Feeding Sheep S1E5 “Sermon on the Mount: Audience of One”

We are continuing steady in Season 1 titled “Back to the Basics.” Episode 5 will be the continuation of The Sermon on the Mount, called “Audience of One,” and we will be beginning Matthew 6.

The lessons in these first few verses deal with how we give alms, and public prayer. While there are instructions for both that we discuss, the main principle lesson—the message within the message is this, that whatever you do, you do it as unto the Lord.

We don’t give or pray for applause from men or to be noticed by our peers. We give as unto the Lord to bless others because that is His heart. He will reward what is done in secret. We don’t pray for men to hear us and fawn over how articulate with carry on, but so that God will hear and answer us. 

Giving and prayer are not tools that we manipulate to further our status in life or better our appearance. They are ways that we honor the Lord and His heart. A way in which we worship. 

In a world full of cameras, and trying to get the reel that’s gonna go viral, we must make sure that we are not exploiting the ones we are ministering to. We discuss the difference in accountability to those who may have partnered with us monetarily or through prayer to see God’s work done, and trying to get the “money” shot. Someone who has fallen on hard times doesn’t want their face plastered all over the internet of you giving them a meal. There are tactful ways of documenting outreaches that don’t demean or shame those that are receiving from those places. 

Next week we will discuss the Lord’s Prayer, and the structure that Jesus gave for those starting out in prayer. It is the ultimate model, the first model He gave to the people, so it’s worthy of paying attention to. If you’re not confident in your prayer life, don’t miss next week, because I believe the basics of prayer is just what you need. Just the launching pad you have been looking for!

I hope you enjoy this episode and will continue to follow along with us as we endeavor to walk this path together, and sit at the table of the Lord and feast together!

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or comments that you may have. We will do our best to answer in a timely manner either in writing or on another future episode! But we do want to hear from you and be able to interact with you. 

