first to tell you my faith life is not all figured out, and I still preach pretty often, right?
12:57
SPEAKER_00: But instead he's saying it's okay to practice, it's okay to grow, and eventually you will become what you practice, right?
13:02
SPEAKER_00: If you practice good disciplines, if you practice the spiritual disciplines, they will eventually take on more and more meaning for you and will become the more and more authentic you as you live in there.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: Well, what Jesus is getting at here, right, and he said, or sorry, he's saying it's okay to struggle at times, it's okay to grow into the person you're you're called to be, right?
13:20
SPEAKER_00: That's a growth process.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: But again, the question what Jesus was getting at on these hypocrites and these Pharisees, and the question for us tonight that I encourage you to wrestle with is again, uh who is gonna sit on the throne of your heart?
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Is it about you and you looking good in front of others, right?
13:38
SPEAKER_00: Doing the Christian ease things that you do, or is it Jesus?
13:42
SPEAKER_00: And it's something that I wrestle with constantly, right?
13:45
SPEAKER_00: Am I gonna bow down to my own ego or am I gonna bow down to the Lord?
13:49
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus talks about this, right?
13:51
SPEAKER_00: If we look closer at Matthew 6, and I know we're a bunch of, you know, we don't have brand Bibles, that's okay.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Um in six, he talks about um, yeah, we look at that one.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: No one can serve two masters, and he talks about wealth here, but also the ego as well.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, for a slave will hate either one.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that one.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: You can't serve two masters.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: And then before that, though, also in the prayer, he tells his disciples, right, um, as you're figuring out how to pray, he says, also pray in this way.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: And he talks about the Lord's prayer.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: And when I was preaching the vine, I did a whole series on this uh last semester.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: I think I did six weeks on the on it.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: And you'll notice if you say the Lord's Prayer, our Father, right, the words that are done there, right, are your kingdom come, your will be done.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says to practice that, right?
14:34
SPEAKER_00: Because when we pray, it's not like when we pray, it like reveals these secrets to God.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: Like when you go to God and you're like, God, I'm struggling.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: It's not like God's up there, like, oh, oh my goodness, they're struggling, right?
14:46
SPEAKER_00: No, God knows everything.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you're all awake tonight, right?
14:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh God knows everything.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: But when you pray, it it works on your own heart, right?
14:54
SPEAKER_00: And it allows you to like be like, okay, it's okay, like I'm I'm struggling, God, I need some help.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: It begins to soften your own heart and to shape your own heart.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: And so when you pray the Lord's Prayer and you say those words, and again, back in the day, they would pray two, three, four times a day, and I would encourage you to pray multiple times a day.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: When you begin to pray on your heart, Lord, your will be done, not mine, right?
15:13
SPEAKER_00: Your kingdom come, right?
15:15
SPEAKER_00: For your for thine is the kingdom, thine is the power, thine is the glory.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: It begins to shape in your heart and shape in your own faith life, to put Jesus on the throne of your heart and to take the ego off of it.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: Jesus reminds us in the verse we just read, you can't serve two masters.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: You can't serve yourself and God at the same time, right?
15:35
SPEAKER_00: Only one can sit on the throne to use that language.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: And he tells us at the end of the chapter in Matthew 6, 33, he says, if you seek ye first the kingdom of God, right, and all his righteousness, all these other things, all everything will sort of fall into place.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: And so the question I encourage you to wrestle with tonight as you as we think about it, and again, this has been a convicting thing for me to work on throughout the week who sits on the throne of your heart, and what are the motivations behind what you do as a person of faith?
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Are you growing, right, and you mess up and you go back and forth, and that's okay?
16:08
SPEAKER_00: Are you doing what you're doing because you love to have the pat on the back and the affirmation?
16:12
SPEAKER_00: And even that's okay sometimes.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: But what's gonna win out?
16:16
SPEAKER_00: What's gonna be on the throne, right?
16:18
SPEAKER_00: We all pretend sometimes, but my goal for myself and I hope for you as well is that I I don't wanna be a fake Christian.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be a pretend Christian.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna be a perfect person of faith.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna be a perfect Christian, but I don't want to be a pretend one.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: I want to be a person that has an authentic faith.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: And that means sometimes I gotta admit and say, look, I'm just struggling in this area.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: I want to be able to say that.
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SPEAKER_00: I don't want to have to put the Halloween costume on when I'm around my community of faith.
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SPEAKER_00: I don't want to put my Halloween costume on when I speak about Jesus.
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SPEAKER_00: I want to be able to be authentically me and wherever that is on the process.
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SPEAKER_00: And my prayer is that you can be authentically you as well.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
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SPEAKER_00: Holy and gracious God, we give you thanks for this time of worship.
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SPEAKER_00: We give you thanks, oh Lord, for your instruction, as tough as it may be sometimes.
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SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we mask up and we mask up quick.
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SPEAKER_00: And for some of us, it's because we do wrestle with who's on the throne of our hearts, but for others of us, we do it because we have to feel like we need to fit in here, even at Wesley or the place of worship that we find ourselves in.
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SPEAKER_00: But God, grant us the courage to peel back the layers.
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SPEAKER_00: Grant us the strength to take off our mask.
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SPEAKER_00: And if we're still growing, God, help us to find people to help us grow.
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SPEAKER_00: And thank you for your grace, O Lord.
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SPEAKER_00: But God, for the times that we truly do wrestle, and for the times when we let ourselves win out over you, we confess, oh God, that today that sin.
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SPEAKER_00: And we give you thanks, O Lord, that you are the God of grace that doesn't require perfect people to come into your presence, but that you bust up into our space when we aren't perfect, and you say, I got you.
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SPEAKER_00: Follow me, walk with me, and you'll show us the way that leads to life.
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SPEAKER_00: For that we are thankful, oh God.
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SPEAKER_00: We love you, we praise you.
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SPEAKER_00: We ask all this in Christ's name.
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SPEAKER_00: Amen.
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SPEAKER_00: The Wesley Word is a production of the Clemson Wesley Foundation.
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SPEAKER_00: For more information about Clemson Wesley, check out our website or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
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SPEAKER_00: Until next time, get out there and love your neighbor.