Practicing Righteousness | Matthew 6:1–4 | Pastor Neil McClendon

Be a Christian doesn't just mean you want to go to heaven when you die.

It means that you're standing before God has been changed by God.

And you're no longer just a sinner saved by grace.

If you want to get a big amen in a Baptist church, get up and go, I'm just a sinner saved by grace.

Everybody, amen.

If you want to get stared at, get up and say, I'm a righteous person who stands before you today.

They'll be like, that guy's kind of arrogant.

But I'm just saying to you, if you believe the Bible, practicing righteousness reinforces who you are because this is who you are before God.

And therefore, by practicing righteousness, we're reinforcing our identity to ourselves.

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.

Amen, church.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we confess we trust in you.

Now by your spirit and from your word, increase our capacity to trust in you, our willingness to trust in you, and the joy we find in trusting in you.

And so, Lord, we're going to open up your word and say something today that has our name on it.

And so we just confess, Lord, that we trust you.

We trust you.

You can be trusted.

You're trustworthy.

You got us through this past year, and there were moments we didn't know how we were going to do it or if we were going to make it for some of us.

But you got us through.

And so in this first Sunday of the new year, we just confess, God, that you're going to, whatever, we don't know what's coming, but you do.

You're sovereign and you're good.

And that's a great combination that just causes us to trust in you even more.

And so, Holy Spirit, lead us into the truth now.

Because we want to be set free by the truth.

In Jesus' name, and all God's people said.

Amen.

Amen.

You could have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take and open up to Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

If you're our guest, let me begin and say, Welcome.

We're glad you're here.

We're teaching through the book of Matthew.

We teach through books of the Bible.

We do an Old Testament book and we do New Testament.

We're in the Gospel of Matthew, we're in chapter six.

And I want to talk to you this morning about practicing righteousness.

Practicing righteousness.

And let me confess, I'm going to say that phrase a lot because I want you to walk out and go, what does it mean to practice righteousness?

It sounds self-righteous, but I'm just going to submit to you.

It's what you and I, if you're a Christian, you should be practicing your righteousness on the regular, okay?

And so, Matthew chapter 6, I'll start reading.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

I'm just going to read four little verses today, but I want you to see how compactful and how consequential the Bible is.

Jesus is talking and he drops this on him.

He says, Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.

For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

Thus, the word thus is not a word we use nowadays.

It means so or because.

So, so or thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.

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, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

Now, what do you mean practicing righteousness?

By the way, the way that Jewish people, the three most common things they did to demonstrate their righteousness was they gave to the needy.

Uh so some translations call it giving alms to the poor.

They gave to the needy, they prayed, and they fasted.

And so Jesus, in in the first 18 verses of Matthew's gospel, I mean, of Matthew chapter 6, he is going to talk about all three of these.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

And today I just want to talk about giving to the needy.

Practice it as us practicing our righteousness.

And there's four things I want to point to in the text.

Number one is simply this it's not what we do, but why.

It's not what we do by why.

Verse 1 is really Jesus' thesis statement for this paper he's writing.

It's a blanket statement that in the next 17 verses, he's gonna unpack this 29-word sentence and all the ramifications.

So let me read verse one again.

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.

For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

Now, in this one verse, he tells us three things that we gotta understand this morning.

Number one, he tells us that practicing righteousness reinforces who we are.

Practicing righteousness reinforces who we are.

Or said differently, you should consistently practice your your righteousness because this is who you are before God.

This is what I don't want you to miss this morning.

You should consistently practice your righteousness because before God, you're not just a sinner saved by grace.

I love that we sang the song a minute ago that said, I was a sinner, when I was a sinner.

See, if you're a Christian, God doesn't look at you as a sinner anymore, he looks at you as a son or a daughter.

Do you understand that?

It'd be like you saying to your kid, when you were an embryo, your kid would be like, Okay, stop right there.

It's already creepy.

I don't want to hear what comes next, mom.

