Stop Hiding: The Truth about Hypocrisy

[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is Naim, and you've reached the Mosaic Church Podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content. If this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity, and I'd love for you to pay it forward. [00:00:39] Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you. Enjoy. [00:00:55] Good morning, friends. [00:00:58] Good. Good morning. Man, I love this church. [00:01:01] And this is a. This is gonna be a good. This already been a good morning, right? It's been a great morning. Yeah. There's a lot of clapping going on. It's like clapping. A lot of clapping. But, man, I just love. I just love our church. Love the people in the church, man. So good. [00:01:16] So good, so good. Anyways, got into it a little bit. Yeah. But, hey, last Friday, I was talking to someone, and she was talking about her block party. You know, Jeff mentioned block parties. She was so excited about her block party, and she was telling me all about it. She came in and she was like, this block party that I'm hosting, and her husband's hosting, Brian. [00:01:39] They're doing a mystery. Like, a murder mystery party. You guys heard of this? Okay. Yeah, Yeah. I don't know who's into murder mystery block parties or which parties people are. Okay. Who's not. You're not interested. You can't be like, this is too much. It's too much. Too much, right? So she's so excited about it. She's got this printout. She's like, this is gonna happen. You're gonna be a clue. And it's so fun because I'm like, she's not a teenager. You know what I'm saying? [00:02:07] She's an adult. But she's so excited about this game that they're gonna play. And I thought about it. I thought, you know. You know how. What's funny is that we all like to play games, you know? I mean, we make up games. Did you ever do that? Did you ever make up a game when you were younger? Anybody? Okay, Okay. I remember my brother said, like. He was like, I got a game. It's gonna be really great. Now, we were playing darts, but he was like, hey, let's make this interesting. Let's throw darts at each other. [00:02:37] I kid you not. It's a real true story. Let's do that. And so, yeah, he did. So we. The game was don't die, right? That was the game. Don't die. And so I lost because he threw a dart. It landed and stuck on my head, and I fainted. And that was the last time we played that game. [00:02:57] Anybody play hide and seek? Anybody? [00:02:59] The world plays hide and seek. The world plays hide and seek. So why am I talking about this? I'm talking about this because I think that for some of us, I think we're still playing hide and seek. [00:03:08] I didn't think. But it's not hide and seek. I think it's hide to seek. Now, what does that mean? What am I talking about? Well, this is part four of a series that we've been doing, and it's where we were having some really hard conversations because we're cleaning out some stuff. It's spring cleaning. So we cleaned out complacency, or we've talked about it. Prejudice. I mean, we're cleaning that out. Legalism was last week. And so today I want to clean out something that. [00:03:35] That involves hiding to seek. [00:03:42] What happens is that we. Sometimes we hide our flaws and our failures. Have you ever done that? Anybody? [00:03:48] You know, we hide our imperfections. We hide certain things about our personalities. We just hide, Hide to. To seek acceptance, to seek admiration, to seek comfort, to seek, you know, seek attention. We do. The problem is, is that when we do this, we play this hide to seek game, we end up playing the game of hypocrisy. [00:04:13] Anybody know any hypocrites in the house? [00:04:15] You're like, in the house. No, I'm not gonna point. I'm not gonna point. Not gonna happen. I'm with family. What's wrong with your name? I get it. I get it, right? Anybody heard of the fact that there's so many hypocrites in the church? Anybody heard that phrase? [00:04:30] Right? Right? Right. Welcome, guys. You guys are part of the team here. Yeah. So we're all. We're all hypocritical. We all are tempted to play the game. [00:04:39] Play the game of hiding, to seek certain things in our life. And I just want to say this out loud because I think for all of us, we have to acknowledge the fact that there are times in our life that we end up being hypocrites. We end up doing some things and coming across a certain way, which honestly, people might think that we are this kind of person, but we're really not. [00:04:59] You see, there are two kinds of people in you. There's a person you are, and then there's a person you want to be. And then sometimes there's another person, the person you're pretending to be. [00:05:10] But see, there's a Christian you are and the Christian you pretend to be. [00:05:14] The problem with