In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal experience of attending a seminar with a fellow preacher who appeared to lack discipline and professionalism. Despite this, the speaker agreed to preach for him the following day. However, the situation worsened when the preacher asked for contributions to his ministry after the service had ended. The speaker's daughter was upset by this, as people had given their offerings thinking it was for her father's ministry. The sermon then transitions to a discussion about the challenges and pressures we face in life, suggesting that God allows us to be tested and refined. The speaker also mentions the favor of God and the potential for success, power, and wealth in the future.

They were the ones that were supposed to be guiding and leading the children of Israel in the ways of God. And because of their hypocrisy, they had made an utter mockery of the holiness and the righteousness of God. And had reduced it down to a whole bunch of little picky commandments and laws and rules that would serve their own purpose. And had led the children of Israel completely astray. They had failed utterly in their task to represent or to pastor or shepherd the children of Israel in a way they needed to be shepherded. And this is what grieved the heart of God. That this kind of duplicity, this kind of sin, this tragedy of hypocrisy, which was nurtured and spawned out of the religious traditions that men created for themselves to serve their own purpose. And what I'm saying is that we are heirs to a lot of that by our own religious background. And even a number of you agape kids who are here who come in out of the drugs or off the streets and things like that. You may have never had any church tradition as some of us older people have. Some of those of us who were in church denominations and had a lot of this. But I'll tell you something, every time we get started in something new in the way of religion, we're in danger of creating those same traditions ourselves. And this is one of the reasons why I'm trying to sound the warning against this. Is that our very success and the very blessing of God upon what we're doing to create something new and fine and wonderful to lead people into the kingdom. If we don't watch it, we can begin to pick up all the same religious trappings. All the same, not the same, but our own set of religious trappings, our own set of shibboleths, our own set of rules and customs and traditions which will siphon the life right out of what God has given us in our midst. I think another reason why God was so hard on the hypocrites, why the Lord was so hard on the hypocrites, is that if there is any way at all to break them out of what, of the trap they're in, it takes that kind of talk. You see that Jesus said about the, to his disciples and to the scribes and Pharisees, he says, well turn with me in Matthew chapter 9, where he makes a reference to it. The reason he's hard on the scribes and Pharisees is that they don't know the despicable place they're in. They don't know the tragic situation that they're in. Verse 10 in Matthew chapter 9, it came to pass as Jesus said it meet in the house, behold many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and with his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans and with sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, they that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Now what Jesus is referring to here is that it's the scribe, it's the sinners and the publicans and the poor people and the downtrodden people who know they're in trouble, the sinners, those are the ones that can receive ministry. The righteous, the self-righteous, can't. A self-righteous person can't be called to repentance because he thinks he's righteous. He thinks he's well. If a man thinks he's well, he doesn't have any need of a physician. Jesus said I'm in a great position, I've come to heal the sick, but I can't do anything for people who think they're well. I've come to offer forgiveness to those who know they're sinners, I can't do anything for people who think they're righteous. And I think, almost in desperation, Jesus would lash out this way, somehow trying to crack that veneer of that kind of hypocrisy, which is so deadly. And most of us who've had experience in churches in times past have come in contact with it. When I was first ordained in the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, where my ordination was, the denomination which I was ordained, my first church was in Washington, D.C., and the chairman of the Board of Elders was a typical religious hypocrite. Now, I don't say that to be critical, I just say that as an observation of truth. He was a fine, dignified man, about seventy years old, who could pray the most beautiful prayers at the communion table that you ever could hear. He'd been chairman of the Board of Elders for about fifteen years. He'd been superintendent of the Sunday School for about ten years, and he just ruled the roost in that church. And here I was, I was a young seminary graduate, not dry behind the ears, and it didn't take me long after I got in that church to realize if I got anything done, I was going to have to soft-soap this man, that that's just the way it worked. And everybody else in the church deferred to his