Worship God, Not Man, Through Giving - Matthew:6:1-4

Good morning. We are in the book of Matthew

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. I'm going to read verses one

through 4. That's our verses for today.

So I'm going to get I'm going to read it.

Then we're going to pray, and then we will hear what God has

to say about this, starting in verse one of chapter 6.

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, 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 you're giving may be in

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

This is the word of the Lord, Amen.

Would you pray with me? Father, we come to you this

morning so thankful for your faithfulness to us.

We do get caught up in needing to use technology and all kinds

of different things to go about our lives as normal.

And yet we can worship you in simplicity.

We don't need anything but our our hearts and minds and the

scriptures, your your word. And we can.

We could worship you in a shack on the mountain anywhere in the

world. But you do call your people the

Saints to gather together on the Lord's Day to do this as

corporate worship. And even here, we don't need all

of the technology. We still just need our hearts

and it together and your word to be prayed and sung and read and

preached. And so we will continue to do

that by your grace until you come back to get us.

We thank you for keeping us here safely.

I pray that you would speak through me.

Lord, help me to get out of the way of the words that you want

to deliver to your people. And I pray God that you would

bless us through the preaching of your word today.

And it's in Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

You guys can have a seat. All right, so today I have

entitled this message worship God and not man through giving.

Worship God and not man through giving.

And we'll be in Matthew chapter 6 verses one through 4.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Now, not to put any shade on today's message at all, but just

so you know, being transparent, talking about giving or, or

money is probably one of my my least favorite topics to talk

about or preach about. We're certainly not a church

that's going to do, you know, a four week giving series to try

to get our funds up. It's obvious that in God's word,

God talks about money a lot. Jesus talks about money because

it can so easily become an idol and we can use it for sin, but

we can also use it for God's glory.

And in fact, the Bible says that God owns everything.

He owns the cattle on 1000 hills.

All the silver and the gold in the world is God's and.

And he does call us to glorify him with what he has given us.

Everything that we have is only by his grace and mercy.

Last week we talked about this idea of common grace, how God's

the sun rises on the just and the unjust, and he causes the

rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

And God has given this common grace to all people to have the

ability to provide for their families and to have food and

clothing and shelter. And he also uses it to get the

message around the world and so that his people can gather to

keep the lights on. And so something's wrong here.

We need to step it up. I'm just kidding.

I'm totally joking. But it's today.

The message, you know, about giving is probably not going to

be one that's a normal one that maybe you've heard before.

And so enough setting it up. Let's just get into this.

We've been in this Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew chapter 5 through 7 is Jesus's famous Sermon on the

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Mount where he takes time to start teaching the new

principles of the Kingdom that has come on earth.

And we've set up that Matthew. The whole theme of Matthew is

that Jesus is the king. He is the king of the universe

and he is now stepped down on earth 2000 years ago and he is

declaring and proclaiming his rule, and now people are going

to follow him. And that is the church, which

starts later in the book of Acts, but he's preparing the

church to start by telling his disciples what it looks like to

live in the Kingdom in, in his Kingdom on earth.

And we are separate from the Kingdom of the world, yes, but

we're not called out of the world.

We're in the world, not of the world.

And, and so, but we are going to look different.

And one of the things Jesus does in this Sermon on the mount kind

of the the main theme of it I would say is a a summary of the

10 commandments which is the 2 greatest commands in the Bible.

Jesus summarizes the 10 commandments in the Old

Testament law of God in Matthew 2237.

He says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, with all your mind.

This is the great and 1st commandment and the second is

like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

And on these two commandments depend all the law and prophets.

So later in the book of Matthew, when Jesus says these summarize

all of God's law in the Old Testament, it actually, it's not

going away, the law of God, it's going to be clarified.

And that's what Jesus has been doing in the Sermon on the

Mount. And each piece of the sermon

has, you know, different things it focuses on.