May God bless you! Can’t wait to see where we grow from here. It’s an honor to be able to speak into your lives, and I don’t take it for granted!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Good morning. Welcome to Feeding Sheep Podcast. What a joy it is to be with you again today. I hope this message finds you well, and we are going to be continuing in season one of Back to the Basics. We are you are joining us today for our fifth episode. I'm so excited. Um, and thank you for sticking in there with me. And let's uh and seeing where all of this goes. We're in our series called Back to the Basics. Um because the basics are the most important building blocks that that we have ever been given, and probably some of the least understood principles in the kingdom right now. Sometimes we want deep, deep revelation, but when we don't understand the basics, um, the great revelation that we have, we don't have anything to support or we don't have anything for that to be built upon or to stand upon because outside of the foundation of Jesus Christ, everything that we build, um our our um our big poles on the sides of our house, you know, our our weight-bearing walls are gonna be built by the basics to hold up everything else that the Lord shows us. And so um so that's what we're gonna be doing. I just wanted to do a brief little overview before we get in because we're gonna be starting in Matthew chapter six today. We're still in the Sermon on the Mount, um, but we have talked about discipleship and what that looks like, where the burden of discipleship actually falls, um, that that Jesus in his first sermon that he's ever gives out to the public, how important that it is to understand firsts in Scripture, what wherever we hear it first, whatever wherever we see it first, that is the lens by which we filter every other time that we ever see these things. And so Jesus' first sermon is going to be our point of reference for everything from here on out. So it's very important. We know that he wants us to live a blessed life, um, not blessed as in, you know, uh it's not a prosperity gospel that he is preaching, but in a way that we we live in accordance to his word, and there is a blessing uh that is commanded on living in accordance with the word of the Lord. He it is his will for us to be blessed and for us to prosper. Um, our calling, what our calling is, if you've ever struggled with what am I called to do, what is my purpose, why am I here on this earth? Jesus tells us the answer to that in our first in his first sermon ever, and it says, He said, You're called to be salt and light. Uh, you are called to be the light of the world, carriers of of Christ, and you are called to bring flavor and bring healing and um all of these other things to the earth by being the salt of the earth. Um we talked about personal relationships, how we treat our neighbors, how we treat our spouses, um, how we treat the world, how we treat those in the church, um, giving and what that looks like and going above and beyond for people, even when they would not go above and beyond for you. Uh, last week was one of my personal favorites because it really taught me so much. I even found myself bringing it up in conversations as as I went throughout the rest of my week up until this point, um, especially about turning the other cheek and the that we never really, you know, when that intimidation comes, we never really lose our place. Um the intimidator comes to make us feel less than, but we've never moved. Somebody's just exalted themselves to a place that they don't belong. And uh by turning the other cheek, we are not bringing ourselves up to a higher level. We are maintaining our position in Christ and calling others into accountability and introspection and actually causing them to have to come down off of their high horse, if you will, and get on level ground again. Um, so so that was really that was really exciting. Um this week, we are going to be talking about um about how Jesus talks about how we give and how we pray and the way that we should do that. But I believe that the principle behind this is that everything that we do, we are to do for an audience of one. We are to do things as unto the Lord and not for the approval of men. And while people benefit from the fruit of our lives being surrendered to Christ and followers of Christ as believers in his name and in his teaching and in his way, um, people are going to benefit from that. But we are not doing it for people and for them to love us and applaud us and all of those things, but we are doing it because, number one, we love the Lord because heaven bears the record, and all men will glorify our Father who is in heaven because they see him working in and through our lives. So if you will, let's just dive in and talk about the audience of one. Um, we're actually going to bust this up into two lessons because I want to, we're going to talk about giving and doing our alms in the streets and in public and what that looks like and what it doesn't look like, and we're going to tip the iceberg of prayer. And uh before we dive into what we know as the Lord's Prayer, I'm going to break there and we'll talk about the Lord's Prayer and prayer in general next week. Because I just feel like that that needs a whole, a whole segment in and of itself. So if you will with me, we're going to dive right into Matthew chapter six. I hope you've been learning a lot. Um, and if you want to hear more, I wish I could go and do a podcast every single day. Um, but right now in my life, that just doesn't look feasible. But I have been doing some snippets here and there uh from my front porch and different things like that. So if you want to hear more, uh, you can follow me on Facebook at Cody Boyette Ministries, or you can go to TikTok if you're a TikToker, and you can find me under Cody Boyette Ministries on TikTok as well. So thank you for subscribing either on Buzz Sprout, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or if you're listening on Facebook, thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for sharing, um, thank you for bringing people in. And I pray that you're being fed well and that you are enjoying our time together on feeding sheep. So Matthew 6, verse 1, it says, Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you that they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret, and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. So we're gonna stop at verse four right there. Um and Jesus is touching on the topic of giving what we would call alms. This is not your tithe. This is um this is an offering that is above the tithe that you would bring into the storehouse. This offering is specifically to go to those who are less fortunate, those who cannot uh do for themselves and who have no ability to pay you back. And uh so we call it alms, but it but