But when you practice righteousness, what you're doing is you're reinforcing your identity.

You're you're you're teaching yourself, you're gospeling yourself with who the Bible says you are.

You say, What do you mean?

2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21 says this.

2 Corinthians 5:21

It says, God made Jesus to become sin for us, so that in Christ we can become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

So to be a Christian doesn't just mean you want to go to heaven when you die.

It means that you're standing before God has been changed by God, and you're no longer just a sinner saved by grace.

If you want to get a big amen in a Baptist church, get up and go, I'm just a sinner saved by grace, everybody, amen.

If you want to get stared at, get up and say, I'm a righteous person who stands before you today.

They'll be like, that guy's kind of arrogant.

But I'm just saying to you, if you believe the Bible, practicing righteousness reinforces who you are because this is who you are before God.

And therefore, by practicing righteousness, we're reinforcing our identity to ourselves.

Now, because of this, mom and dad, you shouldn't ask your kids, hey, are you reading your Bible?

Hey, are you going to a youth group on Wednesday night?

You should ask your kids instead, hey, how are you practicing your righteousness these days?

And get prepared for them to be like, huh?

Come again, excuse me.

Take my airpods out, pause what?

Yeah, how are you practicing your righteousness?

Because, see, this cuts both ways.

Uh, the exact I mean, yeah, we're practicing righteousness reinforces who we are, but also that's why when you do something, you know is the right thing.

Tell me if you've ever had this experience.

You've done something like you've given to the needy, and you walk away and you feel good on the inside.

Yes or no?

I couldn't hear you.

Yes or no?

Yes, that feeling, you're just kind of reinforcing.

Okay, this is not something you do, this is who you are, and you should consistently have an experience of who you really are.

Now, this is a two-edged sword, it cuts both ways because the exact opposite is true as well.

If you hardly ever practice righteousness, because then it there's a good chance it's because it that's not who you really are.

So I talk a lot about practicing righteousness.

Let me give you a big long definition for it.

Come on the screen.

Practicing righteousness means a lifestyle that demonstrates inner transformation, which shows up in our life rhythms, our daily choices, our relationships, and our posture towards others that goes beyond rule keeping and to the authority and sufficiency of king and kingdom.

I told you, don't try to write it down.

Take a picture, whatever.

Again, practicing righteousness, what does that mean?

It means a lifestyle that demonstrates inner transformation.

Sometimes I find myself in situations where I have to remind myself, okay, I've been changed on the inside.

Like recently, I went to Home Depot to get something for somebody else.

It wasn't even for me.

I'm such a noble person.

So I get there, and apparently we snuck up on Home Depot because they weren't expecting customers.

Uh and what I wanted was on the very top of the tip top of the shelf, like almost as tall as that speaker right there.

And so this person comes over an employee, and they get a little bear more or whatever, and a little deckless up there, gets all up there and they go, Well, this is not big enough.

I can't get that thing on here.

And I'm like, You couldn't eyeball that from the ground?

And so I had my little flatbed card, and finally I just sat down on it, and because I have control issues, I pulled out my iPhone and I hit stopwatch and just started the watch to see how long this is gonna take.

And I'm losing at the 17-minute mark, I'm losing my Jesus, okay?

At 23 minutes, I'm thinking, where's Wade Burgess?

Because we need to coach these people up on efficiency and customer service.

At 30 minutes, I am pacing because they said the the person comes down, they go, I gotta go get something else, some other thing.

And they're like, where is it?

And then people are like, okay, I said, hey, listen, I don't want y'all talking about what you're doing after work.

I want you to get my stuff so I can go.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right, right, right.

They go over the doors, and this is my favorite part.

I hear this beep, beep, beep.

And one employee has orange flags walking in front and doing this.

And the other person, and I'm like, really?

And they're like, oh, we gotta get the, we gotta get this grid, we gotta block off this side, and block off this side.