And the whole thing is focused on those two commandments

though. And what we call the 10

commandments are the 2 tables of the law which summarize what

Jesus is saying. The 1st 4 are about loving God

with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And the last 6 are about loving your neighbor as yourself.

That's the 10 commandments and how they're laid out and why

it's called the two tables of the law is because when Moses

went up the on the mountain to get this law that was physically

written by the finger of God into tablets of stone.

It's it, it records this in Exodus 2412.

It says the Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain

and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone with

the law and the commandment, which I have written for their

instruction. And then later in verse 3215 and

16, it says, then Moses turned and went down from the mountain

with the 2 tablets of the testimony in his hands, tablets

that were written on both sides, on the front and on the back

they were written. The tablets were the work of God

and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.

We call these the 2 tables in the King James Version.

It doesn't use the word tablet. It uses the word table.

Now a table holds something, right?

That's what a tables meant to do.

And these are the 2 tables of the law that hold very

important, the most important information, God's own written

word written on both sides, by the way.

And you can, instead of calling a tablet, you could call it a

table at right, like a table. It's not a full table.

It's a small piece of stone that he could carry in his hands,

right? Like you've heard the same word

about you have a kitchen, a full kitchen upstairs.

But if you have a mother-in-law kitchen in the basement, it's

usually called a kitchenette, right?

Or I like to call 25 minute sermons A sermonette, you know,

not a full sermon, the sermonette.

But these are tables containing the law of God holding and

upholding something that will never go away.

Christians live by these commandments, not for our

salvation, but as disciples, as Christians following the King.

He has a standard, a rule by which we will live and what he's

done in chapter 5 has said all of this stuff will come out of

you because you're a Christian. This isn't a law for you to

follow so that you can reach me, like climbing a ladder.

This is something that will happen because I put my spirit

in you because of faith alone. This will mark you out as a

Christian. You will look at these commands

that I have said. You will want to do them, not

perfectly, but you will do them. And so that's what we walked

through in Chapter 5. But then when we get to Chapter

6, it focuses on the first table, which is our relationship

to God, and it kind of zeroes in on this.

In Chapter 7, it's going to focus on the second table, our

relationship to man. In this first section of chapter

6, it talks about a focused sincerity of religion or

devotion of a heart towards God and it's expressed in these

three practices that are mentioned in this chapter and

chapter 6, giving prayer and fasting.

And so all of these these practices, you could call it

part of your religion. Now what is religion?

Religion? The word religion has gotten a

bad rap over the years. What it really just means is

practicing your faith. Now there are bad religions out

there that are works based religions that say I have to do

this in order to be right with God.

Christianity is the the the one stand alone religion that has

that order opposite. It's I get right with God by

faith alone. He makes me right with him.

And now he causes me to want to do things for him to practice my

faith so that I can grow closer to him, express my love toward

him. And so religion, a good religion

is practicing and expressing your love to God and to others.

The two tables of the law. Now in this section, Jesus in in

chapter 5, he was pretty harsh with the Pharisees, the

religious teachers of the day. They were standing around his

disciples hearing a lot of the challenges that Jesus was having

against false religion. And he hasn't forgot about them

in chapter 6. Actually, he's not only just

calling out their bad theology, which he did in chapter 5.

They had bad theology, a bad interpretation of the Old

Testament, which he corrected. Now in chapter 6, he's going to

correct their bad practices of religion.

They were not only false teachers, but they were

hypocrites as well. They didn't live out their own

teachings, they just made-up their own laws and rules to get

out of them. And when they did try to

practice their religion, it was wasn't firstly to the Lord, but

it was for others to see so as to obtain praise and favor from

the people. So from verses one through 18,

in each of these teachings about giving prayer and fasting, Jesus

used the word don't be like the hypocrites who do this this way.

Instead do it this way. Almost very similar to the

antithesis of Jesus in chapter 5.