it's just it's giving to those who are in need. Um some people will call it benevolence, whatever. It's just it's giving to those who will who are in need. And so Jesus says, beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. Okay, so so the first thing is not beware in in giving or you know, be careful in what you do, be careful who you want to see you. Because that is something that flows from our heart. Be careful, beware that you're not doing what you're doing to be noticed by people, or for people to be like, oh, she's such a great person, or he is just the best guy that I know. Um, because when we start doing for people and not for the Lord, um, our reward is in their applause. So um beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them, practicing your righteousness. I want I want us to take careful consideration of that because it takes work to walk in righteousness, because it is not just something that is inherent. It is something that we are learning. And if you're learning anything, and you know this from being in school, if you're gonna learn anything, you've got to do it over and over and over and over again. Um, and so every person that you meet, every every situation that you come in contact with is an opportunity for you to practice the principles and the ways and the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. So don't uh don't don't neglect an opportunity to grow in your learning and to grow in in righteousness, to grow in your ability to choose his way over your way, because our hearts are coming more into alignment with him. Um otherwise, you have no reward with your father who is in heaven. When you want to be re-rewarded by men, by their applause, by their compliments, um, you are looking to fill a void inside of yourself that only the Lord can fill. Um, people are never gonna fill it. Uh, no matter how many likes, no matter how many shares, no matter, no matter what. Um, if if we're doing it to please people, it's always going to be empty because people in and of themselves do not have the ability to complete us or to fulfill us. We were made by God. We were made in his likeness and in his image. And his approval, he is our father. His approval is the only one that really matters. He says, So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret, and your father who sees what is done in secret, he will reward you. So um in these times, obviously it is it is very self-explanatory. You don't have to get into a bunch of different dictionaries to understand what's going on here. He is saying that the men who are in the temple, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, those that are in the religious high places, um, that they're out here blasting it on the on the on the right and on the left hand that they are giving to the poor. They are good people, they are out here doing God's work. He said, I know what they do, and they've got their reward in full because they're gonna be like, oh wow, they're really killing it today. Look, look how they helped so-and-so. That was just, that was just wonderful. Wasn't that great? He said, That's their reward. He said, But you, when you do it, I want you to understand that the Lord isn't really concerned with what everybody else is doing. Um, he's never as concerned about not that he doesn't care about the world and he doesn't care about people who are lost, but what he understands is that lost folks are gonna do what lost folks do. But my people, I want my people to act different. My people are supposed to reflect me. So I'm gonna be honing in and I'm gonna be paying more attention to what you do as a believer than I am gonna be worried about what they're doing as an unbeliever. And that's what he's saying. But you, I know what they do, but when you do it, I know what quote unquote church folks do. I know, I know what those people do that say they represent me, but don't. He said, I know what the hypocrites do, but I don't want you to be like that. I want you to do it like this. I want you to give, and I want you to give so much in secret that from one hand to the next hand, you don't even know what's happened. That if you had a if you had a $20 bill in this hand, I don't even want I don't even want your right hand to know that your left hand had a 20 in it because you've you've already given it away. I don't even want it to just, I don't even I don't even want it to know. Um so that your so that your giving will be in secret and the one who sees in secret will be will reward you openly. When we do things in obedience to God, when we do them without the attention and the applause of men, God then is able to pour out a blessing upon us in the open. And how many of you would rather have the blessing of the Lord than the applause of the people? And I understand that sometimes we do things that are very public. Um, this thing that I'm doing right now, I'm not gonna exclude me because it's very public, it's very out in the open. But my heart, I'm not doing it so that you will like and share. Does it help when you like and share? Yes, but I'm not doing it for the likes and shares. Just the likes and the shares help you reach more people. The goal is to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The goal is to feed the sheep. Why? Because I love the Lord. And when I love the Lord, I will love his people. I will care about what he cares about. I care about his heart. Um, and and so we look on the outside and we see one thing, but God knows the posture of our heart. People may look and think, oh, well, she's so full of herself and she's so this and she's so that, and that's okay. You can think whatever you want to think. Amen. But heaven bears the record. Heaven knows what's happening. And and when heaven knows, he can bless you in front of those who curse you. He can, he can exalt you where people are trying to diminish you. He will put favor on your life, and he will set you in rooms that you're not even qualified to be in because of your obedience to him. So let the reward come from the Father. Don't don't tell everyone, you don't have to tell everybody everything. And this is such a this is such a prevalent thing in our society today because we live in an age where everyone has a phone, everyone can take a picture, everyone can record and all of those things. We also have kind of created an environment just in our world in general because of people and their misuse of finances and their misuse of donated funds and things uh lining their pockets instead of actually going to where it's supposed to go. Um, that if you don't have pictures of what you've done with the funds that you've been given, people will kind of call you into question and they'll want to be like, well, hey, where's the proof that you did what you did? Um and so that's just the way it is right now. But um, you know, if you're if you're