Branded Week 4 - Generosity

Matthew 6:1-4

Matthew 6:1–2 ““Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

Matthew 6:3–4 “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Welcome/Intro

Welcome to Branded week 4 as we continue in Jesus’ first recorded sermon, his “Sermon on the Mount.” We are over halfway through our series and approaching the midpoint of Jesus’ sermon.

That was Matthew 6:1-4. Go ahead and turn with me in your Bibles there.

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Matthew 6:1-4

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In this part of Jesus’ sermon—

Like many parts of the Bible—

We’re going to encounter a few things that are just so different from the world that you and I live in:

Different cultural practices. Different religious practices. Different assumptions.

But what’s so cool about the Bible is this:

If we can do a little bit of work to get ourselves a bit more familiar with their world,

What we’ll find is that their experience really isn’t all that different from ours—

Even though their starting point might be.

Let’s start in verse 1:

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Matthew 6:1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”

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“Practice your righteousness.” We’ve probably got a pretty good idea of what that means. But just so there’s no confusion:

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Righteousness: godly actions that demonstrate true discipleship.

They started from a place of wanting to be in right standing with God as demonstrated through right behavior.

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People who are good with God are good. People who are right with God | do right. That was their starting point.

We don’t always start from there. We kinda tell ourselves that we’re good with God despite our bad behavior, or maybe because we’re not as bad as the next guy. You know… I’m not perfect, but I believe in God… so we’re good…

But they started from somewhere very different. Right standing and right behavior were fused together. Inextricably linked.

Let’s keep going. Verse 1 again:

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Matthew 6:1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”

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This is another one of their starting points that likely differs from ours:

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Reward: God’s “payment” or “wage” for godly living.

They started from a place where how we live now dictates what we receive from God later.

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And maybe you start from a similar place—or maybe you don’t. In my experience, I think most of us don’t. Most of us start from a much softer place than that. More gentle; more optimistic; and even more ambigious.

Our version of God is a bit more gracious than that. More tolerant. I’m good with him; he’s good with me; why is that the case… because God’s a good guy. He’s pretty chill. He’s loving; understanding. He’s not the grumpy bearded old man in the sky. That’s Old Testament God. He’s softened with age.

Regardless of where you start in your belief—

Somewhere similar, or somewhere different—

Let’s keep going in Jesus’ sermon here. Becuase now he’s going to talk about not just a belief, but a practice— and this one for sure vdiffers greatly from where most of us start.

Verse 2:

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Matthew 6:2 So when you give to the needy…

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Three starting points here that we need to unpack.

First one is simple:

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Give: donating my financial resources.

They started from a narrow(er) understanding of what giving meant.

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Not us. We’ve broadened it.

Giving your time, your talent, and third in the list, your treasure.

But Jesus isn’t talking about volunteering. He’s talking money—and giving it away.

Which is why he says… to the…

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Needy: the materially poor; neighbors who did not have enough resources to live on.

They started from a place of responsibility for others vs. a right to their own resources.

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Not us. Like everything else in this world, we’ve made this a political issue rather than an ethical, moral, or relational issue. We choose to argue over the right way and amount, and fight for who holds the final sway and gets the final say in the matter:

What foods can poor people buy with the assistance provided? How much should they get? Who gets to decide? What kind of oversight and requirements should be leveraged?

That’s where we start—because we start from a democracy in which our elected government has taken on the responsibility to care for its poorer citizens. It’s become a political issue because it’s now primarily a civic issue.

But that’s not how it was back then.

In fact, that’s not how it was until very recently.

When we took a family vacation out east to colonial Williamsburg, we sat in a courthouse and participated in a colonial “mock trial.” But one of the things that was explained to us was that in colonial America, it was against the law to not attend church.

If you weren’t there on a Sunday, you were breaking the law—and subject to a fine.

Why? Because people were more religious back then? It was more important to them?

No:

Because the church collected the money needed to care for the poor people in their vicinity.

The church was the country’s welfare system.

So, if you didn’t show up with your tithe, your neighbors went hungry.

Same was true in Jesus’ day:

Everyone had a personal responsibility to help their poor neighbors financially.