You've heard that it was said, but I say to you now he's saying

you've seen them act like this, but I say act like this.

You've seen them have a hypocrite heart, and I'm saying

have a sincere heart. But before we're too hard on

them, maybe we ought to use this to look at our own heart

motivations and allow the Word of God to correct us on how the

God of the universe deserves for us to be wholly devoted to Him

and sincere in our love for Him and for others.

He sees right through our religiosity, our going through

the motions, and even our hypocrisy.

So my first point is we get into these verses is that sincere

worship is for God alone. God alone deserves a fully

devoted heart. That's what it means when it

says love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

It must be sincerity, not hypocrisy, outward action, but

not inward sacrifice and motivation.

So verse one says in chapter 6, Beware of practicing your

righteousness before other people in order to be seen them,

for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in

heaven. Beware of practicing your

righteousness before other people in order to be seen by

them. So let's break this down.

What is this righteousness that he's talking about?

Beware of practicing righteousness.

That word there means adherence to what is required according to

a standard, for example, a moral standard.

So righteousness is not only a positional thing of being holy,

but also it works its way out in our hands and our feet, in our

actions, what we do. And So what he's talking about

here is not our positional righteousness.

What we need to understand is Christ has made us righteous by

his sacrifice. The Bible says he, he swapped

places with us when he went to the cross.

We deserve to go to the cross for the sins, but God made him

sin, who knew no sin, so that we could be the righteousness of

God. Second Corinthians 521 We now

have the righteousness of Jesus. The sinlessness of Jesus applied

to those who believe. And so positionally, when God

looks at us as believers, we are right before him.

That's what righteousness is. But now it starts to work its

way out. And righteousness in this form

is the practice of what it looks like to have a righteous heart.

Ephesians 424 says put on the new self created after the

likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness.

Not only are we positionally righteous, we're called to do

righteous deeds. Nothing wrong with trying to be

righteous, striving to be righteous.

God commands us to do that. And in fact, if we go back to

chapter 5 verse 16, the verse says in the same way let your

light shine before others so that they may see your good

works and give glory to the Father, your Father who is in

heaven. Are these two verses in

contention with one another. Don't practice just right your

righteousness before when men but then it says let let people

see your good deeds. Here's the difference here.

This one says so that your Father in heaven is glorified in

verse 16 of chapter 5, give glory to your father who is in

heaven versus in our verse it says in order to be seen by

them. So the difference in works based

religion versus faith-based religion is that one says I'm

righteous because of Christ alone and what he's done.

But because that miraculous work has happened in my heart and has

turned a dead, Stony, stubborn, sinful heart into a tender,

responsive heart that wants to do his will.

Now my acts of righteousness can be seen before other people and

and people are like, how did that person start to be a

religious person and be a good moral person?

Well, the only possible way is through the power of God.

If people can look at you and say, wow, give glory to God.

And if that's your motivation, then that's a righteous

motivation. But if our motivation is to go

do these things right, we wait. We wait until people are

actually around watching and then we're like, OK, I really

want people to see how good I am.

That is self worship, that is really not wanting to give God

glory, but to give yourself glory.

And and our point here is sincere worship is for God

alone. God is to be worshipped alone.

As the first commandment said, you shall have no other gods be

for me, including yourself. And so then if we're doing

things so that people will see us and give us some kind of a

praise, then we're trying to get worship from other people.

We're not giving any glory to God.

We want to be noticed. And that is exactly what a

hypocrite is. It's a person who professes

beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold.

And in order to conceal his or her real feelings and motives.

So someone can act like a Christian, they can act like a

follower of God, but yet all along they're wanting people to

look at them and give them the praise, the glory, and the

honor. In the Greek, the word it, it

literally means an actor in a play with a mask.

He's a pretender, someone who loves the spotlight, being under

the spotlight. And everybody can see me and

look at all this wonderful stuff that I do, the serving that I

do, the charity that I give to look at people or or let people

see me pray and be so pious. And yet, when he gets off the

stage, out from under the spotlight, his life is full of

greediness and wickedness and darkness and.