pretending and the problem with the game of hypocrisy is that God can't really have a relationship with a pretend you, right? He's like, he wants to have a real relationship with a real person. [00:05:28] And that's tough. I just want us to know this, that we all end up playing that game because we all like games. We all end up playing hide to seek. We all end up playing the game of hypocrisy. And so I just want you to know, if you play that game, you can stop. [00:05:44] You know how you know hide and seek? When they say, okay, you can come out now. You can come out. The game's over. You can come out now. So what I wanna do is by the end of this message, I wanna give you the. The hope and the confidence and the grace to say, hey, I'm gonna come out. [00:05:59] I'm gonna stop playing this game. Cause I want you to know that God doesn't want you to play this game with him because he knows everything. [00:06:06] He knows where you are. Have you ever played the game hide and seek with a kid? [00:06:11] And they're hiding behind something which is like, I can see you. [00:06:15] Like, I can see you, but you just go along with it, right? You're like, where are you? [00:06:21] I wonder if God does that. Oh, my gosh. I didn't know. [00:06:25] I did not know. Thank you for confessing that. Oh, my gosh. What? [00:06:29] You struggle with that? [00:06:33] Wow. [00:06:34] No, no. God already. God already knows. God already knows. So there's hope. But let's try this. Let's try to see if we can get rid of hypocrisy. Let's talk about the issue with it. [00:06:49] The issue with it, here's my biggest issue, is that hypocrisy doesn't just hide, doesn't just hide others from you. [00:07:00] It does what? [00:07:03] It hides you from you. [00:07:05] Hypocrisy ends up deceiving us. We hide who we really are from ourselves. [00:07:12] So let me take you to a story. And this guy talks to Jesus and he finds this out right in real time as he's talking. [00:07:20] I mean, Jesus kind of points it out in a very loving and gracious way. He comes in going, okay, okay, this is the deal. The story is found in Mark. And so we'll jump right into it. And here's what it says. It says, there was a. Jesus was out there and they're in Jerusalem. A man comes running up to him, kneels down, and he calls him what? He says, good. What Good. What? Good Teacher? And he says, what must I do to have what? [00:07:43] Eternal life. Eternal life. And that phrase, as I mentioned before a couple of weeks ago, is. Is olam haba. Olam haba. Can you say that again? [00:07:53] Alam haba. It's this eternal life that doesn't say, like, I wanna get to heaven, no. How can I experience heaven here on earth? [00:08:00] The quality of life here. How can I experience a life that only exists in heaven? How can I have that kind of life? So he asked a great question, but then Jesus says this. He says, ha, ha, ha. Why do you. What? [00:08:12] Why do you call me Good? Have you ever talked to someone that you ask them a question and they answer the question, but not the question you asked? Right. Like, if someone says, hey, good morning, and you say, why is it good? [00:08:25] Why is the morning good? Like, you know, like, what are you doing? And Jesus seems to be like. He's like, okay, why do you call me good? But then he goes, only what? Only what? Only God's good. And I think he's hinting to the fact that he's hinting where, hey, you have a way to classify certain things in your life. You say, oh, that's good. Why? Because on the outside it looks good. [00:08:45] You end up looking like. [00:08:47] Just by stopping and not answering his question, he is kind of making a statement. And I think the audience knows a little bit about what's happening here. [00:08:56] He's basically saying, this is not gonna be a normal conversation, which, by the way, with Jesus is never a normal conversation. Never is, right? So he goes, hey, why do you call me good? Okay, okay, let's not talk about that. [00:09:07] That's another sermon. [00:09:10] But. But to answer your question, here's the deal. And he goes, in. What do we find? He goes in and he goes, hey, you know the Commandments, right? The Ten Commandments? You know those? Yeah. He goes, hey, you know, you must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not what? Steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not what? [00:09:26] Cheat anyone. [00:09:28] Honor who? [00:09:30] Mom and dad? Honor them? Yeah. You know those Right. You know those. And the guy says, this teacher. [00:09:36] He didn't say good because he learned. [00:09:38] He was like, I'm not calling a good guy good. No compliments to this guy. Teacher, teacher, listen. [00:09:48] I've obeyed these commandments since what, dude? He basically is like, listen, I've been about that life from a long time ago. [00:09:58] Listen, I'd. Like, when I was a little