What you do in secret will determine your maturity more than what you do in public.

When no one is watching.

While you’re alone in the privacy of your home.

What you seek out while searching on your computer or scrolling on your phone.

What you do in the secret will never stay in the secret.

Jesus said it this way in Luke 6:43-45:

Luke 6:43-45 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

There is a season when the details of a tree are hidden. You can’t observe what’s happening to it with the naked eye. You don’t know if it’s receiving the water and nutrients it will need to flourish. But eventually a new season comes and you can see the fruit or evidence for whether the tree is healthy or not. The same is true when it comes to the secret parts of our lives. This is why we want to heed the warning that Solomon gives us.

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

When I talk about the secret life, does this bring positive ideas to your mind or negative ones? If you heard that a celebrity or your boss or your pastor has a “secret” life, what would this lead you to conclude about them? There are two kinds of secret lives I have in mind for this message. The first type is one that Jesus wants to lead us out of and away from. The other kind is one that Jesus wants to lead us deeper into. I guess we’ll do the bad news first.

Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Nothing is hidden from God’s sight. EVERYTHING is uncovered and laid bare before His eyes. God isn’t scrolling Instagram to see who you are because He has access to way more of your life than the rest of us do.

1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

What is present in your life that no one knows about?

John 3:19-21 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Sin and the shame that follows cause us to fear the light. We fear exposure, which absolutely feels like being naked before God or others who become aware of our sin. So the temptation we face is the same one Adam and Eve taught us – to cover ourselves and hide from God. But that hasn’t led to our freedom; it’s actually enslaved us. When we bring things into the light, only then can we be made right with God and set free.

What are you exposing in your life and what are you keeping hidden?

Confession – to God. To another human. Not just any human. The kind of human who loves you and loves Jesus. The kind of human who will not gloss over your sin. The kind of human who will acknowledge that your sin is great, but your Savior is greater.

James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

“The discipline of confession brings an end to pretense. God is calling into being a Church that can openly confess its frail humanity and know the forgiving and empowering graces of Christ. Honesty leads to confession, and confession leads to change.” iRichard Foster, Celebration of Discipline

If you have a secret life of sin, today is the best day to come clean. To expose it, confess it, repent of it, and receive the mercy, forgiveness, and cleansing Jesus promises. Ask for the Holy Spirit’s help and power to overcome.

When we sin, we grieve the Holy Spirit. When we confess our sin, we attract the Holy Spirit’s presence and power.

After all that I’ve shared so far, you might think the point of this message is to never have a secret life. Not at all. The point of this message is to encourage you to have a Jesus-directed secret life.

Matthew 6:1-6 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Jesus is always getting to the heart. He’s always seeking out our motives. If we do what we do so that others will see us and think well of us, that will be the extent of our reward. But we will lose out on the reward our Heavenly Father wants to give us. This doesn’t mean people will never see us doing good things. But it does mean that we aren’t to do good things so people will see us. And it means there needs to be all kinds of things we do that people never see us doing.

Jesus loved having a secret life. He lived in obscurity until he was around 30 years old. And when you’re living a mostly unseen life, you don’t have to work too hard to have a private world. But once his ministry went public, he had to fight to keep any semblance of a secret life. And if you’re seriously going to orient your life around Jesus, that will have to include orienting your secret life around the secret life of Jesus.

Luke 5:15-16 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

There’s a pattern here. More public exposure, bigger crowds, and higher demands…increased Jesus’s frequency of getting to the secret place.

“For Jesus, the secret place wasn’t just a place; it was a practice, a habit, a part of his life rhythm. He seemed to have little hiding places all over Israel where he would slip away to pray.” -John Mark Comer, Practicing the Way

Where’s your place or places? I would show you mine but then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore ☺. My two prominent places are both chairs – the main one being my chair in my living room. This is where I spend time with God when no one is watching me – except Shauna and our dog, Hershey. He ends up in my lap most mornings and there’s something about that that’s honestly peaceful to me. My other chair is one in my office. I like to start my work day praying for things that I’m doing like writing sermons, or provision I’m asking God to give our church, or for specific meetings that are coming up that day. And my other secret places come to me as I walk the city.

What if the secret to what can be seen in your life comes from what will never be seen?

Having a secret life with God is one of the greatest ways to overcome being a people pleaser and living for the applause of humans.

“The discipline of secrecy will help us break the grip of human opinion over our souls and our actions.” -Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy

One day 100% of us will stand before God. We will not be covered by our accomplishments or our appearances. We won’t be covered by who we pretended to be or the image we presented publicly. We will be seen by God for who we are. Or we can be seen by God for who we are – in Christ. Forgiven. Righteous. A daughter to God. A son of God. An heir with Christ.

Colossians 3:3-4 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Responses:

-Let Jesus cover you, all of you.

-Confess your sin and be made clean.

-Establish a secret life with God.