Hypocrisy hypocrites like others to see them for the accolades

and the praise. Now we can all be like this.

I want you to know that even myself, I once I'm going to be a

little transparent here. I had talking with a mentor a

long time ago and you know, I, I asked him this question

sincerely. I was like, why is it easier to

serve at church than it is at home?

Like for years before I ever became a good servant at home to

my wife and kids. And I wouldn't say I'm, I'm not

praising myself. I don't think I'm that good at

all. But before I ever learned how to

do that, for some odd reason, I could do it at church.

I could be serving in every position and setting up the

chairs and tearing them down and stay at church all day long.

And you know what he said to me? He said, well, at home you don't

get any of the accolades. At church, people are like,

thank you, God bless you. We we, we appreciate you so

much. And there's nothing wrong with

appreciating people for serving. And I'm not saying you can't

serve with right motives. You can.

And it's OK to do that in front of other people.

But what I am saying to you is, is that we're all hypocrites in

the sense that if we can't go serve in all the areas of life

where nobody sees and you're not going to get the accolades in

the praise, there's something wrong.

There is hypocrisy there. And I'm willing to bet that we

all have a little bit of that. Which leads me then to my second

point in the context of our scriptures.

Now hypocritical giving is self worship.

Verse 2. 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. So let's break this verse down.

He says when you give. So first of all, I want to point

out that Jesus is saying here that he does expect Christians

to give, to be generous as an act of worship.

He's saying when you are going to go about your Christian life

and you are going to be a generous person, and why are we

generous people? Why do we give?

Because God is the best giver who gave everything right?

He John 316 for God so love the world that he gave his one and

only son his most prized possession, the person and the

thing that is the most valuable to him in all of the universe.

God says I'm going to give. And if we're going to be

Christians, the word means little Christ.

We're being like Christ. We're we're trying to be in

righteousness and holiness like God.

Then we do give. We give to the church, we give

to the needy, we give to the poor.

I'm going to get into some practical things about what that

means later in this message, but it is implied here that

Christians are givers and they should give.

And that is first an act of worship.

Although giving to the poor or giving to your church to keep

the lights on or to to take care of the benevolence fund or or

whatever it is, is helping other people first and foremost.

In this context, our giving is an act of worship.

We are saying God, OK, I don't trust in this more than I trust

in you. I don't find my security in the

things that I own more than I find my security in the

sovereign Lord of the universe. You deserve for me to prove it

to you that I don't worship money.

So Matthew 624 says no one can serve 2 masters, for either he

will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to

the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Part of our giving away the things that we have, our

finances to the church and to those in need comes from a place

of saying, I'm not going to make my money an idol to me.

I'm going to give because you gave everything.

You own everything. And as we talked about last

week, there's an ordered, ordered love that we should

have. And God's our first love.

You know, if you think about our second love or third loves in

our lives as our spouses and our children or those closest to us,

and we think, you know, we're, we're going to be generous with

them. We're going to buy everything

that they need. We're going to provide for them.

You know, when, when birthdays come up, we want to surprise

them with something amazing. Christmas is coming up.

We want to get them some, some big gifts, right?

And, and hopefully we're not doing it to get praise from

them, but it's because we love them.

We want to, we want to experience the joy of just

seeing them, feel the love and excitement of our generosity.

OK, well then if God is our first, top, first priority, then

do we do that with him also? Do we give gifts as an act of

love? And giving to other people also

is an act of worship to God and it's commanded by God.

Actually in the Old Testament, Leviticus 1910, God has always

said you should take care of those who are in needy, in need,

who are poor, who need your support.

It says, and you shall strip your vineyard bare.

Neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard.

You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner.