e. Little boy, I did this. I got this down. What are you talking about? I've been doing this my whole life. [00:10:07] Come on. Come on. [00:10:09] And I love it because it's like. [00:10:13] It basically communicates what hypocrisy does. [00:10:17] It hides us from what? [00:10:19] Ourselves. [00:10:21] We don't even see it. [00:10:22] See, I feel like sometimes when I am tempted to be a hypocrite, when I'm in that lane of hypocrisy, it's like, I didn't choose to get in that lane. You know, when you're driving and you don't choose to get in the lane, you just all of a sudden in the other lane, you're all of a sudden in that lane of like, hey, I'm always this guy. I'm this guy. I'm this guy. He's like, I've always done this. It's all good. [00:10:42] And then Jesus has this response which is really interesting, right? The first response that the writer writes down is Jesus looking at the man. What did he have? He had what? [00:10:53] He had genuine love for him. [00:10:56] He was like, man, I love. [00:11:01] Oh, man. It's like this idea of like, I know what you want, and I know what you pretend to be, but I see you. Like, genuine love means I see through this whole idea of, like, this extreme language that you're using. This. Oh, I've always done this. I see where that's coming from. But I'm telling you, you. You're not the guy that you think you are. [00:11:29] You're hiding certain things, and I'm about to expose it. I'm about to say, game over. [00:11:36] I'm about to do this. But he says, I love you. [00:11:40] All right? So here it is. [00:11:42] He just says this. He says, okay, so you gotta just do one more thing. You haven't done just one more thing. And the guy's like, you bring it. Bring it. [00:11:50] And he goes, okay, so go and sell your possessions and give it to what? [00:11:57] The poor. Give the money to the poor, and you'll have treasures in heaven. [00:12:02] And then do what? [00:12:05] Come, follow me. I mean, Jesus rarely, after he picked his disciples, would tell a person, you come, follow me. Like Come be one of mine. [00:12:17] Because there's something about this guy who wants to live a life. Like, something about him that tells me that I have hope, that there's a part of me that really wants to have eternal life, like, to live a certain kind of way, to be a certain kind of person. But there's always this struggle, and I find myself so hard to, like, navigate that, like, there's a part of us that really wants to be good and pure and noble. We want this. And Jesus has genuine love for us. But there is something that we have to do. [00:12:45] There's something that he's calling us to do. And he calls us. He's like, okay, then come follow me. Come follow me. And so this invitation, if you're one of the disciples, you're like, wow, okay, we're getting another one. I thought there was going to be 12. We're getting another one. [00:12:59] What's happening here? But he knew. He knew. He's like, dude, you've been hiding. Hypocrisy has been hiding you from you. You're not this person. Here's what's going to happen. You're not going to do this. See, that's the problem. I'm telling you something that you're not going to do. And then what happens? Right at this point, the man's face fell. [00:13:18] What? And then what happened? He went away. Because he had what? Many, many possessions. He's like, man, oh, man. [00:13:27] He went away. He went away. [00:13:30] See, the problem is that hypocrisy, this idea of hiding your flaws, hiding to seek admiration, to seek, you know, being enough, to seek value, to seek worth. That's a dangerous game we play. And religious people do it all the time. And if you're a person who has been following Jesus, I will tell you that it's so important that we clean this out. Because you could be so passionate about God, so passionate about religious things, so passionate about wanting to please God, but you could end up living a per. And becoming a person you never meant to. To be. See, the Pharisees, we pick on them. We give a lot of shade to, you know, the. The religious leaders in the New Testament. But these guys started off pure. They started off young. [00:14:15] They started off in their. In. In. In. In rabbi school, Jewish schools, learning this. And they didn't start off becoming these people who are hypocritical. No, they started off pure. [00:14:27] They start off pure. But what happened? [00:14:29] What happened? Jesus goes into this whole section, and I want to read parts of it because he's like, I want you to read the end of it, okay? Because it comes across like he's throwing a lot of shade on them. But I need you to understand what's happening here. So we kick it off here. He's talking to the Pharisees, okay? Because he's so fed up in what they're doing. Like they're living this kind of life, and they're pretending to be certain people, and then