I'm like, you better put that around me because I'm about to tear this thing to the ground, okay?

I could climb up there myself and lower this thing down with a rope.

But finally they get something, they push it on there, and then they bring it down.

I'm like, all right, slide it over here, here we go.

34 minutes of my life that I will never get back.

Now, why do I tell you that?

In that moment when I'm sitting on the flatbed, I'm going over in my head, practicing righteousness means a lifestyle that demonstrates inner transformation, which shows up in our life rhythms, our daily choices.

And that little voice in me says, the voice of the Holy Spirit says, What choice can we make right now that would change the way you're thinking about this?

Go to Lowe's.

That's that's that's gonna be my takeaway from this.

Uh and so, yeah, so so three things Jesus tells us.

Number one, practicing righteousness reinforces who we are.

Secondly, uh, where and why matter.

Where and why matter.

It's that little phrase, before other people in order to be seen by them.

Before other people, that's the where.

In order to be seen by them, that's the why.

Most giving in America falls into this category, especially giving to the needy.

We'll get to that in just a minute, okay?

I just want to point that Jesus says a lot in one sentence.

Thirdly, it's possible for heaven to have no consequence for how you lived on earth.

You're like, uh-oh, uh-oh.

What you talking about, Willis?

For then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven.

It's possible for heaven to have no consequence for how you lived on earth.

What do you what do you what do you mean by that?

What does this mean?

It means that if we don't learn to practice our righteousness in the right ways, heaven will not be for us what it could have been.

Let me say that again.

If we don't learn to practice, the Bible never says don't practice righteousness.

It says, hey, this is who you are, you should practice righteousness.

By the same token, if you're not consistently practicing your righteousness, it's because it's really not who you are.

It's not because your parents didn't raise you right or you made some bad choices or you got divorced.

It's just like it is not really in you.

It's just not.

But if you don't learn to practice your righteousness in the right ways, heaven will not be for us what it could have been.

Here's the second thing we see in the text giving to the needy is assumed behavior.

It's verse 2.

Thus or so, when you give to the needy, not if you give to the needy, or if you think about it, blah, blah, blah.

But giving to the needy is assumed behavior.

So, right now at our church, if you're new, let me just remind you that we have a men's clothing drive, one of our missional partners here in town, helping hands of Richmond Rosenberg.

We went to them, but we don't say, oh, this is what you need.

We had some leftover, take this.

We went, met with them and said, Hey, what do you need?

What would bless you?

Which is a question we like to ask people.

What would bless you?

They said, Man, we need men's clothes.

You got any men in your church that got clothes they could get rid of?

I said, I got a church full of men who got pants in the back of their closet they're never gonna get back into.

I don't care how many GLP things they jam into their thigh, okay?

Them 36s ain't coming back, men get rid of them, okay?

And I'm all for the GLP.

Knock yourself out.

I'm just saying, why?

And I said, we are so rich, we can gladly give some stuff away.

And the guy's like, man, you got rich people?

You're talking to one right now.

He's like, oh, awesome.

So when we give to uh our men's clothing drive, or next Sunday we'll start collecting soup for our Super Bowl Sunday, uh, which is for them as well, he said, What are you doing?

This is what it means to give to the needy.

We do things like this because this is just a normal part of being a Christian who practices righteousness.

So when Jesus says when, which by the way, he he says this about all three of these things, about practicing righteousness.

When you give to the needy, when you pray, when you fast, when, because giving to the needy is assumed behavior.

Now, if we embrace that, there's something that if we embrace that, this is something that God assumes we all do.

It's hard to distinguish yourself when you give to the needy.

So, what our flesh does is our flesh comes along and says, hey, let me figure out ways how to give to the needy to where I can get some recognition for this.

And you gotta understand what happens when you give to the needy.

So let me give you just a couple things that happen when you give to the needy.

The first one might bother you a little bit.

When I first heard it, it didn't bother me, it offended me.