I am the Lord your God. There are certain things that

God put into the society and the the the the the structure, the

civil structure of his chosen people that they would they

wouldn't have pour among them that if they were that their

hearts would would cause them to say, look, my God's a giving and

generous God. Therefore I don't want to see

people in need like God's people first and foremost should be

provided for. And then even people outside of

that, the sojourner, the people outside of us, outside of our

very close context. All right.

So then it says sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do

in the synagogues and in the streets.

Apparently in the synagogues and in certain places where the poor

were assembled, there would be announcements as to who gave

what. It would be like, OK, so and so

gave this, you know, if you've ever been to like a charity

banquet or something, right? They're always there like, hey,

if you put give $1000, we'll give you this table and we'll

put your name on a placard that says you're a silver, silver

level giver or a gold level giver, a platinum level giver, a

partner. You know, apparently they were

doing this in, in churches, you know, like plaques or, or making

announcements. And so and so did this and so

and so did that. And sometimes the motivation of

giving was, oh, announcement time's coming up.

I can't wait to hear my name. And people are going to be like,

wow, that person is generous. And even in the temple court

itself, not just in the synagogues, but in the temple

court where people would come and bring their tithes and

offerings, there were these giving boxes that the, the top

of it was shaped like a trumpet. Actually, it was like a big

funnel. And you dropped money in and

often times it was coins. And so the more coins you threw

into the thing, the more noise it would make.

Ching, ching, ching, ching, Ching.

You ever been to, you know, Vegas or Wendover or whatever,

you know the Ching Ching, Ching Ching and, and, and the poor

person would give a little little tinkle down the trumpet

and however loud the noise was when you were giving, apparently

determined how holy you were. At least this is how the

Pharisees were acting. If you Fast forward to the story

about the woman who gave only two copper coins, she gave all

that she had to live on. Jesus praises her for her

sacrifice and her her right heart in giving.

While the Pharisees gave an an abundance dropping much coins,

it wasn't about the amount it was about the heart while doing

it. And so again, going back to my

point, hypocritical giving is self worship when I'm giving to

make a big noise or a, a name for myself.

And I'm not saying it's wrong to, you know, go to these

banquets, you know, where like the probably the most recent one

was the pregnancy care center. And they do do those things

where you can buy a whole table and, and the money goes towards

a, a meal, but a lot goes to supporting their ministry and,

and, and you in your own conscience need to make

decisions about these things. And if you have the right heart,

you, you have the freedom to do things like that.

The main point here is that it's not about self worship, it's not

about getting the accolades, it's about the generous heart

towards giving. That's what Jesus is getting at

here. And the problem is Pharisees

worship themselves. Works based religions create

little Pharisees that want to show all of their works to

everybody around so that they can get other people's approval

'cause they not only worship themselves, but they worship the

approval of others. They want others to worship

them. They want others to like them.

Again, these are idols church and I know that we can all be a

little bit Pharisaical sometimes when we when we want the

approval of other people, often times I use this word and it

seems to just keep coming up people pleasing.

When we are people, please, we're doing the same thing.

We are worshipping other people's approval.

And when you have to be a people pleaser over telling the truth

or being genuine or being sincere, there might be an idol

problem or a sin problem there. We've got to be having our

priorities right, pleasing God above man and all things.

Satan desires worship. That's why he was kicked out of

heaven earlier. If we go back to Matthew chapter

Matthew 4:10

4, verse 10, when he was tempting Jesus in the

wilderness, Jesus tried to get or Satan tried to get Jesus to

worship him. He said, I'll give you all these

kingdoms and everything you see, all these cities, if you'll just

bow down and worship me. Satan said, and Jesus said, be

gone Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your

God and him only shall you serve.

And he was quoting the first of the 10 commandments there again,

when we give with the wrong heart, it is self worship.

It is idolatry. It is we are worshipping

someone, something other people's approval or ourselves

above God and God's always watching.

