After Jesus came into
the world He set a standard that was unheard of to the people of His
day. They had a religion, they thought it was biblical. It was at least
sophisticated and certainly complex, but it was substandard. In a
previous lesson I talked about how Jesus raised the bar, or the standard
on how they should conduct themselves; that the Christian’s standard of
righteousness should even surpass that of the Pharisees and teachers of
the Law.
In the Sermon on the Mt. He unveiled the
problem with their religion. He tells these so called religious men that
basically what they are doing is not much more than a show. He calls
them hypocrites and the original Greek word there means, ‘An actor on a
stage.’ So He was telling them that ‘You’re nothing but actors on a
stage doing what you do for the applause of the people who watch.’ Their
religion was a farce.
And here in Matthew chapter 6 Jesus picks
out three elements of their religion to attack.
#1 is their giving,
#2
is how they prayed, and
#3 is how they fasted.
So this week and the next
2 weeks to follow we are going to look at these three topics in more
detail. Jesus get right down to teaching us our
religious responsibility in letting us know that whatever we do in
regard to worship, it should be coming from a pure heart not hypocrisy.
He tells these men that their giving, their praying, and their fasting
is nothing more than a show. And that is not Pleasing to the Lord.
In dealing with these elements, Jesus tell His disciples in chapter. 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. 2
“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. (Then He tells His disciples how) 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.”
In other words, He says, now when it comes to how those Pharisees give, it’s hypocritical, but it ought not to be so. So He tells them what the problem is and then He offers them the solution.
Now when a preacher gets into the area of
giving sometimes he open up a can of worms. It seems like we are getting
bombardment from people asking for our money from so called “Christian causes:” from numerous requests on the radio, tv and even in our mail boxes. But in the Bible I only read about only two kinds of giving, basically, two areas or things that they gave to. First was their systematic, structured, regular giving to the church.
We know the Bible teaches that. In 1 Corinthians 16 it tells us that on
the first day of the week we are to lay by and store as God has
prospered us. We also see there that those early Christians lay by in
store and gave a contribution to the church.
So the teaching there was that believing
people gave weekly, every week, not just now and then but every week; a
predetermined amount which they set aside to give to their church. I
believe in doing so, we learn the importance lesson in stewardship of
money. I believe that’s why God wants us to do it every week, so that
every week we take stock of what we have as it relates to our funds and
learn to be good stewards. It is a discipline.
“On the first day of the week lay by and store.”
That is a systematic, structured giving as you purpose in your heart.
Secondly, there’s a second kind of giving we see in the Biblical text.
That is giving to the poor and needy. This giving is an unstructured,
unspecified, and spontaneous. It is over and above giving to the
church. Throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, we read
about that kind of giving when a needy person crosses our path and we
are encouraged to reach out and help that individual. (eg.
Story of the Good Samaritan) Beyond giving to the church and those in need, the Bible is silent.
All too often we don’t like to hear sermons
on giving. I believe it is an unpopular subject because
#1 it has been
abused, and
#2, I believe people don’t understand the blessing of giving that Bible speaks about.
To begin with, you have to begin with this premise; that God doesn’t really need your money.
He can get along fine without it. In fact, God got along quite well
throughout all eternity before He ever made you me and our money. I
think some people forget that God ran the whole universe before there
were any people in it, and it didn’t cost Him a penny.
So 1st of all we need to
remember that we are not doing Him a big favor by giving Him a big
check. God is not at the mercy of us and how much we give.
BUT the thing you and I must realize is that we need to give it. And
why do we need to give? Because in giving we find one of those
Christian paradoxes I talked about last week. Like, how we really live
by dying, or we become free by becoming a slave, or how we are the
strongest when we are weak. Well in this case the Bible teaches us over and over again that you receive a blessing when you give.
God tell us in scripture to give so that He
may give you back even more. It is a blessing promised by God that
most of us forget or don’t even know about. Most people don’t realize
that there’s a cycle of blessedness that takes place when we give.
I’d like to illustrate this from Scriptures. In Proverbs 11:24-25 it says,
24” One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. 25 A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”
See the principle here? It’s like this If a
farmer too cheap to buy few bags of seed to sows in the ground he not
going to have tons crops to harvest in the fall. You see there is a
cycle that needs to take place. You buy the seed, you sow it, and God
produces the increase, multiplying the seed, producing a crop. If you
sell it you get more money back than you paid for the original of bags
of seed you bought to plant. If you feed it to your cows that’s all the
less you have to purchase, again money that’s in your pocket. With
that money you buy more seed the following year. You plant it, and you
harvest tons of crops again and around and around and around you go. The
whole thing depends upon your faithfulness to fork out some cash to buy
the seed in the first place and sow it.
Do you realize a farmer takes everything he
has and throws it in the dirt and operates on faith that God will give
him a big return. God gives him that return and the cycle begins. That’s
the illustration. “A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. “ In other words, as you give, God blesses. And when God blesses, you, out of His blessing, you give again. But if you step out of that circle, that
cycle of blessing and don’t give, you don’t get a return. There’s no
investment for God to bless and multiply. There’s no return, and that
just keeps lending to more poverty. Pretty soon you’re out of resources.
Isn’t that what Solomon said there in this Proverbs. He said,
“another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. “
And mind you, the principle about giving is
not just about monetary things. The principle of giving is broader than
just giving money. We can give our time, talents and acts of love which
God will in turn bless and multiply. I believe it is important to give
because it puts us in a circle of blessing which demonstrates our
faith and reveals God’s willingness to bless us. You give. God blesses. Out of His blessing
you give again. There’s only one way to live as believing people. God
says, and that’s to give, because you put yourself in the flow of His
blessing.