they're being super hypocrites. And people are losing faith in God and losing faith in the church and losing faith in the world. [00:15:05] And that's what happens when spiritual leaders do that. When leaders do that, when they pretend to be something they're not, we start losing faith in everything, in not just the system, but the world, people itself. You're like, how could these people who say these things could do that thing? [00:15:21] And we see it, right? We see it in politics. We see it in religious leaders. We see it in maybe even your church background. You. You see this. And so here, Jesus is pretty and he says. He says, what sorrow? What sorrow awaits you, teachers of religious law, you Pharisees? And then he calls them what hypocrites. He's like, you're playing the game. You're playing that game. He said, you're hypocrites. He says, for you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of what hell as you yourselves are. [00:15:58] I was like, what? Did he just cuss? I don't know. [00:16:02] Maybe. [00:16:03] Is he saying, what the Is wrong with you? Maybe. I don't know what's happening here. He goes on, right? He goes on. Next passage. He says, what sorrow awaits you, teachers of religious law, you Pharisees. Hypocrites. Hypocrites. You're playing the game. Here's what you do. You are careful to tithe even the tiniest. What income? Tiniest income, okay? From your herb gardens. But you ignore the more important aspects of the law, justice, man, mercy, faith. [00:16:38] Then he says, hey, hey, you need to. He says, you should tithe. Okay? You should tithe. Let's just repeat that one more time. [00:16:46] You're like, I'm not repeating that. Okay, okay. That's another sermon. Okay, okay. You should tithe. Yes. [00:16:55] Do not. Do not neglect what. [00:16:58] The more important things. [00:17:00] Then he goes on. He keeps on going. I mean, he's on a roll here. He says, what sorrow? What sorrow awaits you. It's the same feeling. [00:17:08] The guy who's like, I've been doing this my whole Life. Okay, Go sell stuff. Oh, no, I don't want to do it. [00:17:15] He's talking about that. Like this. What sorrow awaits you? Teachers. Teachers. You're teachers of religious law. You guys are the standards, you Pharisees, you hypocrites. You hypocrites. Because you're what he says you're. Let me explain it this way. He says, you're so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are what? [00:17:36] You're filthy, man. There's something inside of you. Filthy. You're full of greed. [00:17:42] I don't think you started that way. [00:17:44] And you're full of what? Self? What? [00:17:46] Yeah, you're full of it. [00:17:49] You're full of it. And then he says, and here's what's happening. You're blinded. You don't even see yourself. And then he calls him that. What does he say? You what? Blind? [00:18:00] He says you're blind. [00:18:02] I know you started off seeing really well, but you don't even see yourself. [00:18:06] You don't even see yourself. You're a blind Pharisees. First wash the inside of the cup. Like, just take care of the inside, and then the outside will become clean. That's how you do it. [00:18:20] That's how you do it. That's how you do it. So what is Jesus saying here? He's saying, frank, there's another way. [00:18:28] There's another way to do this. There's another way to do this. He goes on, he says, outwardly. Outwardly, you look like what? [00:18:38] I mean, righteous, man. People, have you ever met people like that? [00:18:43] Have you ever heard something in the news of a religious person or a person you admired, and they did something and it came out and it just wrecked you. [00:18:54] You're like, how could that person. [00:18:57] How could that person. I just want you to know they didn't start off that way. [00:19:02] They just started playing the game. [00:19:05] And the game gets them. [00:19:07] So, you know, like they say, don't hate the player, hate the game. [00:19:13] Well, yeah, you gotta hate the game, because the game gets you. [00:19:16] The game gets you all time. You look righteous but inward. Your hearts are filled with what? [00:19:22] Hypocrisy and lawlessness, man. And then Jesus says this. Okay, this is cool. [00:19:28] I think this is the. This is the. [00:19:30] This is where I want you to understand. [00:19:32] He ends all that, and then he says this. This is so beautiful. This is the same moment where he looks at that guy and he says, you know, I have genuine love for you, but. I know I have genuine love for you, but I'm gonna Tell you something. And you're not gonna come closer to me. Even though the invitation is come closer, you're actually gonna walk away. I'm about to tell you something. You're not, but I wish you would just turn around. But I'm gonna say this, and you're gonna walk away. And here he. He's talking to this Jewish religious