We can't fool him. Why are we trying to Why are we

trying to, to play or put the mask on when we are

hypocritical, when we are doing our our righteous works before

people coming to church with a, a pretend mask on.

Didn't you know that this is the place, as the Bible says, for

the sick, like it's the sick who need a physician, not those who

are well. And, and let me just illuminate

you to the truth that all of us are sick and this is the place

where we don't have to come with the mask on.

We can come and we can come and have a lot in common.

Actually, I was having a, a conversation with a brother as

we were going to get the generator and I said, you know,

I was always living in, in, in shame and Guild and, and that's

probably why I self medicated and was, you know, struggling

with addiction early on in my life.

And when I started reading the Bible, what I found out was all

these people are really messed up and God still loved them and

used them. And I'm like, OK, I think I can

fit in with this, these people. And then I started realizing my

heart was broken. For the people that don't

actually know the truth of what's in these words, they

could have freedom from their shame and guilt, knowing that

their God accepts them for who they are.

He sees everything. We our hearts should be

repentant. That should be truthful.

Like I am a Sinner, I am a hypocrite.

I don't need to put on a show. I don't care what other people

thinks more than what God thinks.

That is what it looks like to be a Christian.

And when you and I or any religious person are doing

religious works to be seen by others, we're sinning.

And then those works actually don't count towards pleasing

God. They don't count.

Now, of course, you know, it's funny, like you probably don't

hear a lot of sermons that say, you know, another title I was

going to give for this point was was something along the lines of

when you give hypocritically, you actually in debt to God.

You think you're gaining something from God by giving and

doing this good work. You do it the wrong heart.

You're actually falling into debt.

The Bible says that sin is a debt that we owe to God.

Actually, you go to the his prayer later on and in Matthew

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6, it says forgive us our debts in other translations,

sins, transgressions, trespasses.

We're in debt to God if we give hypocritically, if we do works

hypocritically. That's why I look out at all the

works based religions and I'm like, man, you guys are sinning.

And again in this conversation we are having there, what we

what we find out is that there are two types of sinners in the

world. It's the ones that you just, you

can look at and be like, yeah, I know you're, you're in complete

rebellion to God and it's obvious through the way you live

and you just don't care. But then there are the other

Sinner that Jesus probably challenges more than this side

is the the religious ones, the hypocrites, the ones that are

doing all these outward works. Isaiah 113 God says to the

nation of Israel, Bring no more vain offerings, incenses of

abomination to me, new moon and Sabbath and the calling of

convocations. I cannot endure iniquity and

solemn assembly. Your new moons and your

appointed feast my soul hates. They have become a burden to me,

and I am weary of burying them. Religion, false religion,

workspace religion becomes idolatry to God and he can't

stand it, even though maybe on the outside it might look like

faith. He's looking at our hearts.

And then it says there's no reward from your father.

If you've if you're looking for the praises of man, there will

be no reward from your father. There's no reward.

You've already got your reward, which was a quick little good

job. You know what?

That doesn't last for very long. When people look at you and say

good job, that was great. Why?

Because they'll keep expecting more and more and more from you.

And when you fail, they won't be praising you then.

No man, no pastor, no Pope is worthy of worship.

No person walking to the giving box and wanting people to see

we. We just need to accept that God

is God and we are not. We are his servants.

We are humbly saved by his grace alone, by nothing that we can do

or have done. And it's only through Him can we

even do good works in the first place.

You know, in light of it being Reformation month, October, the

end, October 31st is Reformation Day.

In the 1500s, Martin Luther, you know, started the Reformation

process of, of, of nailing his 95 theses to the door of the

church in Germany. And what he was talking about

was their hypocritical use of money.

They were building these huge buildings and they were going

around telling people you can earn your way out of purgatory

the more you give. And they were teaching this

religious, hypocritical giving. And I'll tell you what, I'm

afraid there's one man on earth I'm probably afraid for more

than most would be the Pope himself, who is called the vicar

of Christ, which means, by the way, the substituted one or the

delegated 1 vicor comes from the word vicarious.

