Living a Life of Generosity

Matthew 6:1–4 (ESV)

“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 your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Recap

Last week we started a series around matthew chapter 6 where we are talking about the basic habits of our christian walk.

The disciplines that Jesus presented as expectationgs for each believer.

And that these were not optional things..

but that they are basic expectations.

Last Week

Last week we skipped ahead a little in the passage and talked about Fasting.

And that as a believer, Christ laid the expectation that we are to fast..

not in a public look at me kind of way..

but in a private practice before god..

physical and spiritual discipline

We talked about how fasting was a physical and spiritual practice that brings great reward in our lives

and have far reaching implications on our lives.

We ending by asking ourselves what we are truely hungry for..

Are you hungry?

Asking if our hunger was simply for food and those things that fill the stomach..

or if we were hungry and thirsty for righteousness as christ spoke about in matthew 5.

Giving .. brings reward..

Last week

this is the last full week of our annual corperate fast

You still have time to join us..

You can start today..

And I promise, if you really do it.. and seek god.. it will be a blessing to you.

today

But Fasting is not the only thing that Jesus told us we are to do..

in this chapter alone, he also says when you give, when you pray, and to seek first the kingdom..

So lets keep going..

and today, were going to talk about giving..

Lets read the passage again.

When you give

Matthew 6:1–4 ESV

“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 your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

One of the first items Jesus tackles in righteouse behavior is giving..

And even more specifically Jesus is speaking here of generosity.

When

I want us to first take note of that first prhase in verse 2.

“Thus when you give.”

Just like we talked about last week where Jesus said, when you fast.

I want to point out that giving is an expected behavior of a follower of christ.

giving and money are subjects Jesus delt with regularly in his teaching and disicpling..

And We know the bible has a lot to say about giving

But 11/39 of the parables, or illistrations, Jesus tells are about money..

It was his most talked about topic.

But why?

Simple, because giving is really not about money, its about the heart.

Giving is about the heart

Jesus tells us this a little later in the chapter

Matthew 6:21 ESV

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Giving is about the heart..

Because our money, our treasure, is directly connected to our heart.

and more than any money or treasure, christ wants our heart and wants it to be right..

because out of it, everything else flows..

the way we live

the choices we make

they flow from our heart.

Treasure

Our money is our treasure..

Its what we spend most of our time working for, worrying about, and decideing what to do with…

and if Christ can get us to handle money in a righteous way

He can get us to handle our heart in a righteous way.

And our heart will be after him.

Giving, more than any other christian practice, reveals the condition of our hearts.

All giving..

Look at tithing..

Tithing

Tithing is a test of the heart

Malachi 3:10–11 ESV

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.

God comanded us through the bible to bring a tenth of our increase back to his house.

and in return he would bless us beyond our capacity to contain it..

But tithing is a test of the heart..

Its a test of weather we will trust god with what we have been given

and be obiedient to give the tenth back to him..

or weather we will reject his comands and lust after our poccessions instead.

Its a test of the heart.

Matthew 6 is about the heart

The real issue Jesus is dealing with here in this passage in matthew 6 is the intention of the heart..

He is trying to tell the poeple, these are expectations of all followers..

but doing them just so people cans see you do them does not make you rightouse..

rather..

Your heart needs to be right when you do it..

Your actions should match your intentions..

Pharisees

You see the pharisess made a big show of thier giving..

They wanted to make sure that people saw them giving to the needy..

they wanted to make sure that people saw them tithting..

BUt Jesus said, like fasting, that giving in that manner to be seen prevents us from receiving the blessing God has for us in giving..

ITs not righeously motivated..

Instead, we should give in humility, not be seen, and god will honor that.

Jesus tells us to be Generous

Secondly, lets look at the second part of that first phrase in verse 2

Matthew 6:2 (ESV)

“Thus, when you give to the needy,.....

I want us to notice

this passage is actually not about tithing..

Jesus will affirm tithing in another passage of scripture..

but this passage is about another type of giving..

and its thats Generosity

Jesus says when you give… to the needy

when you give to those who are in need..

Jesus is tells us here that the expectation on the live of a believer is not just to be obideint in our tithing..

but we should be living a life of generosity

taking care of others..

and if we will do that with the right heart

God will reward us..

so what is generosity?

What is generosity?

Define- Generosity is the way I steward what I have in relationship to those around me.

Generosity is being open handed with those I come into contact with in this world

freely sharing and giving…

helping to make sure others are cared for as I would want to be cared for.

This could be with our money, our stuff, or our resources..

The things we have

Its the apidamy of the golden rule found in the next chapter of matthew

Matthew 7:12 ESV

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Paul also sumized the heart of generosity in Philipians 2

Philippians 2:1–4 ESV

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Test

Generosity is also a test of the heart..

Its is the test of if I will love others like christ has loved me…

If i will love my neighbor as my self.

I will love as christ has loved me..

If I will give as christ calls us to give to this in need..

Generosity tests our charactor to see if it reflects our savior.

and in the process tests our trust for god..

