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When You Give
Recap last week:
Last week we talked about the front end of
Recall the challenge is to check your heart motives.
Be careful when you practice your righteousness.
Do not boost in your deeds.
Do not hold them over others.
Do not be prideful.
Allow humility to show from you, not pride.
We want our humility to show not pride.
So as we move into this week, we are still keeping in mind what Jesus was talking about here in .
Because we are going to see this keep popping up all over the next weeks here.
Jesus moves from talking about do not practice your righteousness in front of others— to explaining what are things that make us righteous?
Jesus is expounding on what it is that you may practice in front of others in a showy kind of way.
In a way that brings attention to you rather then pointing people to God.
So Jesus is starting with Giving.
So what is giving?
Giving is the act of alms or almsdeeds— It means donating to the poor, or charity, or being a benefactor on someone’s behalf.
In this context Jesus would be referring to more finical giving then anything else.
is the act of
So lets also keep that in mind as we begin to look at
The first point tonight is...
Giving is expected
Jesus begin not by saying if you give to the needy, but he opens up by saying WHEN YOU GIVE to the needy.
This was an expectation.
In a society without social security or welfare, voluntary charity and donations for the destitute formed a key part of ancient Jewish life and remained an important virtue enjoined upon the righteous.
This was a very important element of the Jewish society.
When we give becuase it is expected, but how are we suppose to give?
This goes back to last week.
Jesus was saying in do not practice your righteous in front of others so you can be seen by them.
Jesus here in calls them hypocrites.
Jesus is saying, DO NOT sound the trumpet, maybe they sounded a trumpet whenever some one gave to poor, i do not know.
But then you sound a trumpet, you are bringing attention to yourself, and that is the reason why Jesus is saying do not be like that.
What happens to these people?
They have already received their reward and again going back to last week, it is nothing.
There is no reward.
It is so hard in our culture as well as the culture Jesus was talking to, to not want attention for what you are doing.
People wanted others to know that they were giving.
This was bringing the attention to themselves.
We seek a culture that is me me me
Look at what I am doing, what I can do, and let me show you how thoughtful I am, and how giving I am.
This is in our culture, its on our newsfeed, our instagram, snaps, twitter, Facebook, it is all over and are all most likely guilty of this is some regard.
When we want others to see our good deeds being done we are showing people it is about me.
This comes from a selfish place and a very prideful place.
So how are we suppose to give?
Giving is to be done secretly
Jesus is going back to address again, when you give, it is expected.
so that your giving may be in secret.
Jesus saying look when you give it should in secret and it should be so secret that your left hand that is connected to your body, should not know what your right hand, which is also connected to your body, is doing.
Jesus is going back to address
Most people in our church give of their money.
Some view their giving is them sacrificing their time and energy.
And some do not give at all.
While I would say that bigger issue of those three types of people are the ones who give nothing at all.
They are practically just coming to church, not connected, not too willing to serve, and for sure not willing to give.
This can and should be an issue.
This is convicting to Brittni and I who did not give for a long time.
We always made up excuses:
Money is tight this month.
We have too many things to buy
The church is doing just fine without our little peanuts.
This is where the second I type of person, who says I am giving of my time and energy isn’t that enough, I believe can get into trouble.
Because yes, money may be tight now and i think there is a time and place for everyone who is not getting money regularly to give with their time and energy.
Many of the juniors and seniors who serve on a Wednesday, I believe that you are serving and are graciously giving of your time and energy.
At some point which is what Brittni and I found was that we were actually being disobedient to God and His church.
But now back to what Jesus was saying about giving in the secret.
Jesus was simply explaining that the motive for giving to charity, or to the poor, must not be the desire for praise from others.
In a commentary I was reading this week stated this:
In striking contrast stands the common approach to fund raising in many churches and Christian organizations in which lists of benefactors are published, often as an incentive for people to give.
This kind of motive for giving or soliciting reflects hypocrisy (v. 2), pretending to honor God when in fact one is distracting attention from him.
Is there anything wrong with saying God has blessed us, no, but there is something wrong with being prideful, and sounded the gong every-time we give, so others will give us attention.
Jesus gives us the alternative where he commands that we should give in such a way that there is no temptation for others to glorify the giver rather then God.
Why do you give, why do you serve?
Are you doing this so you get attention?
Or are you giving and serving in a way that gives God the glory.
The motive is so important.
John Stott pretty well known author says:
“Christian giving is to be marked by self-sacrifice and self-forgetfulness, not by self-congratulation”
It is a heart issue at the end of the day.
So what is your heart, when it comes to giving?
Now God promises as to why we do this.
Giving will be rewarded
Now Jesus is saying “hey when you give do it in the quite and in the secret, so that it goes unnoticed by others around you.
BUT what you do in the secret there is one who sees, and that is God.
The aim of our giving is to bring glory to God, not ourselves, but to God.
I want to caution here because we can still strive to give in the secret and follow what Jesus is teaching, and in our hearts we are seeking that reward from God.
Doing good deeds so we get a reward is also not a great attitude to have either.
This is the definition of hypocrisy:
The people who were sounding the trumpet we knew where there hearts were
But the one who is giving in the secret and demanding that God rewards this is so much more dangerous
Because in doing it this way we can get to a place where we become judgmental, and proud.
This can make one anxious.
In our anxiety to make sure that we do not serve God for what we can get out of it we must not go to the other extreme and think of God as not caring what we do, or if he does, as not doing anything about it.
God notices what his children do and responds to it.
We should bear in mind the nature of the reward.
In our anxiety to make sure that we do not serve God for what we can get out of it we must not go to the other extreme and think of God as not caring what we do, or if he does, He is not doing anything about it.
In our anxiety to make sure that we do not serve God for what we can get out of it we must not go to the other extreme and think of God as not caring what we do, or if he does, as not doing anything about it.
God notices what his children do and responds to it.
We should bear in mind the nature of the reward.
Leon Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1992), 138.
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