Now the New Testament says a lot about some
basic principles to consider as we give. I want to share some of them
with you before I move to our text. Let me give you just eight simple
principles to remember as you give. Eight simple principles that’ll help
you to give in a non-hypocritical way.
First- Giving is investing with God. That’s what I’ve been saying so far here. It puts you in the cycle of blessing.
“If you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly. If you sow bountifully, you reap bountifully.”
God
does not need your money, but you need to invest with Him to get into
the flow of His blessedness. Of course that’s not the only reason one
should give, it’s not just about our greed and getting ahead with God’s
help, but rather it’s investing in what is important to God, glorifying
Him and hopefully expanding His kingdom.
Secondly, We need to remember that giving should be sacrificial.
David said,
“I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
You
think or say, “God here, I don’t need this, this is what I have left
over, you can have it.” That isn’t an act of love. This is the problem
we read about in the book of Malachi. I believe God is please when we
give something to Him which is important and valuable to us. Then it is a
sacrifice pleasing unto the Lord.
I think of
Mark 12
where Jesus sat and watched the Jews as they gave at the Temple. And
then along came a poor little widow. All she only had was two mites,
hardly worth anything. And yet the Lord said she gave more than
everybody else when she gave them. Why? Because that’s all she had. It
was the essence of her sacrifice that made her offering significant.
Thirdly, giving is never related to how much you have. People say “If I had more, I’d give more.”
“He that is faithful in little will be faithful in much. And He that is unjust and little will be unjust in much.”
Giving is not a matter of how much have, it’s a matter of where your
heart is and where your commitment is. You can have a lot and be stingy
or have just a little and be just as stingy, or you can have a generous
heart whether you have a lot or just a little.
Fourthly: How many spiritual
blessing we have will be in direct proportion to our attitude about
giving and how generous we are.
In other words, if you’re not faithful
in what you do with what you have, God’s is not about to give you the
true riches.
“So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?”
What are true riches? Spiritual things,
Things of God; people, their souls ministry, and God is not about to
give a strategic ministry to somebody who can’t handle money or other
thing He has given them. There are many men who never made it through
Bible school or seminary, some have even left ministry because they were
poor stewards and the Lord didn’t want them in a position over His
flock. So depending how you handle what God has given you including
your money, God may withhold some true spiritual responsibilities from
you if you are not wise. So learn to be a good steward of what you
already have now.
Fifth: What you give is up to you.
In 2 Cor. 9:7 it says,
“Each
of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not
reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver..”
Whatever you purpose in or decide in your heart to give, that’s
between you and God. We read in Corinthians that the Macedonians gave
abundantly out of their deep poverty. The Philippians gave because they
chose to give out of a heart of love. There is no NT law on how much we
should give. It is a freedom we have in Christ. It’s your personal
decision..
Sixth: We should give in response to particular needs.
So then we should be sensitive to and listen to needs that come our
way. In Acts 4 and Acts 5, the early church shared its resources because
there were people who had a need. Paul went all through Asia Minor
collecting money from the Gentile churches to give to the saints of
Jerusalem because there was a need due to famine.
Seventh: Giving demonstrates our love, not law.
As I already mentioned, there is no New Testament law commanding us to
give a fixed sum. We’re not giving to please some legal system. Our giving should be an act of love and devotion to God and His children. That’s why it’s to be given cheerfully, not grudgingly . It’s not a law. It should be an act of love; a gift of love.
Eighth:Our giving should be generous, that’s right generous.
And I believe how generous we are will be determined by all of these other factors.It will come down to
(How much do you want to invest with God?)
& (How much you willing to sacrifice for Him who sacrificed all for you?)
& (How much spiritual riches do you really want to be worthy of?)
& (How many needs do you really want to meet?)
& (How much love are you willing to demonstrate?)
So the point is God is not saying give because He needs your money. He’s saying give because it’s a spiritual exercise that blesses your life.
Now
these principles cover our giving to the church and our giving to the
needy, but let’s go to the giving to the needy because that’s the text
we’re studying.
The Old Testament made it abundantly clear that the people of God were to give to the poor. In fact, in
Leviticus 25:35
it tells people to give to the poor whether they’re a travelers or
somebody who belongs in the land. In Deut. 15, it says if you come
across a poor person, make sure you meet his needs. You can read it in Psalm 41:1, Proverbs 19,
Proverbs 21, Proverbs 29, again and again. It says when you give to the
poor, you give to the Lord. Why? Because this kind of giving put us
into the cycle of blessing. Such giving is investing with God, because
this kind of giving is directed to His children who cross our path who
are in deep need. And so the Lord teaches on this matter of giving,
because obviously the scribes and the Pharisees and the people following
them were not giving with these principles in mind. They weren’t
giving
self-lessly or out of a pure heart. They were giving to put on a show.
That’s why in the Sermon on the Mt. Jesus addresses that attitude. He said,
“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.”
So what is He saying? – Give, but don’t
do it to toot your own horn. Don’t do it to show off in front of others
to get their praise. If you do that then Jesus tells us that’s the only
reward you’ll ever get. Rather He said, ‘do it in secret,’ in such a
way that the person you are helping won’t be embarrassed or humiliated.
Do it in such a way other won’t see what you did and pat you on the
back. Rather, do it out of love, and then Father God who sees what you
have done in secret, will reward and bless you so that you will even be
able to help others.
I think this teaching is pretty simple and to the point.
As we study the Sermon on the Mt., more
than anything Jesus wants us to know that God is concerned about our
heart, and the attitudes we have when we do things in His name. And He
lets us know right up front that there is no room for phony show-offs in
His kingdom. Rather He wants His disciples to be humble, and motivated
by love…So much so that we are will to make sacrifice in His name. Then
He in turn will bless you by multiplying your blessings.