pontificating and deferred to his temper, because every time something went right that he didn't like, he'd get angry and puff up like a toad and begin to pontificate, and everybody would give in to him. Well, I'm not a real courageous person by nature. I tend to be a little shy and easygoing, but I got fed up with that after a few months, and I talked to the chairman of the Board of Deacons. We were going to have a little committee meeting one night about some church policy or rules, and this chairman of the Elders was going to be there. And I knew from things that happened before that he wasn't going to like what we were going to suggest. So we were sitting around the table in this little Sunday school room. We had this committee meeting talking about these things, and this elder was there. He was sort of ramrodding the thing as we began the discussion, and I made this proposal. He began to talk about all the reasons why it wasn't to be done. He got out his pencil, and he had his paper, and he was tapping his pencil on the thing, as he told me the reasons why, told us all why that was not going to be what the church would do, that he'd been the chairman of the Elders for ten years, and nothing like that had ever been done before, and it wasn't about to be done now. So he went on like this, very, you know, in his eloquent kind of way, and getting a little shaky. So he stopped for a minute, and I kind of kicked the chairman of the Deacons under the table on the foot, and I looked at this elder, and I said, Can I ask you a question? And he said, Yes. And I said, Will you tell me why is it that every time anybody says anything that you don't agree with, that you have to blow your stack? You know, why do you have to get upset? And I thought I'd seen him upset before, but I hadn't. He began to tremble with rage. He had this pencil in his hand, and he looked like this, and he snapped that pencil in two, and he was literally bawling. He said, I'm not angry. He says, This is righteous indignation. And he meant it. He meant it. He felt he had every right, because of his years in the church, to act in that selfish, bigoted, self-centered, bullying way, and he thought he was being spiritual. And I tell you, he could pray prayers at the communion table that would move you to tears. And I realized that the only way, even in those years, the only way to try to break through that was finally to confront it. And I didn't do it as Jesus would have done. I didn't really try to pin his ears back. I just tried to make him face what he was doing. And, of course, it didn't get anywhere. We all got castigated for the next 30 minutes, and then the meeting was canceled, and I crawled back up to the parsonage and had Alice tend my wounds after that meeting. But that's the kind of thing that gets a hold upon any kind of religious person, and none of us are too far from it at any time. Now, we might not be as obvious as that brother was, but it's the kind of thing that continually threatens the progress of the kingdom of God. And the thing that's so bad about it is that the people who are caught in it don't see it. It's self-deception, you see. The thing about a person who is self-deceived is that he can't realize that he's in deception. Now, in what we're in today, that sort of thing goes on. It's not as obvious or as superficial as what I was talking about in that elder in the church. But there are good men of God, leaders in the body of Christ today, who are suffering from the same kind of thing, a kind of hypocrisy which is wreaking all kinds of havoc in the body of Christ. That men who have positions of leadership and who are called of God to do what they're doing, but they operate by a double standard. They'll treat people in despicable ways. They'll gauge in all kinds of subtle deceptions and manipulations. They're many times deliberately dishonest in their dealings with other men of God or with other people who are serving the Lord. And oftentimes will literally crucify other men of God and other people in other moves in the move of God, all for the sake of their own position because they believe they're called of God to do what they are doing and to behave the way they're behaving. I want to give you a few examples of the sort of thing I'm talking about now. You might not realize really that the underlying problem is hypocrisy, but this is what it is. And it leads to all kinds of double dealing among the people of God. Some of you are aware that there's been in the past few years a certain amount of controversy over what's known as discipleship. And it's not all together laid to rest even today. But Charles Simpson was telling us about a situation that he came up against recently when there's a certain brother that he's known through the years who's a leader in charismatic renewal who has really been taking pot shots at us. In fact, he is still castigating us, Fort Lauderdale people, as we're called all across the body of Christ, saying we're like communists and we're robbing people of their freedom and so forth. Well, anyway, this particular brother whose name is some of you would recognize if you heard it really doesn't matter. But he laid some accusations against Charles and said some things publicly and privately about Charles. And Charles felt like he needed to try to handle it in a loving