He's basically playing the role of Christ on earth, saying that

he has the same power and authority of Christ over the

church and he's being worshipped and by so many people he doesn't

stop it. He might point to Jesus and talk

about Jesus and talk about the Bible, but these are people that

we need to steer clear from hypocrites, false teachers, and

false religions that are based on works.

Again, when we do righteous acts with the wrong heart, it is sin.

Sin equals debt, and we're in debt to God when we do it with

hypocrisy. When you give for your glory,

you're actually stealing from God.

So we need humility and not the praise of men.

So with all that, my last point, I want to try to get as

practical, practical as I can on how to give for God's glory and

not your own. Verse 3 and 4, when you give to

the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand

is doing. So that you're giving may be in

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

Again in the New Testament, not just in the old, Paul was told

to remember the poor. In James 127, he says religion

that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this to

visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep one

unstained from the world. And so it's still good.

Again, he says it again when you give, and then he uses this

proverbial expression, don't let your left hand know what your

right hand is doing. Rather than doing it so

everybody can see, wanting people to see.

He's saying do it in such a way that part of you knows what you

gave, but part of you doesn't. Like you basically give and then

you forget what you gave. You go and you give and you're

not. Now, it's not wrong to keep

track of it for your tax purposes in your budget, which

I'll get to, But in the sense of not keeping a tally, saying to

God, wow, I'm a good giver, aren't I?

God, I did it again. Are you going to reward me this

time? No.

Instead of patting ourselves on the back and hoping someone else

is watching, we privately tell God how worthy He is and not be

concerned with man's attention and praise for a righteous act.

This pleases the Father and it says in in our verses and your

Father who sees in secret. The point there is that when you

give out of pure love and generosity, as I said, God is

sovereign. He's everywhere all at once.

He sees everything. We can't fool Him with our

hypocrisy, but He also sees when we do things from the right

heart and there are rewards. Maybe it's not in this life.

Maybe you're not going to, you know, give and get a ton back

and God's going to give you a completely different social

status in life. Maybe that's not what's going to

happen. But what is going to happen is

when you get to heaven and you're going to hear well done,

good and faithful servant, you don't need that from people on

earth. Proverbs 1917 says whoever is

generous to the poor lends to the Lord and he will repay him

for his deed. So what does it mean to give to

the needy? Give to the poor that that word

give to the needy. Actually in its original

language, it's it's merciful giving, charitable giving

donations. And so does this mean that every

time I see somebody on the corner holding up a sign, I need

to give them money? No, I don't think so.

You have, again, discernment. You can decide.

First of all, the Bible says take care of your own people

first, your family first, things like that.

God first, then family, then church, then others going back

to our ordered loves. And by the way, historically in

the churches and in the synagogues, the giving was

collected and then distributed by the churches.

So when it talks about the this giving, Jesus is talking about

when you're going to give, even generally, when you give

generally to your churches and they distribute it or use it for

certain means, do it with the right heart.

In Acts chapter 2, when the church first started, it talks

Acts 2 · chapter mention

about they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching the

fellowship, the breaking the bread and prayers.

Mike did a sermon, stand alone sermon on this and our one year

anniversary talking about what a healthy church is.

And you can see why we do what we do at church based on those

things in there. But later on it talks about how

the church is growing and it says and they were selling their

possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all

as any had need in the early church.

And and it got more organized in the New Testament that people's

giving was collected at church. Actually in First Corinthians

16, one it says now concerning the collection for the Saints,

as I directed the churches of Galatia.

So you also are to do on the first day of every week.

Each of you is to put something aside and stored up as he may

prosper so that there will be no collecting when I come.

He's talking about Sunday, you know, So giving on Sunday is a

good thing and it does keep the lights on and pay pastors

salaries and go towards benevolence funds and help with

rent and and missions, global missions around the world.