community. And he says this. After he says all those things, he says, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. He's like, oh, my gosh. The city. [00:20:12] The city that what kills. [00:20:15] Kills the prophets. And you stone God's messengers. [00:20:20] Oh, he just. I mean, he's like. [00:20:23] He's like, you're. That. You're those people. [00:20:26] You've become the old Jerusalem. You've become people who kill prophets. You kill and stone them. [00:20:34] You didn't start off, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. And then he says this. How? What. How often. [00:20:40] How often I've wanted. [00:20:43] You know what Jesus is saying here? He's saying, I have dreamed about the possibility of you getting closer to me. [00:20:52] I have dreamed about the possibility of me comforting you. [00:20:57] I have wondered, could it be possible that this season you're in that regardless of what you've been through, you could actually get closer? I have thought that. Do you know God wonders about you? [00:21:12] He thinks about you. [00:21:15] I mean, I don't even know if this is blasphemous, but I would say maybe even he worries about you. [00:21:20] He goes, I just. [00:21:22] I just. [00:21:25] He's like, oh, Jerusalem. Oh, my gosh. I have so wanted to gather your children, your children together as a hen protects her chicks. [00:21:39] Like, all of a sudden, God becomes this. [00:21:42] I just want to be this mother to you. [00:21:45] I just want to comfort you. [00:21:47] But what? [00:21:49] But what? What's the word? But what? You or what? [00:21:52] You're not letting me. [00:21:56] You're not willing and you're walking away. [00:22:00] Hey, young ruler, you want eternal life? Come follow me. Let's do this. [00:22:07] Let's rock this town, man. Let's go. [00:22:10] But. Oh, yeah, by the way, you guys sell all the stuff, though, and you gotta come follow me. [00:22:16] But he was. What? Not. [00:22:18] He wasn't willing. [00:22:20] He wasn't willing. So what does it tell us? It tells us is there's a God out there who goes, hey, you're playing that game. [00:22:27] I want you to stop. [00:22:29] You can come out now. [00:22:31] You. No more hiding. Okay? But it has to start with something. It has to start with something, because hypocrisy says, number one. Keep pretending. [00:22:40] Keep pretending. Keep playing the game. Keep hiding. Keep concealing. Hypocrisy says you have to keep pretending that you are perfect. [00:22:50] You're perfect, you're perfect. There is no flaws. You have to keep concealing. So just come across as you're all perfect. And secondly, never ask for help. [00:23:02] Like, never, never, never, never. No, you have to seek help to be admired. [00:23:09] You never wanna come across like that. You need help. [00:23:14] And so hypocrisy basically says is you need to never come across as vulnerable and you always need to be prideful. [00:23:24] You basically need to keep your ego in check and your image intact. So basically it's saying is just keep on doing those things. Just don't be vulnerable and don't be humble. And the antidote, the thing that cleans out hypocrisy, what God actually tells us to do, is that exactly that you and I have to practice. And if you wanna know, okay, how do we stop playing the game? That's how you stop playing the game. You start practicing vulnerability and humility. [00:23:55] You always have to. That's the way to do it. So Paul, one of the apostles, he knew exactly, he knew this, he understood this because Paul was this guy who was like, listen, let me just tell you this. Like I was a Jewish guy. I pretended the game, I was a Pharisee, I did all these things. In fact, I persecuted the early church just so I could come across righteous. I had people killed. And then God took a hold of me and I'm telling you, it changed my life. And so here's what he says. He talks about this vulnerability. He says, let me just tell you, let me just tell you in Romans, he's writing to a Roman group of people, Jewish people who know the law, I mean high up society. And, and he says this, people who understand religion and tradition. And he says this, he says, I don't know what I'm doing. [00:24:41] Like, we just got a new Pope, right? [00:24:43] Okay, this Paul would be the Pope for that church. He would be the guy who would be like, he's gotta have it together. If someone's gotta get it together, Pope, Pope, you better have it together. You cannot say stuff like, you know what? I don't know what I'm doing. [00:24:58] Could you imagine his speech? Guys, could you imagine the Pope saying this? Okay, so I don't understand what I do. [00:25:06] For I don't do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I what hate. [00:25:14] Like, all I do is do, do like what's going on here. For even though the desire, the desire to do good is in me, he