BEcause Jesus said if we will be generous god will reward us..

The French Fry Test

its very easy to see if we are living a life of generosity or not..

If you want to know how generous you are..

Take a freind down to mcdonalds

By 1 box of fries..

and eat it in front of them..

Dont tell them whats going on..

but when they reach for a fry..

That initial feeling you get..

to slap them..

Will tell you if your a generous person or not..

Generous people live with an open hand..

They have not problem giving to needs..

they have no problem sharing what they have..

even if its little..

because they know it has been given from god

and that god will return and reward whatever they give..

and Jesus expects us to be generous..

But Pastor..

You might be saying..

but pastor..

thats all good and well..

But I dont have anything to be generous with..

You do

and I would say.. but you do..

because anything you ..

is much great in gods hands..

And if you will be generous and obiedient to god..

He will return much more than you give..

I want us to look at another story in the bible real quick..

a story where Jesus teaches this lesson to the disicples in a practical setting..

one that shows gods math in action..

turn over to matthew 14:13-21

Bring 12 people up to help and give them the bread and fish

Gods Math in action

Jesus feeds the five thousand

Matthew 14:13–21 (ESV)

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Jesus is out and has been ministering to a big crowd of people..

some experts estimate over 20,000 people with women and children.

And they come to a problem..

The crowd has a need..

the crowd has a need..

They are in the middle of no where..

its late..

and now.. the people are famished..

They need food..

So the disciples come to Jesus and say..

the people are hungry..

send them home..

but Jesus says no..

You give to them..

Natural

you see the natural state of our heart is.. keep what I have.. because I need it..

and send people with need to find their solution..

But the comand of Jesus was for us to give to the needy..

and to be generous..

Jesus said you give....

Jesus said if they are hungry..

YOU give them something..

Take what you have and meet their need..

Test

its interesting..

remember I told you generosity was a test of the heart..

and In Johns version, John 6:6 said this whole thing was a test.. because he knew what he would do..

and so Jesus gave a comand..

knowing what the end result would be if they would follow it..

he said.. you give them what you have.

The disicples had very little..

but the disipcles preceived a problem..

they didnt think they had enough to meet the need..

They didnt think what they had would be adiquit..

look what they said..

Matthew 14:17 ESV

They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.”

we read that as insufficeincy..

they didnt have enough to do the job..

but you could read it a differ way too..

WE… only have..

self interest..

regardless..

they had no faith that what they had would meet the need..

but look what Jesus siad..

bring what you have to me..

bring what you have to me.. (Have them bring the stuff to you)

Jesus said give to be..

thats tithing..

giving god the tenth..

Paul writes in romans 11:16

Romans 11:16 ESV

If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

When we bring the tithe of what we have to god..

like malichi said..

Like Jesus said..

he will bless it and make it more than enough..

They gave it to Jesus, and he blessed it and broke it..

and thats what Jesus did..

He blessed it..

He broke it..

he gave it back (Give it back to them)

And he gave it back to them..

When we tithe..

thats what god does..

He blessed what we have and gives it back to us..

in many ways..

They had to give again now.. (Faith)

NOW IT WAS IN THEIR HANDS..

they had given it once to god..

he blessed and returned it..

and now they had to decide..

am I going to eat them..

and use it for my self..

or am I going to go and be generous..

and give it to the ridiculous amount of people here..

and try to meet thier need like God comanded me..

and the bible tells us they went and gave..

As they gave.. it multiplied.. (Have the 12 give to the people)

and as they gave for the second time..

the bread and fish became enough in thier hands to feed the massive crowd..

NOTICE

I want you to notice..

it took faith..

the multiplication happened as they gave..

can you imagine.. when you have given to 300 and the piece of bread is still the same?

AS THEY GAVE..

IT MULTIPLIED..

As they were obidient.. it became more than enough and multiplied..

They ended up with exponetially more than they started with.. (Have the twelve return with 12 baskets)

And the end result..

was just like Jesus said it would be in chapter 6..

reward..

the bible says from the 5 loaves and two fish..

they took up 12 baskets..

Both the people and the disiples were blessed..

look at the end..

because they had faith to give..

the people were all cared for..

AND THEY ALL ENDED UP WITH A FULL BASKET OF THEIR OWN..

THEY ENDED WITH MORE THAN THEY STARTED WITH..

I cant afford to be generous with what I have..

I would tell you that you cant afford not to..

because the end result of living a generous life is much greater than the little we start with..

How generous are you?

God is generous

You know god has already demonstrated generosity for us..

The bible says he gave the most prescious thing he had..

so we could be cared for..

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Philippians 2:5–11 ESV

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

God gave Jesus

and Jesus gave his life..

all to care for us..

in what way?

Sin

The bible says all have sinned

and the wages of this sin is death..

but the free gift of god is eternal life through Jesus christ our lord..

You see god saw our need for redemption in our relationship with him..

and he freely gave of himself..

so we could be retored to him..

and all we have to do is accept this gift..