Comes right out of the law:

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Deuteronomy 15:11 “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”

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Which is why Jesus began his sentence with this simple word:

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Matthew 6:2 So when you give to the needy…

They started from a place of expectation—not an option. It was a habit—not a choice.

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Not if you give, but when.

(Pause.)

Okay?

I just think it’s important that we see that first.

I mean, if you take all five of those things together:

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Godly actions demonstrate true discipleship.

God rewards godly living.

Godly giving is first and foremost financial.

We are personally responsible for the materially poor.

Giving to the poor is not an option but an expectation.

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I mean, if I put a 5-point Likert scale on each of those—

You know, “1 being strongly disagree, and 5 being strongly agree”—one of those kinds of things—

I bet we’re not all scoring 25.

I bet some of us start from a different place. Maybe a little different; maybe a lot different.

But the reason I just spent 10 minutes explaining all of this to you is because…

Jesus is about to issue a correction. And a warning.

But this correction of his and this warning of his aren’t going to make much sense to you—

Especially if you start in a different place…

Because it’s not going to feel like he’s speaking to you at all.

You’ll kinda just sit back and watch this passage like an overweight guy screaming at a football game at a bar.

Every Sunday night, we do pizza in the Tink house. Every Sunday night.

One of my favorite places to get pizza is a place called the OP—“The Other Place.” And so I go, place our order, sit at the bar, and then wait for them to make it before I head back home.

Well, during football season, that place gets loud—

Because there’s guys (and gals) that have been sitting there all day,

Eating and drinking,

And watching.

The irony (and maybe even a little sadness) of it all is this:

They are shouting at people

Who are actually playing the game

About how they’re not playing the game right.

Because why?

Because they’re playing a completely different game.

They’re starting from a parlay

Or a fantasy team—

Not from the field. Not from the gym. Not from practice or a weight bench or a flim session.

And so we have to be careful to not make the same mistake in this passage—

Allowing ourselves to just sit back

And criticize how others aren’t playing the game right

When we’re not even in the game ourselves.

But they were in the game.

They were giving.

They were taking responsibility.

They were doing what God told them to do.

Taking care of the poor obediently.

But also…

Loudly:

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Matthew 6:2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

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I think I’ve shared this picture before:

SHOW TRUMPET RECEPTACLE PICTURE

This is a reproduction of a brass receptacle in and around the temple. It’s how offerings—with almsgiving being one of those—were collected: wide at the top so that you could throw your coins in; narrow in the middle so that you couldn’t reach in and grab for yourself; and large enough so you couldn’t just walk off with it easily and quietly.

But I’m sure it made a fantastic noise when you dropped your gift for the poor into one of those.

And the more you deposited into that trumpet-shaped receptacle, the louder the noise—

And the more aware everyone else grew of just how generous you were.

Get this:

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There were a group of poeople that Jesus has to correct—

Not because they weren’t giving, but because of why.

They were giving to the poor—but they were living for themselves.

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And this is where we don’t start from different places at all.

We start exactly where they did:

We kinda want it to be about us.

Now:

The way we express that desire or live into it—very different. I’ve been at Prairie Lakes for a long time now; not once have I witnessed someone deliberately get up in the middle of my message and start dropping silver dollars into the offering box in the back. That’s not how we live for ourselves.

And that’s because for us, giving is an option. It’s not something most of us feel God expects us to do, or that there will be any kind of consequence later on if we don’t do. For most of us, it’s a choice—not a habit.

And I could share data with you to prove that point—and not just some national statistic, but our own data.

I could share with you how many of us regularly attend, serve, are in some kind of group, but don’t give.

I could share with you how many of us give a little bit every now and again, but nowhere close to a tithe or 10%.

And I know—I know:

Whenever a pastor starts using numbers to talk about giving behaviors, some of us get immediately triggered and suspicious—either because of a past experience you’ve had or the reputation churches have built for being a spiritual front to what’s really a cash grab.

In fact, you might be thinking to yourself right now:

Pastor, I’d probably consider giving you a few bucks if I knew that all of it was going towards helping the poor like Jesus was talking about here. In fact, that’d resolve most of my misgivings about my giving.

I get it. We have buildings, and salaries, and programs,

In addition to our missions and benevolence and disaster relief and everything else.