sort of way, Christian way on the basis of Matthew 18. And so he wrote the brother a very loving letter saying, I understand that you have some things against me and I understand some of the things you said and I understand and know why you feel the way you feel about certain things. But I really would think it would be good if we could get together and have a time where we could try to iron this out and I could offer you some explanation which might help you understand some of our differences and things like that. But a real loving and patient kind of letter which you would expect a man of God of maturity to respond to in like manner. It's not too much to expect that he would have gotten some kind of reply which would have given assent to it or at least given consideration to what Charles was suggesting. But no, that's not what this brother did. Instead of answering Charles, he took Charles' letter and made copies of it and made it public and then laid a long list of charges that he had against Charles in discipleship and then made those public and made Charles' letter public to all the people that he knew and was ministering to as a further part of his attack and a part of his battle against what he feels was heresy. Complete lack of ethics, complete lack of consideration of normal Christian courtesy, all done in the name of the Lord Jesus, of course, by a man who set himself up to save the world from a terrible heresy. I don't say it to condemn the man because he has a God-gifted ministry. He's helped many people and he's done many fine things and has a fine ministry in the body of Christ. But he's a hypocrite, a man who's playing by double standards. He would not ever want to be treated that way himself and would howl like a wounded bull if anybody were to take half the liberty that he's taken with all of us. And yet he's an outstanding leader in the body of Christ today. Some of you know we have a good relationship with some Roman Catholic brothers, with the Word of God community and people of praise and so forth. And we were talking to Kevin Ranahan a while back about a situation where, again, some spiritual leaders in another part of the country conceived an idea which they thought was going to have great impact on a great deal of the Western hemisphere. And they were launching this very powerful program of a certain kind of spiritual outreach and they wanted, desperately wanted, the cooperation of Kevin and the Roman Catholic community and others. And Kevin and some of his brothers felt that while they didn't object to what the men were doing, they didn't like the way, they didn't believe in the approach, they didn't feel any calling to help it out. And so when a delegation came to Kevin to present the whole idea to them, he listened respectfully and wished them well, but said that he didn't feel that he could endorse it and that his people and the other people he knew didn't feel led of God to participate in any way. And then a few weeks later, here came a very colorful and big and brash, dramatic brochure which was spread all across the country to all kinds of churches and groups announcing and advertising this new program and this campaign with a list of the people, religious and spiritual leaders, who ostensibly had endorsed it. And it was worded in such a way that it said, After consultation with leading spiritual authorities such as, and they listed a bunch of men's names and listed Kevin's name right in there, such as Kevin Ranahan and so forth, we have agreed together to launch this program. And what it clearly indicated was, or implied was, that Kevin had given wholehearted endorsement to something that he had specifically requested he was not to be involved in, nor his name, nor his reputation, nor the people that he represented. But here an outstanding, leading, charismatic leader just flat out lied with this brochure and completely misrepresented the situation, abused and prostituted Kevin's name and reputation, and so forth. Well, Kevin wrote him a letter, sent some of us copies of it, in a gentle way but strongly protesting the lack of integrity and the duplicity and the downright dishonesty of what was done. And he got some sort of little explanation back that, well, they'd meant not to use it, but there'd been some foul up in the printer and this fellow hadn't seen it and proofed it and this kind of thing. But I'm telling you, this is the sort of thing that grieves the heart of God. The lack of integrity, the dishonesty, the trickery, the double-dealing, the hypocrisy among so-called spiritual giants. And oftentimes when you challenge anything like that, there's all kinds of mock shock and affront. Well, I couldn't dream anybody would take exception. After all, this is the Lord's work we're doing. And it's just downright dishonest. I want to give a personal example about it, which is really kind of bad. I suppose there's a little catharsis in what I'm going to do now. I've forgiven the fellow at least 500 times. And after I tell the story again, this will be 501. But it points up the kind of thing that I'm talking about. Some years ago I made an agreement to go, made arrangements or accepted an invitation to go to a certain city on the East Coast to have a seminar with a couple of brothers who were sponsoring this interdenominational meeting. And one