says, I am what I am. Not able to do it. [00:25:29] Could you imagine your leader coming up and saying, what is wrong with me? [00:25:40] Could you imagine a leader going, what is wrong with me? What is just so wrong with me? I didn't want to cuss her out, but I did. I did. I didn't want to do that. I said I would not do that, but that's exactly what I did. Have you ever done that? You're like, I'm not gonna say this. I'm not gonna say, oh, I said that. [00:25:58] I'm not gonna do this. I'm not gonna do this. I'm not gonna do this. I'm not gonna do this. I'm gonna do this. Okay. God, today. Today I'm gonna be disciplined today. [00:26:05] You know, you're in the shower, you make promises. You're like, God, I will do this. Just give me a good swipe on Bumble. I mean, just. Just help me out. [00:26:17] Help me out. I'll never do this. And then you do it. Then you do it. The weekend happened and you did it. Okay? And then he says this. He says, I don't do good that I want to do. [00:26:31] Instead, I do evil that I don't want to do. [00:26:35] What is Paul doing? He's practicing vulnerability. [00:26:41] He's saying, I know I'm supposed to be perfect. [00:26:45] I know I'm supposed to be. I'm supposed to lead this whole thing. [00:26:48] I know Jesus came to me and did this stuff, and I know, but I just gotta tell you, Ah, I don't do it. [00:26:57] I struggle with it. [00:26:59] I struggle with it. [00:27:01] Could you. Could you imagine living a life that says, hey, I'm not a perfect dad? [00:27:06] Because in your head you have voices that say, you are a terrible dad. [00:27:13] I'm not saying say that. [00:27:16] Don't say what you're hearing. [00:27:18] Say what you know. [00:27:21] Hey, I am not perfect. [00:27:23] I mess up. You know, your kids need to know you're not perfect. [00:27:26] Your friends need to know. Your employees need to know. [00:27:30] Your boss needs to know you're not perfect. You're not perfect. You mess up, you might mess up. And here's what you're doing. When you start doing that, you're not playing the game. [00:27:41] I'm not hiding. [00:27:43] I have an issue. I have a disability. I have a tendency. [00:27:48] This triggers me. I have. It's okay to say it. [00:27:54] I struggle with this sometimes, guys. I do. I wanna do good, but I don't do it. I struggle. Struggle with this. So you gotta practice that. Could you practice that? If you do, you're gonna wipe out hypocrisy. You're gonna stop playing the game. You're gonna come out of hiding. And the second is this whole hide to seek. The second is humility. [00:28:15] Cause to seek means I'm seeking something. I wanna fill my worth up because I, deep down, I feel empty. And I need someone else to tell me I'm okay. Because I apparently cannot say that I'm okay. [00:28:27] I can't do it. [00:28:28] But humility, humble people deep down have a strong sense of self worth. [00:28:36] It's just the prideful people who are saying, someone needs to tell me that I'm good, that I'm awesome, that I'm awesome. So the practice humility. Paul, in one of his other writings, here's what he says. I mean, I love this. I love this. He says this. He says, I prayed to God for all kinds of things. And there was a particular thing I prayed for. And I kept on praying, but nothing would change. Nothing would change. And I couldn't figure it out. I couldn't figure it out. And then I felt God say this. He says this. He says, my grace is sufficient for you. [00:29:11] Some of you probably heard this verse before, right? For what? For what he says, for my power. Say it with me. My power is what made perfect in weakness. [00:29:25] So let me explain this way. Paul says, you need to create space for God in your room, in your soul. [00:29:36] And when you fill your soul with pride, there is no space. [00:29:40] And so when you create a space called weakness, when you acknowledge the place called weakness, weakness is. Is the space that God will fill. [00:29:49] But if you come across like you have no weakness and you don't open up that door of your weakness, God cannot fill that. And he says so. His power grows and works perfectly in weakness. Not in our strength, not in our will, but in our what? [00:30:09] Weakness. [00:30:10] See, that's why this practice is so dangerous to hypocrisy. You're always gonna lose the game of hypocrisy. Why? Because you're like, I'm just being humble about this. [00:30:21] I'm just being honest about this. I'm just being honest about this. Hey, I can't do it on my own. Number one, I'm not perfect. Number two, I need help. [00:30:33] And for some of us, you grew up in a family that says, never say that, Never come across weak. [00:30:43] I grew up in a Middle Eastern culture. Oh, my gosh. Our culture is filled with that. You don't do that. [00:30:49] You're a man. [00:30:51] You are that. You don't show emotion. You show no