But here's the first thing that happens when you give to the needy.

Number one, you are lending to God.

Now, I have a friend, some of you are like, I don't know about that, cool.

I have a friend that I think I'm a generous person until I get around him, and then I think I'm going to hell for being so selfish.

We're riding down the road one time in his truck, and I said, he was talking about, and I said, Hey, how'd you get to this point where I mean you're like super, you're like Shaq in Walmart.

You're paying off everyone's lay away.

Uh what's going on here?

And he goes, Oh, I just remember, when I realized a long time ago that when I'm when I give to the needy, I'm lending to God.

And because I have a master's degree in theology, I was like, easy bro, and he went, no, easy bro at all.

He said, I read it in Proverbs.

I'm like, what?

He goes, Yeah, my wife and I read a Proverbs a day and we talk about that night before we go to bed.

Uh in Proverbs 19, 17, he said, Whoever's generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.

And there I was in the passenger seat, kind of going, Well, that's in the Bible.

I've read that before, but I didn't really personalize it before.

You know, you could read a lot in the Bible and never personalize it.

He said, Hey, whoever's generous to the poor lends to the Lord.

And here's the thing: it doesn't mean you're giving God something He needs and you're like loaning God 50 bucks.

No.

But what you're doing is you're putting your resources at the Spirit's disposal and trusting the outcome to God.

You're putting your resources at the Spirit's disposal and just saying, Hey God, there you go.

Like, uh, okay.

So, what happens when you give to the needy?

You're lending to God.

Secondly, you're seeing the world the way God sees it.

You're seeing the world the way God sees it.

What how's that?

As a place that you're here to do something about.

By the way, God did not put you in the world just to complain about it.

Hi newsflash.

You shut your mouth.

Yes, yes.

Yeah.

He didn't put us here to be like, oh, are you kidding me?

Home Depot, come on.

No.

No, because he puts you in this world because you, when you see the world the way God sees it, look, guess what you do?

You start doing something about it.

I I caught myself and I started chatting to the lady Gail who was waiting to me.

I said, Gail, how'd you day?

Go good.

I appreciate your patience.

I'm not really that patient, Gail.

I'm just trying to practice some friendly chit-chat so I don't lose my mind and start singing DMX up in here, okay?

Here's the third thing that happens when you give to the needy.

You're avoiding judgment through stewardship.

Listen carefully.

There will be a pop quiz on this.

You're avoiding judgment through stewardship.

You say, What do you mean?

Luke chapter 16, starting verse 19.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

There's a story about these two guys, the rich man and Lazarus.

Okay, the rich man was rich, the poor man was poor.

Okay, listen carefully.

I don't want you to misunderstand what the Bible says.

Luke 16, 19.

There was a rich man who lived in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.

Hard stop right there.

Okay?

Purple was a rare dye.

So if you had a purple garment, you people rich people wore that because they're like, look at me, getting my dress up on.

Poor people couldn't afford purple dye.

And so this guy, he he was clothed in purple and fine linen, and he feasted sumptuously every day.

And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table.

Moreover, even the dogs, now by the way, when the Bible uses the word even, it's a comparison standard's being established.

You're being compared to something, and it usually isn't good for that person.

He says, moreover, translation, as if that wasn't enough, even the dogs came and licked the sores.

If the dogs in your city are more compassionate towards the needy than you are, it ain't gonna go well for you.

The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side, and the rich man also died and was buried and in Hades being in torment.

He lifted up his eyes and he saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his side, and he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in the water and cool my tongue, for I'm in anguish in this flame.

But Abraham said, Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things, but now he's comforted here, and you are in anguish.

Now look at me.

Let me have your attention.

The rich man doesn't go to hell because he's rich, he goes to hell because he's indifferent.

Let me also say this: there is more pride in poverty than there will ever be in wealth.

It appeals to our rugged individualism.

I don't need any of that, I made it.