of them, the fellow that I'd talked to, I'd met him at a conference down south, and we'd set this up for about eight months later. He was a great big kind of sloppy looking character who you could tell by his appearance was very undisciplined. Looked like an oversized unmade bed as he walked around. But anyway, but really pontificating and talking about what a great man of God he was in his church and all this sort of thing. Well, I'm, you know, you hate to be critical or judgmental, but he didn't give a very good appearance as being a fellow that was too sharp, except in what he said about how God was using him. But anyway, I agreed to go to the seminar. And I'd also, with his insistence, the seminar was ending on Saturday night. I'd agreed to preach for him on Sunday morning. But we were going to have our family with us. It was in the summertime. We were going to go on vacation. And I told him specifically, verbally, and I told him in a letter when I got the letter of confirmation about the thing, that I could only be there Sunday morning. And when our family was taken on out on our vacation, and we had other plans and arrangements for Sunday afternoon and evening, and we were not going to be there. Well, we got up for the first night of the seminar. And this fellow was making announcements. There was a crowd of people about this size at the seminar. And he was introducing me and talking about the sessions of the seminar. And then he mentioned that I was going to be also after the seminar would close Saturday night, that I was going to be preaching in his church on Sunday morning and Sunday night. And I was sitting next to the other young man who was the other leader that had sponsored the conference. And I turned to him and I said, Did you hear that? I told him I wasn't going to stay Sunday night. And this fellow said, Yeah, I don't know why he said that. So I didn't say anything to him publicly then. I went on up and talked in the seminar. And after the service was over, we were talking. And I commented to him. I said, Brother, you're going to have to make another announcement tomorrow. I told you very clearly I'm not going to be here Sunday night. The deal was I'd preach for you Sunday morning and that's it. Oh, he said, You've got to stay Sunday night. I sent out invitations and other churches are turning out their congregations and it's all set. It'd be terrible if you're not here. And I said, I don't care. I said, I'm not going to be here Sunday night. That's not the deal. And I want you to announce it to the people that it's next time that it's only going to be for Sunday morning. Well, next service went by and he wouldn't do it. I mean, he didn't make the announcement. And then I got to feeling kind of guilty, you know, to get in a spot like that. Well, we could really wait a few hours and start the next morning. And after all, if it was going to really put him out, I was sort of double-minded about it. You know, I had this inner struggle going on. I thought, No, by George, I'm not going to let that character run all over me like that. And then I'd think, Well, maybe I really ought to for the sake of the people and so forth. So I talked to the other leader, the young man. I said, You know, I suppose I could change my schedule. We've already made reservations for a motel down the road, and I'd already told him we were going on vacation. But I really could change. But I don't want to. I said, I don't like to be treated like that. What do you think I ought to do? This young guy said, He said, Well, I don't think he's doing you fairly either. Why don't you just hold your schedule? He said, And I'll back you up. So I told this fellow again, I said, I'm sorry, I'm not going to stay Sunday night. I said, I'll preach for Sunday morning, but I'm not going to stay Sunday night. Well, he swelled all up like a big toad, said how it was going to cause him all kinds of problem, and it would dishonor his ministry, and he would have to go back on his word to all the people. I said, Yeah, but I didn't give you my word I'd be there. You should never have promised that I'd be there. But anyway, he was all huffy and stuffy, but I wouldn't change. So Sunday morning came. Seminar ended. Sunday morning came and went out to his little church. They had the town out in the suburbs, this little place, lovely little building. And yeah, we had a small congregation, about 70 or 80 people normally, but that day the place was just packed out because I was pretty well known in the area, and some of the people had stayed over from the seminar, and we had friends in the area who'd read my books and heard my tapes, and it had been advertised in the paper, so the place was jammed. And they literally had people sitting outside on benches looking in through the windows. I mean, I mean that literally. They had people sitting and standing on benches where they could look in through the windows, and people standing back in the vestibule and sitting around the steps and so forth, and it was really kind of a nice thing, a nice tribute to me personally that they were there, and everybody knew they were there because of who I was and so forth. And he was even grateful for that. And we started the service, and I was sitting up on the platform, and he stands up and starts making his announcements and talks about