Taking care of people not just locally but globally and giving

to the church helps the message get to the spiritually poor.

When we're giving, like I said before, we're being like God,

sacrificial and merciful. 2nd Corinthians 8-9 For you know the

grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for

your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might

become rich. Jesus, God who was in heaven,

had everything in his possession, decided to empty

himself, as Philippians says, come down, be born like a baby

in a Manger in the middle of nowhere, where he got no praise

other than by the angels and the shepherds.

That's what that's talking about.

He made himself poor all the way to be the enemy of the state and

crucified on the cross so that you could be spiritually rich.

We're spiritually poor in our sin, but now we have the

abundance of blessing and grace and faith in Jesus Christ.

So here's what I'll say. I'll end with these practical

things. Give sacrificially.

Give and forget what you gave. Don't have buyer's remorse when

you give. I've heard people say I've been

giving, you know, to the mission of God for a long time and I

have never missed one single dollar, one single cent.

And I hope that that's true. Give regularly, not

sporadically. Again, we're trying to be with

the heart of Christ in this, that it's a regular act as

Scripture says. Now, it doesn't have to be every

week. It can be, you know, once a

month or whatever it is, but a regular, a regularity to it, as

Scripture says, make a high priority on your budget, as you

would with other things that are very high on your priority list

in your life. And don't brag about your

giving. Yes, write your name on the

envelope so that you can get tax deductions, but you just don't

need to brag about it, even to yourself.

And then there's this idea of this tie.

The word means 10 tenth or 10%, and I personally believe that

you can make a case for it in Scripture that 10% is not a

religious have to, but it is a a goal and it is biblical is what

I'd say. So I would make that a goal one

day. If you can't get there, start

with a few percent, which would make you regular.

At least you're putting it in your budget.

But Matthew 2323 when he talks to the scribes and Pharisees

again calls them hypocrites, says woe to you scribes and

Pharisees hypocrites. You tithe mint and deal and

cumin and have been neglected the way to your matters of the

law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.

These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.

So right there Jesus says, these you ought to have done.

If Jesus says you ought to do something, then I'm, I should

probably desire to do it as a Christian.

But again, they were doing it neglecting the real more

weightier matters of the faith. Giving isn't, you know, some

religions, Again, these workspace religions, they're

keeping track of what you give. They're saying you're not worthy

to go to the temple if you don't have your tithe up.

I mean, you may not. And then that makes it so you

can't to go to what they believe their highest level of heaven.

I mean, we're talking about hypocrisy here and false

teaching. Be aware of that.

You could never give a dime. God doesn't need your money.

God doesn't need my money. He owns everything and He's

going to provide and make his plans happen no matter what.

He doesn't need it. It's an act of worship from us.

2nd Corinthians 9 says each one must give as he's decided in a

in his heart. Again, it comes from a matter of

the heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a

cheerful giver. So start making some goals to

grow in your faith with the Lord in some of these practical

things and we'll get into prayer and and other things.

But make sure that all the religious and think practicing

of our faith that we do do is that we give it to the glory of

God and not ourselves. The glory of God is the number

one purpose of every believer's life.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your

generosity to us. Thank you for providing for us.

Thank you for our careers. Thank you for our homes.

Thank you for the cars that got us here, the clothes that we

have on our back, the food that we get to eat.

And often times we forget because of the work that and the

stress and the toil that we do out there, that it's ultimately

you that provides that possibility in the first place.

Father, forgive us for our hypocrisy and religion and a

wrong heart. Lord, you know that we are

battling this, our old nature versus this new nature that you

gave us. But thank you, Father, that You

are so gracious and kind that we are righteous before You without

a single work by faith alone. Now You deserve us to worship

you in every way you've made possible and made clear in Your

Word. So help us to worship you,

because we cannot do it on our own.

And we ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen. Would you stand and sing in

response with us?