So don't don't get it twisted, sister, be like, yeah, the Bible gets after rich people.

No, the Bible gets after indifference.

Again, you're dressed in purple and fine linen and feast sumptuously every day, and at your gate, the gate of your compound, there's lady a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table.

Translation, this clothing drive.

Somebody asked me, I said, What do you want this clothing drive?

I said, Well, I'm the one that came up with the idea.

And by the way, this is just what falls from the rich people's table.

Soup collection, this is what falls from the rich person's table.

When you're at ACB this next week, get some soup.

If you're at Sam's a Costco, even better.

Get some cases of soup if you can afford it.

Yeah, but here's why.

It reminds you, you got a pretty good gig.

You shouldn't feel bad about yourself.

You shouldn't practice self-pity and self-loathing.

You should be like, you know what, God, you've been so good to me.

I got some stuff that can fall from my table.

I don't need it.

If you feast sumptuously every day without regard or responsibility for the needy people in your city, then I'm gonna submit to you, your faith is dead or non-existent one or the other.

Neither are good.

Here's the third thing the Bible tells us giving can be a form of taking.

Put a start by this one.

Giving can be a form of taking.

What do you mean?

When you do it before others to be seen by them.

This happens when what we really want is to be praised by others because at our core, that's our real reward.

We love seeing our name up there.

And oh, hey, look, you're the title sponsor.

You say, What do you mean?

We we give, they put our name on the building, it allows ourselves to be called something.

Uh are you set at the head table?

All of this is just sound at a trumpet.

And Jesus says very clearly, starting in verse 2, he says, Hey, so when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

Now, did people go around sounding trumpets?

People come up with all kinds of stuff.

No, it's a figure of speech.

It's like Jesus, like, hey, when you do something, when you give, don't go, by the way, I'm giving.

Here's what they did do, by the way, in the temple.

When someone would give a really big gift, they would announce it.

That's horrible, by the way.

Yeah.

And so people are giving like two mics, but then you got Jesus and this widow who gives two little copper coins called mics in the offering.

Jesus says, Hey, she gave out of her poverty, not out of her wealth.

This is what sacrificial giving looks like.

When I say giving can be a form of taking, here's what I mean is it's I have a friend that's a fundraiser, okay?

Uh, and and fundraising is a cottage industry uh nowadays because everybody wants to graduate and work for a nonprofit.

And what they don't tell you is those nonprofits don't pay you.

You got to raise your own salary.

This is where idealism goes to die, by the way.

Uh I talked to a college grad recently, and he's like, Yeah, I want to work for a nonprofit.

I I didn't say anything because I'm trying to be nicer in my old age, but I just thought, whoof, that's gonna be a hard fight with a short stick.

Uh but uh here's the thing: they figure out ways to kind of appeal to you to get you to give.

Uh, it used to be uh that there were different levels.

There was bronze, there's silver, there's gold, and there's platinum.

I would always go to those and go, where's the copper section?

Table for two in the copper section.

And so, my friend, this is about three years ago.

We've not talked much since then.

Uh, but said, Hey, I've got a fundraiser, I want you to come.

And just give me some honest feedback.

And I said, Okay.

Honest feedback about what?

About our fundraising process.

And so I get there and I just notice things, and I just picked up the little thing, and and and we've gone from you know, silver and bronze, silver, gold, platinum.

Now, and I just I started writing them down uh supporter, friend, advocate, champion, patron, benefactor, regent, trustee, and pillar.

Don't you want to be a pillar?

And so I had the event, they got up, they did the appeal, everybody filled out their thing, and after it was over, I was like going to say, Hey, thanks.

Um thank you for the invite.

The meal was delicious.

It wasn't like dry chicken with gravy on it, it was actually a steak, and it was cooked, and it was warm, it was delicious.

And then my friend said, What did you think about our fundraising?

Let me tell you, people over here.

I'm a nice.

Person.

I mean, I buy stuff from little kids, okay?