how glad he is to see all the friends and all the business with theirs and so forth, and how grateful he was that I was there. And then he said, with me sitting right next to him on the platform, he said, he said, we had originally planned to have Brother Basham not only this morning, but also tonight. And some of you probably saw the advertisements in the newspapers that he was to be with us tonight, but for some reason Brother Basham has decided not to stay. And I sat there and I thought, you dirty scoundrel. To lay that on me in front of all those people. You know, I was just really, you know, seething inside. Then the time came for the offering. And he had a real fancy deal where people would come up and put it in the plates at the front. And he had everybody come up, you know, and all kinds of visitors would come in and bring their offerings up, and people came in from out from the windows outside, came in the doors and came down. And it was a long time. They sang songs and everything while everybody traipsed in and brought their offerings. And then after that was over, we had the service, and I taught and preached, and God anointed and blessed the service. In fact, there were some people, a couple of young people made confession of faith in Christ, and there was prayers for healing and things like this, and it was really a fine service. But I just couldn't wait to get out of there, you know, and I was just so tired of being used that way and having to put up with that kind of religious performance, the pomposity of this call. And I thought things couldn't get any worse, but it did, and one other thing. And we had finished all the service and were just having the closing prayer, and just before the benediction, this preacher stood up again and made this final word. He said, Oh! He said, I almost forgot. If anybody here cares to contribute to Brother Basham's ministry, there's a cigar box on the table back by the back door. And then he pronounced the benediction and said, Amen. And I said, Oh, me. You know, I mean, I really couldn't believe that kind of performance. And even our kids, Lisa and Laura and Glen were with us, and Laura, who was, I guess, just eight or nine at the time, was so indignant. She came up to Alice afterwards, just tears in her eyes. She said, Mommy, that's not fair. She said, Those people gave him the offering thinking they were giving to Daddy's ministry. And now he says what he says at the end after everything's over. I was so mad there was steam coming out of my ears. And then I started for the car with my family, and I just said short goodbyes. And he came out and started to say goodbye. And he said just exactly what I knew he'd say. He says, We haven't had time to count your offering. We'll send you a check. I said, Yeah, I bet you will. So anyway, off we went. And Lord, I forgive the brother. I really do. And that's a rather extreme case of the kind of thing I'm talking about. But that kind of situation goes on in the body of Christ, which is sheer, pure, double-dealing, deceitful hypocrisy. Now, I hope you understand it's not the thing about the money that I'm talking about. I'm talking about a principle. I didn't let it lie there. We got on home a week or two later, and I let about two weeks go by, and I finally decided I had to write the guy a letter. And I wrote him a dizzy, doozy of a letter and sent carbon copies to some of the other teachers and so on. And I knew that he was inviting to minister up there. And I really laid it on him, you know, the despicable way that he behaved. And I started it by saying, Even if I want you to understand that even if after this you send me an offering, I'll just turn around and send it back because I don't want to have any kind of involvement like this. But then I simply laid out, you know, the unethical and the double-dealing kind of behavior. And the humiliation it brought me, you know, to sit on the platform and to have it implied that it was all my fault, and that I was chickening out on an agreement not to speak Sunday night and all the rest. Well, about a year went by, and we were at a conference, a men's conference in another part of the country. And a friend of mine who lived in the area, who knew this brother, came up to me and he said, You remember Pastor so-and-so? And I said, I'll never forget him. He said, Well, he's here, and he's all upset, and he wants to talk to you. You want to talk to him? I said, I don't want to talk to him. And he said, Well, he really, he's upset about that letter that you wrote, and I'd sent this man a copy of it, too. And he said, He really wants to try to make something right, and he really wants to see you, if you'll see him. I said, I don't want to see him. And then I really, and I said, What do you think about it? And he said, Well, I think you ought to talk to him. So we got over behind the bleachers in this auditorium, and here came Mr. Pompous, waddling up, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop. You know, I've never had a letter like that in my whole life. I said, Somebody should have written you one years ago. And then we picked through the whole thing, and I tried to handle it. I wasn't as hot anymore. And he finally said, We just had a check ready to send you when I got your letter. And then I didn't know what to do. And I