Pastor James Schleusener has committed his life to sharing the Gospel, helping people find local church communities and seeing them lead their best lives. Raised in Melbourne and then later the Sunshine Coast, James has served as a pastor for two decades, pioneering churches and many missional communities.
James believes that within every Christian is a longing to love fellow believers without limits, just as Jesus loved us. But there exists an eternal struggle between the spirit and the flesh.
Recently, James shared a special 5-minute sermon with us during Sunday Morning Together, highlighting his own incredible passion for helping others, and the importance of depending on Jesus to supply all our needs. Read James’s full message below:
‘This message is called Let’s Keep it a Secret, which sounds like the opposite of what we should do. Because if we’re followers of Jesus, we want to shout it from the rooftops. We want to shout grace from the rooftops.
Matthew Chapter 7 comes off the back of Jesus’ first sermon, famously known as the Sermon on the Mount. If you don’t get anything else from what I say, please get this. Just go and read Matthew chapter 5,6 and 7. And when you’re finished, just go right ahead and read it again and again. It’s profound and it will change your life.
In Matthew 7, verse 24, Jesus is coming home. It’s the finale. It’s the conclusion. It’s the big payoff at the end. And He says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
All through Matthew chapter 5,6 and 7, there’s this phrase that Jesus uses over and over again. He says, don’t be like the hypocrites who, when they pray, they do it in public. Instead, when you pray, go and do it in secret. He says it again about giving. Don’t be like the hypocrites who give in public. Instead, when you give, do it in secret.
And He’s got this terminology that He uses all the time, and it’s about keeping it a secret. Now, I don’t know about your secret life, but normally I keep the bad things a secret and try and publicise the good things. That’s what we all do on Instagram. We keep the bad things a secret and we publicise the good things.
But Jesus is flipping everything on its head in His kingdom. You see, Jesus says over and over again what we do in secret He will reward us for. How good is that? Jesus is actually saying, If you do these things in secret, I will reward you. That is amazing.
Now, what are those rewards? I don’t know. I’m not Jesus. But He says that He will do it and He supernaturally rewards us for doing what He says, but doing it in secret. Now, before we move on, we do need to clarify how we get to heaven.
When you die, you simply need to put your trust and faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and believe that what He did on the cross was enough. You can’t earn grace. No amount of sacred giving or sacred praying will ever get you into heaven. That’s not what Jesus is saying here.
He’s not saying that I’ll get you into heaven if you secretly pray or secretly give. No. He’s saying that your life will stand through all the storms of life. And if you want a strong life, if you want to live through everything, I encourage you to do good things in secret.
I just renovated a house. We planted some plants and those plants weren’t doing anything until spring hit. And then they started to flourish and I realised that something was happening in secret that I didn’t get to see until the right season. And that’s the same with doing good things for Jesus in secret.
When you do it at the right time, your life will be strong when it needs to be, it’ll flourish when it needs to and it will be fruitful when it needs to be. So I’ll finish with a few questions. Are you ready to start practising some things in secret? What is the Holy Spirit prompting you to do?
Do you need some more blessing from God, because He will reward you. Do you do good things to be seen by others? Or are you happy to do good things just between you and God? And lastly, do you want your life to be stronger? Because if you do, practice the way of Jesus.
Let’s pray. Lord, thank you so much for everything You’ve done. Thank you for showing us the way. God, we thank you for Your grace that forgives us freely. And You love us freely. And we cannot earn it. But, Lord, once we have that grace and that power, help us to practice the ways of Jesus, and do what you said. In Jesus name. Amen.’
Listen to James’s full message on Sunday Morning Together below:
