Jesus said 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 So whenever you give alms do not sound a trumpet before you as a hypocrite you in the synagogues and in the streets So that they may be praised by others Truly, I tell you they have received their reward 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 as secret and your father who sees and secret will reward you And whenever you pray do not be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners So that they may be seen by others Truly, I tell you they have received their reward But whenever you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret and Your father who sees in secret or reward you And whenever you fast do not look dismal like the hypocrites for they just figure their faces So I just show others that they're fasting Truly, I tell you they have received their reward But when you fast put oil on your head and wash your face 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 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where mom and rest consume and worth these break in and seal But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither mom nor rest consume and worth these do not break in and seal For where your treasure is there your heart will be also The gospel of the Lord Father the seeding may you open up our ears our hearts to your word We would that we would have ears to hear and eyes to see what the Spirit is leading us to this evening in Christ name Oh men, please be seated
history has produced many great people There are great actors They're great athletes They're great musicians and maybe one two great politicians. I'm not sure and people are considered great for many reasons that They're creativity They're courage their philanthropy their intellectual prowess. I have to confess something I'm a huge fan of Elon Musk. You know that is Yeah Elon Musk after some reason that this guy you either love him or hate him. Nobody's in the middle It here's a guy who started several companies sold several companies made tons of money Eventually he started this little company called PayPal He sold it and became a billionaire and all of that by the time he was 31 and
Then he started a space company making rockets. No one thought to be made a car company making cars People said no one would ever buy a Tunnel boring company to build tunnels so he could drive his electric cars He made a he started a solar company and then he's he's also started a company that is working on technology To connect the human brain to a computer Make clearly this guy is an overachiever and yet even Elon Musk In the grand scheme of things will amount to very little I mean not because he won't have a huge impact on humanity and for a very long time He's already made his mark. It's just that eventually he too will be forgotten
In some of the greatest people in history have been forgotten and We just take their contributions for granted as children. We are encouraged to do our best As young adults we strike out to make our mark and we have high ideals and lofty dreams and then as adults we eventually hit that crisis point Where we realize that those dreams those ideals is just probably not going to come true And sometimes we get to that point and we refuse to accept that reality. We We think we scramble for more We try to get people to respect us and on our ass We we deserve more We expect it to be treated as if we are something And we scrape and fight to be recognized or no So the South has this wonderful friends that I love It's multifaceted. It means so many different things. I have a died doctor a long time ago because it's just fine It goes like this Bless it hard. Oh, by her heart. Jesus trying so hard I mean if you raise your kids there would be even better around you know kids in the amount of time at all You know what I'm saying to get to that point and they start pushing back. They start feeling their ups, right? They want to take care of themselves. They're two years old and they want to pour their own them in their cereal And we just look at them and say oh Bless is hard As hopefully we're taking the milk away If you've been around Church of the Holy Spirit this last year you probably heard me say this a few times And it's this phrase that I keep trying to drill in our minds and in our hearts and it goes like this God is God and we are not And remember there's two circles there's a big circle and a little circle the big circle is God The little circle is us the little circle is not inside the big circle The little circle doesn't overlap With the big circle the little circle doesn't even touch the big circle God is God and we are not see God is Holy other He his nature and his attributes are completely different than ours I mean he is all powerful and we are not He is all knowing and we are not he is all see and we are not and he is eternal and We are temporal and yet from the first sin in the garden Humanity has gotten this all wrong Humanity has gone. He's right here. He's just a position of God They've gone out and said no, I'm going to take care of myself and Too often we too get this formula a little mixed up We think that we're so important that God needs us or that he depends on us And sometimes we think that we can't usurp his position in our lives and in our lives Of others and the psalmist offers us this correction and It's the same challenge That we are given an ash Wednesday is to reminder that we are dust And to dust we shall turn Some one of her also says as a father cares for his children. So the Lord cares for them that fear him But then he immediately explains who he's talking about and why this love is Extended to his children. He loves because he knows we are a mere dust Our days last no longer than the grass or the flowers of a field I mean consider the dandelion But you have a field of dandelion and when we get a good Lord of wind that comes through They're gone That's us Good strong wind And we're blown away In the grand scheme of things we are In consequential we are fragile and yet It's that fragility that draws us to him It's that fragility that magnifies his love a father loves his children for he knows That we are but dust and more than just simply being fragile He also knows that we are broken sinners desperately in need of someone to save us And here's the thing no matter how positive we may view the world no matter how good we think people in inherently are the reality is that each one of us is going to leave here and Before the end of the day we're going to do Think or say something awful
There's a good chance This is simply an indication of what I'm saying We are broken and need and we need someone to come and extend Mercy Because he ultimately any thought of human greatness is a complete sham Not only are we small and Forgettable we all have this desperate need that we cannot meet in ourselves And we cannot meet for other people through greatness in the world Can only be found in one place? And that is in God's mercy For as the heavens are high above the earth so his mercy is great upon those who fear him God does not leave us in our smallness and our depravity But he turns his eyes to us With his abiding love I mean the fact that we are mere dust that aligns are just small and inconsequential is actually assigned to us of God's grace Because we we according to the psalmist are are inconsequential but so very Consequential to God in grand scheme of things we We don't have that great of an impact on the earth and yet God gives his only son Jesus he might be able to draw us to him so that we the inconsequential ones might become consequential to him We who are fleeting are yet so precious to God And he has given everything to us He's removed our sins as far as the east is from the west God is God and we are not And though we are as temporal as the wind a thing that we can count on Is that the merciful goodness of God endures for effort? We bring nothing into this world. We take nothing out. What is what is eternal? As God's abiding mercy as he shows out to us You we cling to that mercy today and forever