said, Yeah, I bet you did. But for the sake of the other brother there, who had been trying to pastor him and to lead him and help him in some way, I finally said to the other pastor, I said, What do you think I ought to do? Should I take his check or not? And I said, I'll do whatever you tell me to do. If you're trying to help him, I want to help you help him. But don't expect me to help him. I want to help you help him. And he said, Well, I think you ought to take it. So I took his little honorarium that he gave me, which was about a year late. But that kind of thing is typical, and that's an exaggerated example. Now, I really have to watch when I'm teaching on this. I'm aware, you see, in that way, I'm almost sitting in judgment on these brothers. And it's like I'm almost casting the first stone, because I've not been always lily white. Neither are you. There are times when we all fall into this trap of being hypocritical. It is so subtle and so self-deceptive that we can justify. We know God is blessing us. We know God has called us to do certain things. We know we're moving in the stream of God. And it's so easy then to justify anything we do as being right, because after all, it's our ministry and it's for the Lord's sake. And I believe hypocrisy is one of the most subtle of all of the weapons that God, subtle of all of the weapons that the devil has with which to inflict us and to divert us from the purpose of God. So I want to, in closing the last few minutes, to give a few practical steps for dealing with hypocrisy and for recognizing the symptoms of when we're in danger of becoming hypocrites. Turn with me to Luke chapter 18. I just want to list a few of these things, and there are scriptures that go with them. I don't know whether I'll get to all the scriptures. This is where Jesus is giving some parables, and beginning with verse 9, it says, He spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus concludes it by saying, I tell you that this man, the publican, went down to his house justified rather than the other. For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. So the first thing I want to remind us of, to see that we're in danger of falling into hypocrisy, is that when in any time or in any way we begin to trust in our own righteousness, to feel that somehow it's by something that we are that God has put us where we are. And this is the very reason that Jesus gave this parable. It says in the beginning that he spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous. You see, and then the automatic thing after that is that they'll despise others. If you really believe somehow that you're where you are in God because you deserve it, or because by some sort of superiority or some sort of super performance or some sort of discipline or some sort of achievement or study or work or prayer or fasting or anything else, that you're where you are by any of those things rather than by the sheer grace of God and the divine choice of God. If you're in any way trusting in your own righteousness, then you better watch out because you're heading into hypocrisy. Turn back to Luke 9. When we believe, this point is this, when we believe that we're the only ones that are really doing the will of God, that there's something extra special about what we're doing. This is Luke chapter 9, verse 49 through 56. John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out demons in thy name, and we forbade him, because he followed not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not, for it is he that is not against us as far as... But you know what John's problem was? He had the feeling that nobody had a right to do anything for God except him and the guys that were with him. That the disciples, that little band, had a corner on serving God. And they were so sure of it that John felt and the disciples felt they had a right to tell the other guy, some other fellow, that he couldn't cast out demons. He couldn't call on the name of Jesus because he wasn't in their own little particular band. And Jesus said, Let him alone, because he's serving me. And it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up. He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face. And they went and entered into the village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. And they did not receive him because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them as even as Elias did? That's a nice thought, isn't it? I mean, going to show those fellows they don't have any right to treat our Lord and Master this way. Don't they know what to do? We'll just call a little fire down from heaven. But you see, that's the same kind of thing the hypocrites did. They plotted against the life of Jesus to destroy him because he was encroaching on their territory and in their domain. And they were so incensed at what he was doing that they plotted all for God's sake to put him to death. And now here are some of Jesus' own disciples when Jesus is not being treated with the respect that they think he ought to be treated. They said, Lord, let's put him to death. Let's just call a little fire down from heaven and singe him good, you know. And look at Jesus' response. He turned and rebuked them and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. What was that spirit? It's a murderous, vicious