Giving that Matters

Illustration:

A family came home from church one Sunday and after they had lunch they sent their 6-year-old son off to play. After awhile, his mother realized that they hadn’t heard much from him, which any parent knows is a recipe for disaster.

The mother got up from her recliner and walked to the child's bedroom and listened right outside his door. She kept hearing small metallic sounds and jingling come from the other side of the door. Intrigued, she cracked the door a little and looked in to see her son sitting on floor with his piggy bank opened and a few dollars in coins lying around the floor. He gathered them up and put them in the handkerchief, knelt down and prayed silently, and then threw the coin up in the air. He watched them all hit the ground, frowned, and gathered his coin back into the handkerchief and repeated throwing them up in the air.

His mom opened the door and asked him what in the world he was doing.

The little boy replied, “We learned in Sunday School today that we should give money to God for an offering. I forgot to bring mine today I figured I’d come home and throw mine in the air, and God would catch whatever He needed and I could keep the rest, but He hasn’t caught any yet!”

As cute as that story is, it does highlight one of the common misconceptions about giving as an act of worship.

Quick Hit Intro

He shifts from how loving enemies to sacrificial giving. Jesus is going to show three specific ways people can fall victim to hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy-the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.

Key Take-Away:

“Giving is a righteous act that is tainted when done for the wrong reason.”

Introduction:

Driving Message:

Matthew 6:1 ESV

1 “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.

Righteous actions are good when done for the praise of the Lord. (Matthew 6:1)

Sub-message: Righteousness practiced for men’s praise does not give God glory

1. The danger of giving to receive praise from people.

Matthew 6:2 ESV

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.

Importance of Giving during this time:

“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.”

A. When we give for our own praise, we give selfishly.

“Jesus was simply explaining that the motive for charity must not be the desire for praise from others.”

B. When we give for our own praise, we hurt ourselves.

There is a blessing to giving without anyone knowing about it. When we do it and it’s in secret, it allows for us to see how great God is working and moving. It draws us closer to the Lord and in a lot of ways proves where our loyalty lies.

2. The reward of giving in secret.

Matthew 6:3–4 ESV

3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

A. When giving in secret, we are not tempted to receive praise from people.

B. When giving in secret, we are able to grow spiritually.

Illustration:

“I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc, is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our giving does not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our giving excludes them.” - CS Lewis