I mean kids in my neighborhood to go Pastor Neil's house.

I'm like, huh.

And there I am, and I'm thinking about little Johnny.

Little Johnny teachers asked him one day, said, Little Johnny, what's a lie?

He said, A lie is an abomination in the sight of God.

And it's an ever-present help in time of need.

And so he said, I said, Well, I it seems like it went well because they they had people back and they were had some entertainment and then it came back and said, Oh, we exceeded our goal.

I said, Well, it was successful.

He goes, No, I mean, just how do you think about what we did it, how we did it?

And then it was like, okay, here we go.

I said, Well, and I pulled out the little card and I said, Well, you got, you know, friend, advocate, champion, patron, regent, trustee, pillar, I circled pillar.

I said, uh, Jesus wouldn't call any of these people regents, advocate champions, or pillar.

He would just put all of in one category and use one word.

And what would that be?

Hypocrites.

I'm available.

And I mean, and then what didn't help was this person worked for this organization, and some of their friends were coming over, and then there I was.

I was like, and I'm not trying to I'm not trying to tell you how to do what you do.

I'm just, here's the thing: rich people don't need no more recognition.

We just don't.

And I say, we, you're rich.

You got stuff you don't need, just excess, it's just falling from your table.

We don't need to be told you're a pillar.

I said, Oh man, pillar, you should just scratch that from your vocabulary.

Never say that.

I mean, I almost wrote a check just so I can be a pillar.

He said, Well, to be a pillar, you gotta get 50,000.

I ain't no pillar.

What do you get for$50?

You get escorted to the parking garage.

Now, some of you may be working fundraising.

I'm not climbing on you.

I'm just saying, because he said, hey, listen, pride, ego, and greed has built more hospitals and libraries and all the altruism in the world.

And I said, it's because we stopped talking about what the Bible says, what Jesus says.

He says, when you give, don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.

You'll put these people's names up there on the screen for all of us to look at, and you rob them.

There'll be no record of that in heaven.

Because they got their reward here from people.

Like, yeah, I'm a pillar.

Look at me.

And he goes, Well, that's just the way you do it, Neil.

And I said, You ask me a question.

I'm just trying to answer.

Why do you get mad at me?

Don't ask me questions.

Well, it's not that easy, Neil.

Okay.

And then I just thought to myself, this is lonely.

I said, hey, okay, I'll give you a parable like Jesus.

Well, you're not Jesus.

I said, like Jesus.

Okay, I'm not saying I'm Jesus.

Do you know who Dale Earnhardt is?

He looked at me like, what?

And I said, You don't know Dale Horn?

You're going to hell.

This is your problem out here.

Dale Earnhardt.

And then something, this older guy said, Well, yeah, you mean the race car?

Yeah, not his son Junior, but Dale Sr.

The Intimidator.

Get your three up.

Mr.

Dale Earnhardt.

Years ago, I was in Hickory, I was in Hickory, North Carolina, speaking at a church up there.

And one guy said to me, Hey man, you want to go see a NASCAR shop?

And I just thought, some snuff dipping rednecks with oil all over them?

No.

And he saw the look on my face.

I didn't say anything.

I was like, and he went, This is not like a garage, Neil.

This is like a complex.

I said, okay.

So he got his Corvette, and I was like, okay, here we go.

And we're ripping over there.

And I mean, that shop is bigger than this sanctuary.

It's got offices, it's got like five or six cars in there, and the whole thing was enameled.

You could eat off the floor.

I mean, it was incredible.

And I was like, this is, and the guy standing there, we got to talk.

I said, Well, you know so-and-so, do you know so?

Then I get turned into fanboy.

Do you know so-and-so?

Do you know Dale Earnhardt?

He goes, I said, that was my dad's favorite driver.

He goes, You guys, my dad, like people, guys used to say to me when I was in an accountability group, you should take your dad to Promise Keepers.