weakness. [00:30:55] You don't do That I realized that if I don't create a space for God to fill, then how is God going to fill me? And it seems like Paul's saying, hey, weakness is that space that God fills. And then he says, and that's why, that's why, guys. That's why. That's why. That's why. I will what? I will what? [00:31:17] Boast. [00:31:19] I will boast about it. I'm not going to hide it. [00:31:23] No, no, I'm going to say it. I will gladly boast about it. Why? [00:31:30] So that what Christ's power may what, rest on me, he's like, I'm gonna boast about it. I need help. [00:31:39] So maybe, maybe because of your life, because of the hypocrisy in the church, in your family, you just end up playing the game. [00:31:52] You don't even know you're doing that. [00:31:54] It's not hide and seek. It's just hide to seek. [00:31:58] And you know, you know you've been in relationships and all of a sudden they stop playing it, and you're like, what, you look like that you like this person? [00:32:05] Because all this time they've been hiding who they really are. [00:32:08] And what would happen if you didn't have relationships like that? [00:32:12] What would happen if the church stopped hiding to seek? [00:32:19] What would happen? I'll tell you what would happen. [00:32:22] Everybody else wouldn't think we're hypocrites. [00:32:26] We would just. Because the problem is, is that if the church in the world, in the US always comes across like, hey, we're perfect and everything is great, so there's no vulnerability and there's no humility. [00:32:41] And so we end up playing the game of hypocrisy. [00:32:45] But, man, we could stop that today, now, in our homes, in our lives, right now. God, I'm not perfect. And also. And also I need help. [00:32:57] So here's what God wants to do. Yeah, here's what God wants to do. He wants you to know that he gave his son Jesus to cover all that, to cover all that. He gave Jesus to cover that. He says, you're not perfect and you need help. I'm gonna give you my son. [00:33:15] I'm gonna give you my son. I'm gonna give you my holy Spirit. [00:33:18] I'm gonna do this. And so what if, as we end today, what if you discovered, hey, hey, I can stop. [00:33:27] I mean, isn't it exhausting pretending to be someone you're not? [00:33:32] Oh, my gosh. [00:33:34] You always, always like, if, so and so, so and so, so and so. I hope no one looks at my phone I hope. No, it's just. It's exhausting. Because your soul was never meant to hide. [00:33:50] It was never meant to hide. [00:33:53] Like, you know, it's going back all the way to the garden. Why are you hiding? Well, I'm hiding because I was naked and I was ashamed. [00:34:00] Stop hiding. God didn't make you to hide. [00:34:04] So. [00:34:05] So today we're going to end in a song. And I love this song because it really speaks freedom over all you guys. And I just speak freedom and speak Jesus over you because I think for some of us, we just need to not play that game anymore. You're so exhausted. You're so tired, so let's just stop. [00:34:27] You can come out. [00:34:29] It's all good. [00:34:30] We're all not perfect. We all need help. We all need Jesus. [00:34:36] So let's do that. And also, I'll just say this before I pray, if there's someone here who's like, you know what? I do need to fresh start. I do need to do that. [00:34:44] Maybe you want to get baptized. I know that this morning we had one person, and now we have three already, because we come prepared for it. We have all the stuff you need. So during this song, if you feel like, man, I just really need to do that, just walk out that door, and we got everything for you. And then we'll love to baptize you. Start afresh. [00:35:03] Stop playing. Stop hiding. We can do this together. [00:35:07] Yeah. Let's stand. Can we do that? Yeah. Thanks, Lord God, thank youk. [00:35:14] Thank youk for our lives. Thank youk that yout love us. Thank youk that, God, that in the midst of all the things going on, God, you. You care so much about us. You look at us. [00:35:29] You look at us, and you have genuine love for us. [00:35:34] And then you say, hey, leave everything. Just come follow me. [00:35:40] God, I pray we would have the courage to do that today. [00:35:44] That regardless how we come and talk to you, what we claim to do and claim to be, and you just have genuine love for us, and you just. [00:35:53] And when you invite us to come closer, God, we would. [00:36:00] We would do it. [00:36:01] We would risk losing the things, the world that we've created to take on the world that you want to create for us. [00:36:11] So, God, I pray that would you speak to us as we just pray your name over us. [00:36:22] Yes, God, we just thank you for that. [00:36:26] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. [00:36:31] For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.