But so did they. They had a temple, and priests, and upkeep, and all of the things that go along with a religious organization. You can’t get away from it.

And you also can’t allow that to give yourself a pass on something that Jesus might need to correct in you now like he was doing to them back then:

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If you want to see who you’re living for,

Look at how you’re spending.

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Is it getting hot in here? Is anybody else hot?

For them, it looked like a bunch of coins clanging in the bottom of a brass receptacle.

For us, it usually looks like not giving much at all—

But the driving force behind both of those behaviors is the same:

We just want to live for ourselves.

And you know what?

Everybody wants our money.

My kids’ school wants me to buy butter braids.

Amazon wants me to check out this Prime Day deal.

My kid wants a pair of shoes that was the price of my first car.

The government wants… Visa wants… the hospital… the city…

EVERYBODY’S GOT THEIR HAND IN MY POCKET—AND NOW THE IDIOT UP FRONT HAS A BIBLE IN HIS HAND, TELLING ME THAT JESUS NEEDS HIS CUT, TOO.

I get it.

And listen: if this is your first weekend with us, or maybe your first weekend back to church in like ever,

Or you said yes to a friend who invited you and you’re noticing that all of the color has drained from their face and they’re sweating,

Don’t call 911. (Or maybe do. Judgment call.)

They’re probably just nervous about the same thing that I’m nervous about—

That you feel like all of this is one big spiritual money laundering scheme.

And so if that’s you:

I’m not after your money. And this message isn’t directed at you. In fact, your presence here this weekend is your gift. You coming and listening and checking things out is a huge gift to us.

But for literally everyone else—

All of us who consider ourselves followers of Jesus; God’s children:

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We can’t say we’re living for God when we’re spending all of what he’s giving us on ourselves.

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That math don’t math.

And so if that’s you, the solution is simple. This is why Jesus says:

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Matthew 6:3–4 “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

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I want to be clear on something here:

I don’t know what anyone gives. I can’t go into our database and see how much you’re giving. That is kept secret and separate from me.

But there are two people who know exactly how much you’re giving to Prairie Lakes:

Our Finance Director.

And God.

One can reward you with a giving statement for the IRS.

And the other can see what’s got a grip on your heart—and what does not.

And he stands ready to reward you

For your obedience.

Just start obeying.

If you’re married, talk about it with your spouse.

But you don’t have to talk about it with anyone else.

And for most of us in whatever room you’re in, obedience looks one of two ways:

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Obedience in Giving:

If you’re not giving, start.

If you are giving, tithe.

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Listen:

I’m glad we live in a time where giving isn’t an obligation. I’m glad it’s a choice.

I don’t want to be compelled by a law or shamed by priest.

I want to choose to be a part of what God’s doing by giving what I can towards it. That’s a way better way to do it, I think.

And let me also, maybe rather boldly and unashamedly, say this:

I think that you choosing freely to give to Prairie Lakes is a great decision.

Here’s why:

We exist to help people who are poor—both spiritually and materially.

Just this summer we celebrated our the graduation of our second community in Kenya. Kauria.

We spent a decade coming alongside pastors, building schools, investing in kids, and building infrastructure—

The point where they don’t need our help anymore. Poverty isn’t determining their destiny anymore. In Jesus’ name.

We took 10 years in Kwambakenya. Another 10 in Kahuria. And now it’s on to the next one.

And also: last year we saw 391 people step across the faith line, out of the poverty of a life without God, and into the riches of knowing him through his Son, Jesus. And this year, 263 people have already taken that same step.

We are making a very significant impact in the lives of people who matter the most to God, spiritually and materially. I know he’d find another solution if we weren’t around. But if our church wasn’t around, there’d be a pretty significant kingdom hole he’d have to fill.

If you decide to give to Prairie Lakes, you don’t have to wonder if your gift matters.

We’ll make it matter.

We’re gonna stay on mission. We’re gonna keep Jesus in the center. We’re not going to allow any other message to compete with his. And we’re gonna obediently follow where he’s calling us to go, and serve those he’s calling us to serve.

And that’s really what I want for you:

The joy of knowing and seeing the fruit in the lives of the people God is reaching

As you and I obey in our giving.