I said, if I want to bless my dad, I'll get like a case of old Milwaukee and go watch the Daytona 500 with him, okay?

And I don't do that, okay, because I don't like old Milwaukee.

But anyway, uh, so they're like, I said, you know, Dale?

He goes, Oh my gosh.

He said, Can I tell you my favorite Dale Arnhart story?

I said, I wish you would.

And he said, you know, Dale, everybody thinks he's the intimidator, and he is.

Uh, but he's super generous, but he's very secretive about it.

And I said, Really?

He goes, yeah, he was sitting at a red light here in town, and he was in the turn lane, and the little Methodist church in town was trying to get their parking lot paved.

And the girl walked up with a gallon jug and she rolled the window, walked up to the car, didn't notice who it was, rolled the window down because she wears these wraparound shades, and he looks at her and goes, How much are you trying to raise, little girl?

She's like 14, 15 year old, and she said, Oh my gosh, eight thousand dollars.

And he goes, Hang on a second, reached over his glove box, got his checkbook, light turns green, guys honking behind him.

Dale lets him know heaven's that way while he writes a check for$8,000.

Drops it in the thing, he's boom, woom, drops it down low one.

He says, Now listen, look at me.

If you tell anybody I did that, I'll bring my bulldozer down there and I'll tear that parking lot up myself.

And then he smoked the tackle and drove off.

And I was like, That's my kind of giving right there.

And they said, he is super, super secretive about it.

He meant every word of it.

And matter of fact, I said, uh uh uh his son told me the story.

And when I brought it up to Dale, he looked at me like, Don't make me fire up my bulldozer.

How'd you find out about that?

And he said, he really pressed me.

And I said, Well, your son told me.

He goes, I'm gonna talk to that boy, and he's keeping his mouth shut.

Here's the thing: if you're not careful, giving can be a form of taking.

Uh notice there's no difference in their behavior.

Jesus says this, he says, Hey, don't sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

Ask yourself this morning a practical question: Is there a difference in who you are in the synagogue versus in the street?

Church, synagogue, baseball field, in the back of the band bus?

Church?

Because if you're a hypocrite, here's the thing: if you're a hypocrite, a pretender, a phony, it doesn't matter where they are, it had where they are has no bearing on how they behave because they're always just playing a role.

It's not who you are, and deep down inside, you know it.

When giving is a form of taking, there can be no delayed gratification because we want our reward now, because we're a taker, not a giver.

Like, hey, I no, no, I'll take whatever people give me.

Here's the last thing the Bible tells us this morning about practicing righteousness.

Let the fact that God knows be enough for you.

You still let me say amen.

Let the fact that God knows, and this is hard.

That's why I try to say my friend, the fundraiser, and he's good at it.

I mean, he had colleges call him, hey, would you come work in our uh what do they call it?

Development.

And I'm like, development, just call it what it is.

Uh uh, but I said, here's the thing.

I think it's a great opportunity to teach people, hey, the fact that God knows, that ought to be enough.

It ought to just be enough.

Just, hey, okay, here you go.

What do you mean?

Look at verse 3 and 4.

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that you your giving may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

Now, if you've ever been around somebody that practices that, it's a little awkward.

Like, like I have a friend that's very blessed.

That's what we say in church.

I say rich.

Uh, but anyway, and uh, we're having lunch, and it was like in November that year, and he said, Hey, I've got to give away a certain amount of money.

Uh, and I was like, Uh-oh, okay, do you know any?

I I want to give it to nonprofit organizations, whatever good causes.

Uh, and I just said, Hey, actually, the Oyster Creek Elementary needs a refrigerator uh for their teacher's lounge.

The freezer doesn't work, the refrigerator does, and it's little, and there's a lot of teachers, and so what they need.

Well, I mean, maybe a big industrial side-by-side refrigerator, freezer.

He said, Great, how much is it?

I told him, he said, Great, get one.

All right, yeah, check.