kind of spirit. The same spirit that provoked the scribes and the Pharisees to kill Jesus himself. And here it was making its inroads and encroaching into the lives of the disciples themselves. And this is what Jesus said, Watch out! You're going to be as bad as anybody else. You don't understand the spiritual principle. You're inviting that evil thing into your own life. You don't understand what spirit you're speaking from. So another danger of being hypocritical when we believe we're the only ones that are really doing the will of God. You see, that's another expression of self-righteousness. Turn with me to Matthew 23. This is back to the denunciation of Jesus of the scribes and Pharisees. Another sign of becoming self-righteous and Pharisaical and hypocritical. And that is, as David was pointing out in the beginning, when we're more interested in being right than we are in being servants. Jesus said in verse 11, But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. The thing that we ought to strive for, for real discipleship and real witness in the kingdom, is simply to have the attitude of a servant. And when we become more interested in being who we are, or being right, than of just being willing to serve, we're in danger of hypocrisy. Or when we're more concerned about recruiting than we are about redeeming, we're in the same danger. There's a verse that deals with this. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, verse 15, for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he's made, you make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves. They were interested in recruiting, but they weren't interested in redeeming. So the mark of a hypocrite is a man who's more interested in recruiting than redeeming. Verses 23 and 24 in the same chapter. We're in danger of becoming hypocritical when we major in minors. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, justice, judgment, mercy, and faith. Ye blind guides would strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Getting preoccupied and focusing in on the little insignificant things while we ignore the important things. Majoring in the minors. Verse 27 and 28, when we become more concerned with how we appear and what we look like than what we really are. Jesus said, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. When we begin to focus on outward performance, on those outward things which people can look at and try to judge or evaluate, and we get concerned with how we look and how we appear rather than how we really are. One of the things that I've been so really grateful for in my relationship with Bob and Charles and Derrick and Ern through the years is the fact that I'm related to some men who are perfectly natural. God has a way, if we'll be open, to keep us from being hypocrites. And I think that's one of the reasons why many of us notice that we just continue to get pounded and clobbered no matter what we do or where we go. How many of you feel like that you're in a kind of a war where you just continually have to resist being pounded and being dealt with and things are hard and you wonder where the easy Holy Ghost life went to if there ever was one. And then no matter how hard you try or how much you pray or how hard you try, things are still hard. And you're under pressure and you're under things that just don't seem to relent and you feel like you can go to bed at night and wake up the next morning and you still feel bruised. Well, I think that's God allowing us to continue to be pounded and to continue to be clobbered. I think it has something to do with what David was inferring a moment ago about the favor of God that's going to come upon us, upon this community and upon others in terms of success, in terms of power, in terms of wealth, in terms of what he wants to do with the foundation that he's building with us right now. I think it would frighten us if we could see the immensity of what lies ahead in the next few years. And I really believe we would fail in the task if God wasn't diligent and faithful to pound us and to hammer us and to shape us and to deal with us continually in ways that will keep us from becoming a hypocrite, being guilty of hypocrisy. One thing I know for sure, and that is that a hypocrite is a man who's never been broken. A hypocrite's a man who usually knows no real failure, or at least has never admitted to it. A hypocrite, by and large, is a man who's never really had to suffer in any significant way for the Lord's sake. A hypocrite, I've never found one yet who limped. And yet I believe with God's dealings with us in these days, he's going to be determined that none of his servants walks without a limp. Because when we get through wrestling with God as Jacob wrestled with the angel, and we get smote hip and thigh the way the angel smote Jacob, we're going to be marked for life as people that are tested and proven in a faithful walk with the Lord. And we're going to limp, and we're going to have scars, and we're going to have memories of being broken and of being in situations of near despair, all because of God's faithful dealing with us to prepare us for what he has in store in this day and to spare us that tragic, demonic trap of hypocrisy. And I trust that the things we've shared this morning may help us avoid that snare. Amen.