posting pictures for accountability, that's one thing. But if you're posting pictures for publicity, that's another thing. Okay, if you're posting it so that people will be like, oh my goodness, oh, they're just the greatest, they're the they're the best church, they're the, you know, well, they're just out here everywhere doing all of the things, okay, that's that's not what it's for. If it's for accountability, okay, yes. If you if you if you ask for donations for something so that you could go out and do a certain type of ministry, yes, hey, you know, we went to the homeless shelter. Here's a picture of the sign, here's a picture of our table set up, but I don't have to exploit those that I'm called to give to. See, there's a way to do things tactfully, there's a way to do things that glorifies God, that holds us to accountability, that shares the good news, but also doesn't diminish or dishonor those that we have been called to love and serve. Somebody who hasn't had a bath in three weeks probably doesn't want their picture plastered up plastered all over social media just so that someone will know that you gave them $10. Uh I'm probably unpopular. People are probably gonna be like, well, sister Cody, well, whatever. Say whatever you gotta say. But there's a way that glorifies God, that honors God, that brings us into accountability with others, especially if we have asked for them to help us help others. Okay, there's there's a way to do that without exploiting people, without degrading people, without bringing them into shame or humiliation, because a lot of people that are are in situations where they can't help themselves are not in there by choice. Um, nobody woke up and said, Oh, I can't wait till I grow up and not be able to pay my light bill, or I can't wait until I grow up and something terrible happens and I'm living on the street. I can't, I can't wait to be homeless and have everybody supply my every need. Nobody does that. That's not on people. You have no idea what brought people to the place that it brought them. You know, oh, well, we can judge them because they're the addict, or they did this to themselves, or they chose this, or they chose that. You don't know. But for the grace of God, it could be you or it could be me. So we need to love like Jesus. We don't need to sound trumpets and sound alarms and and highlight every single thing. You know, I I do my best to be super conscientious of of what I post and who I post and if they're okay with it, um, you know, going on mission trips and things like that. I ask the mamas of these babies, is it okay if I share your baby? Is it, you know, is it okay if we put this on here? Some things I have recorded that no one will ever see. They're specifically for my memories only. Um, you know, but there is there's just there's a there's a right way and there's a wrong way. And it all is going to flow from the posture of the heart. If your posture is for the Lord to be glorified and to be held in accountability to your brothers and sisters who have sewn in and who have helped and who have participated or made it possible for you to be able to do what you're doing, um then yes. But but if it's for you to get the best shot so that you can go viral, so that you can do this or that, we need to examine what's going on on in here. What I'm doing, I'm doing because I love God first. Because if nobody ever sees it, as long as he sees my devotion, as long as he sees my obedience, then that's all that matters. As long as heaven bears the record, it doesn't matter if anybody in this earth knows it. Some of you may be going in to your churches and you may be cleaning the bathrooms or you may be taking out the trash and nobody ever knows it, but heaven bears the record. And the God who sees in secret and your labor of love and the things that you're doing, he will reward you openly. Okay. Um, going into verse five, when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. But truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. If you want to be seen, you're gonna figure out a way to be seen. It's just who do you want to see you? Who does it matter more if they see you or not? Does it matter more if the Lord sees you or if your neighbor sees you? Um sometimes sometimes just life be life in. And everybody's come from different backgrounds and grown up in different situations. Some people have lived in homes where where they didn't get any attention, where they were the black sheep of the family or what have you. It's left wounds, it's it's left these holes. Why? Because people cannot fill up people. People can hurt people, but people in and of themselves can never fulfill you because they didn't make you. They didn't create you. It's only the Lord. And if we don't endeavor to be healed, if we don't endeavor to bring those wounds to the Lord and surrender them, to admit them that yes, there is a problem inside, those wounds are gonna carry over and it's going to cause him seeing me to not be enough. When him seeing me is all that I ever need. It's all that you or I will ever need is for him to see us. He said, So these people, these hypocrites, they pray, they pray long prayers. They want to stand up in the middle of the church and they want to pray and pray and pray and pray, and they want to use all the big words, and they want to, you know, oh man, brother so-and-so, he sure can pray, or sister so-and-so, don't nobody pray like her. You want to pray in public, but you have no private prayer life. So the only time the Lord hears from you is whenever there's a microphone in your hand, or whenever there's a spotlight to be had. I'm telling you that that is not the way of the kingdom. That is not the principle of the Lord. Prayer is prayer is my communication with the Father. It's not a tool to impress. My prayer. A lot of people they won't even they won't even pray because they're like, well, I can't pray as good as so and so. Prayer is not about being impressive. Prayer is about communication with the Father. Prayer is about communicating with heaven and heaven, communicating back with me, telling him my needs in the In the in the best way, in the most humble way that I know how, in the most bold way that I know how to tell him. And him talking back to me. Prayer is while others are included in my prayers and covered in my prayers and affected by my prayers. My prayer does not leave my lips for people. Because God will move whether people hear it or not. God will move for me when I pray to him in secret. He knows my thoughts. He knows the intents of my heart. Before I'm ever speaking, he's already hearing. He understands my tears. Um it's it's not about all of the things that we have made it become. He said they want to be seen by men, and truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. If you want to be seen by people and you want to be