So I got one.

I thought this was funny.

By the way, the check said something, something foundation on it.

If you have a foundation, you got some coin.

Uh and here's how I found this out.

I thought it was funny, so I printed out a little thing and said, given by the, I'll call him John Smith, given by the John Smith Foundation, and taped it to the refrigerator and took a picture of it when we had delivered and texted it to him.

In 10 seconds, my phone rang.

And he was so angry.

I will not use the language he used.

But he said, You get that off and you get that off right now.

And I said, Hey man, I just it's not funny.

And I said, Hey, whoa, calm down.

I would never do that.

I'm just, I mean, there's nobody here but me.

I'm just shining up, make sure it's plugged in, it's working.

And he said, I work hard to not let my right hand know what my left hand is doing.

Why do you think I want anybody else to know?

And in that moment, I was like, Well, this is awkward, and I'm not real sure what to say.

So I didn't say anything.

I waited for him to change the subject.

And he did, he was gracious, and he said, Anyway, thanks for facilitating this.

And I said, You know that these people think I'm being falsely humble that I'm the one that gave that?

And he goes, Great, and hung up on me.

And so now, guess who?

Guess who Oyster Creek calls anytime they need something?

The rich preacher down the street.

And I'm like, calling that guy, he won't take my calls anymore.

I'm like, hello, are you there?

Yes, yes, but see what he did is he demonstrated the fact that God knows was enough.

The task is not to be self-righteous before other people, but to practice your righteousness in secret, knowing that your heavenly father sees in secret and will reward you.

Even that's not your motivation, but it is your understanding.

This is what allows you to be anonymous and say, hey, I do not need my name on anything, okay?

This is my privilege.

I'm glad to do it.

The context in which God sees is secret.

So whatever's done in public is for people.

Whatever's done in secret, this is the realm that God traffics in.

And in a culture where we monetize and reward everything, it's it's really hard to practice this.

I I get that.

And yet we're commanded to.

Here's the thing: if God knowing is not enough for you, then you'll always find a way to let other people know.

Some way to say, hey, you know, hey, here you go.

And heaven will not be what it could have been for you.

Let me just give you two things as I close.

Number one, here's what gets revealed in our giving.

We think more of our reputation among men than we do our reward from God.

And I want us to go into the new year, and just all of us, just especially the us that have more capacity and can give more.

Just this, just hey, I just want to trust that God's gonna reward.

I don't want reputation among people, I'd rather have the reward of God.

Secondly, we believe our concept of reward is better than God's.

This is what I mean when I say, let the fact that God knows be enough for you.

And so you have to ask yourself, is that enough?

Because look at me and I'm done.

If it's not, your flesh, my flesh, will find a way to work into the conversation, however humbly you can work it up.

Well, you know, yeah, yeah, well, I'm a pillar donor, and this is why I didn't.

No, no, you're a person who has so much, just like me, that it just falls from the rich man's table.

And the needy people in our city can be blessed and benefit from what falls from our table.

And we can do it in secret, and nobody else has to know.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

All right, let's pray together.

If you're our guest, just relax.

We like to teach the Bible, then we give you some space to think about it.

Some questions come on the screen, that's for us to talk about in our community groups tonight.

But for right now, just think about hey Lord, what had my name on it?

Well, what do I walk away and think about over lunch today?

Let's just be still and think about that.

God, that's our prayer today.

We say every power we have, we put at your feet and say, God, use this for your glory and my good.

And nobody has to know.

I don't need stroke, I don't need credit, I need responsibility, God.

And and Matthew 6, 1 to 4, just laid the the responsibility on us today.

And we're not spitting a bit on that.

We're coming up under that and going, Whew, that kind of pinched me a little bit, but it woke me up, and that's a good thing.

Thank you, Lord, that you don't let us slumber through life.

Wake us up with your word and invite us into your kingdom.

We pray in Jesus' name.

All God's people said, Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

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