impressive to people, congratulations. That's all you will ever have. That's it. Ooh, they sure can pray. And it's done. But you, I know what they do, but you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So don't be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. This is the verse that we're going to stop on. But when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your father who is in secret. I love this part. When I was um when I was 15 years old and I first started preaching, this is one of the revelations that the Lord gave me that has stuck with me throughout the entirety of my life. Um, I grew up in church, but I was raised by the Lord, by the Holy Spirit behind the door of my bedroom. I was raised behind the door. And that there is a difference in growing up in church and being raised behind the door in the secret place. When church doesn't just exist on a Sunday morning, a Sunday night, or a midweek service, but when, but when who you encounter in church comes home with you, whenever you take Jesus home with you outside of those four walls, and he gets in that secret place whenever you know church wasn't over for me whenever they said amen, because Jesus was real and he is real, just as real to me today as he was then. I took him home. I got in my bedroom, I shut the door, I shut the world out. He says, when you pray, I want you to go in your inner room. I want you to, I want everything that's happening, I want it to come from your inner room. What is that? That's my heart. That is that is the seat of your emotions. That is your deepest place. He said, I want to reside there. I want you to pray for me from there. I don't want you to pray, pray to me from your lips. I want, I want the abundance of your heart to speak. Uh whatever's in here is gonna come out. I I want to know what's in the root source. So when you pray, go into your inner room. Why? Because everything's exposed in that place. The good, the bad, the ugly. All of it's gonna be housed right in that inner chamber. And close your door. Shut out all of the distractions, shut out the access that everyone else has and get alone with me. There is a time. Is there a time to pray in corporate worship? Yes, there is a time and a place for that. But if there is no secret prayer, if there is no private prayer, there is no, there isn't, you have no business praying in public if you don't communicate with the Lord in private because what? You have no relationship, you have no source, you just have lip service. Scripture tells us that there would be a people who would serve me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. You can say all of the right things, but I've never been inside of your inner chamber. I've never, nothing's ever come from the inner room. It's always just been choked out from here up. Come on, you're serving, you're serving me from your carnal understanding. You're not letting me go in to that place that I desire to be. Close your door. Pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. I challenge you this week. Get alone with God in the secret place. Pray from your heart, be real and raw. Stop trying to make it sound so fancy. Stop downing yourself and not praying because you don't pray like so-and-so. The reason that some people pray the way they pray is because they pray all the time. Not because they just got this handbook that was like, okay, this is how you say the fancy words and this is how you impress people. No, the more you pray, the more you practice, the better you are going to become. Not that the goal to is to become the best prayer or whatever, but the goal is communication and relationship with the Lord to get out of that awkward phase that causes us to be silent and retreat and be timid and not want to talk to him. The more we talk to him, the more comfortable we become talking to him, the more we're able to pray. Then we're not just saying 10-second prayers. We're able to pray for five minutes, we're able to pray for 10 minutes, we're able to pray for 30 minutes, we're able to pray for an hour. Because we do it. The Father that sees what's done in secret will reward us openly and don't use these meaningless repetitions like the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they'll be heard for their many words. I cannot tell you how many times I've heard people pray and been like, What did they even say? I got our most gracious Heavenly Father, and then there was a bunch of big words after that. I don't even know what you said. Did you even even say anything? Or were you just talking in a great big circle? And then you just threw this amen on the end of it, and we called it a day. Like, what did you even say to God? Because people think that the more impressive that their language is, or the more this or that, like the better off you're gonna be. That it's just it's ridiculous. And the Lord says, so don't be like them. The principle here is don't be like them. Don't be like the wolves that are wrapped up in sheep's clothing. Don't be a goat. Don't be a hypocrite. Don't be like those who say that they're one thing, but really are not. He said, when you do it, be like me. Not me, Cody. Be like Jesus. Be like him. Okay? Don't be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. He's saying, I don't need you to say all these fancy things to me. I already know what you have need of. I just want to hear from you. I already know what you're gonna say. I already knew you were gonna have this problem six months ago. I knew it when you were born that this was gonna happen. I already knew. I just want to talk to you. So stop treating, stop treating prayer like you have to have this foreign language to speak it. Or if you don't pray in King James Version that God doesn't hear or understand you, He speaks English. He knows, He knows what's going on, He He speaks the language of you. And all you have to do is let Him in. And when we do that, we are doing it for Him. Make sure everything that we do is for Him. That is what the principle is in this part of the Sermon on the Mount. Everything that we do is for Him. Everything that your hand finds to do, do it mightily as unto the Lord and not unto men, knowing that He is the one who quote unquote signs my paychecks, knowing that He is the one that is going to reward me, knowing He is the one that is keeping the record, and that He is the settler of all accounts, and He knows what to do and when to do it. And so we are out of time today. Next week we are going to pick up on the Lord's Prayer and what our prayers should look like. I know we just tipped the iceberg of prayer today, but I hope you have a great rest of your Friday. Thank you for tuning in with us. And I look forward to being able to talk to you next time. Have a great weekend. Have a wonderful church service. I'm praying for you. Pray for me, friend. Have a great one. Bye.