Getting a Grip on Giving

And preparing for this evening and for the next couple of weeks as we begin our study in Matthew chapter six, is it not true that the majority of us come to church pretending to be something that we really aren't, hoping that no one really ever finds out what we're really like on the inside. Hypocrisy has always been around. Cain was one of the first hypocrites.

He offered a sacrifice that God never wanted. And when his hypocrisy was exposed, he killed his brother Abel out of resentment. Absalom, he was a hypocrite. He vowed allegiance to his father, David, while all along he was plotting to overthrow his father's kingdom. Judas Iscariot is probably the most well-known hypocrite. Even in the midst of a time in which the Lord was suffering greatly, he would come up to him and kiss him on the cheek to pose a semblance of affection toward him, all the while the murderous plot was being carried out.

Through our study of the book of Acts, we've seen many hypocrites. Ananias and Sapphira were a great couple who lived a hypocritical kind of life, telling the leaders of their church that they sold their property for so much that they had given all of their sale to the church, but they lied. They were hypocrites, and the Lord God struck them dead. Hypocrisy, one of the key elements that Satan uses to destroy the church of Jesus Christ. And tonight, I want to look at three points with you.

By way of introduction, I want us to beware of superficiality. By way of instruction, I want us to learn to behave with authenticity. And by way of implication, I want us to understand how we can begin our responsibility to live a true and pure and holy life. Christ begins to hit the external form of worship. He talks about the three basic areas, one, giving, another, praying, and the third, fasting.

Three external forms of worship that everybody can see from some degree. He hits them very hard. Tonight, we'll just cover the first one, the one about giving, that we might learn to get a grip on real, true spiritual giving.

What does the Bible say about giving in a non-hypocritical kind of way? Listen to what Jesus says, and we'll just read through the first four verses here, and then we'll begin our outline.

Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. When therefore you give alms, do not sound the trumpet before you as a hypocrite do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may be honored by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your alms may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

The first thing I want you to notice by way of introduction is how we are to beware of superficiality.

In Christ's eyes, this is what I need you to be aware of, that there are many people who are like actors in a theater. They are the hypocrites. They are the ones who mask themselves. They walk around with all the external righteousness. But on the inside, there's not been a real, true element of conversion. There's not been a real, true heart change. Notice two things, an apparent contradiction, and number two, an appropriate condemnation.

It seems like there's an apparent contradiction here, because Jesus just said in Matthew chapter five, verse number 16, and in verse number 15 and 16, or basically 13 through 16, let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Now, wait a minute. Christ just said a few moments earlier that we are to be able to do things so people see our good works, and now he's telling us, be careful that people don't see your good works. What is Christ saying?

Is this a contradiction in scripture? Over in Psalm 106, verse 3, it says, how blessed are those who keep justice, who practice righteousness at all times. Does that mean that somehow we are not to practice our righteousness so other people see it? So what is Christ saying? Is he contradicting himself? No, he's not. Why? It all depends on your purpose. It all depends on your motivation. If what you do, you do because you want applause, you're a hypocrite. If what you do, you do because you want others to recognize you and to pat you on the back and tell you how great a job you have done, Christ says, you're a hypocrite.

But if you do your works so when others see them, they glorify God who is in heaven, now you've done the right thing. There's no contradiction. How many times do when we get up to do something, we want people to say something about us, and when they don't, we're discouraged, right? Christ says, you're a hypocrite.

It was A.B. Bruce who gives this explanation. We are to show when tempted to hide, and we are to hide when tempted to show. That's good. Resist the temptation. But it's an appropriate condemnation. Christ says, look, you're a hypocrite.

In verse number 2, in verse number 5, in verse number 16, Christ says, look, if you give your alms, don't sound the trumpet.

Don't put yourself on a stage. Don't do it in such a way that people will see you coming because if you do, you're a hypocrite. When you pray, he says, look, you are not to be as hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues on the street corners in order to be seen by men. But we pray, we pray along because we want everybody to know we're praying. When we pray, we pray loud because we want everybody to hear we're praying. Who do you pray for? Who do you pray to? As we read through the text of the Sermon on the Mount, Christ begins to address all those things that we think are really great, and God cuts right through the chase and says, what's your heart like?

Don't be a hypocrite. Anybody remember the last public sermon Christ ever preached? It wasn't about salvation. It wasn't about the power of God. If you had one sermon left to preach, what would you say? If you knew that this Sunday was the last time you could preach a sermon, what would you say? Christ knew he was going to die. It was Passover week. He was about to be slaughtered, and he didn't even preach a message about salvation. He didn't preach a message about the resurrection. He didn't preach a message about the power of the Spirit of God in the life of a believer to make him all that God wants him to be.

He preached a message of cursing and woe and denunciation upon religious leaders for their hypocrisy. He condemned them. Matthew 23 verses 31 to 36, or 13 to 36. Cursed are you, you hypocrites. Woe to you. Cursed are you. You think, what? Gee whiz, Lord. Give us some encouragement here. We need to feel good. I know you're going to die and you're going to leave. Give us some feel-good kind of message here. God doesn't ever give anybody a feel-good kind of message. He gives you what you need. He cursed the religious leaders.

He cursed them because they led his people the wrong way. He cursed them because they would lead people to hell. He called them, you are children of hell. That's what he said. How many people would go to a church where the preacher said, you're children of hell? That's not how you grow a church. That's what Jesus said. He confronted them head on because he hated hypocrisy. He hated people pretending to be one of his when they weren't. You see that? So important for us to understand. The bottom line is that hypocrites will receive the judgment of God.

So by way of introduction, Christ says, beware of superficiality. Which leads us to point number two, the instruction.

Christ says, behave with authenticity. Behave with vulnerability. Behave with great transparency. Behave in such a way that people know that you are authentic about what you do. And folks, this is what Jesus says.

About how you give authentically. Listen to what he says. Verse number two, when therefore you give alms, do not sound the trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and the streets.

That they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you that they have their reward and fall. He says, but when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Here's the point. You give spontaneously. You give so spontaneously that your left hand doesn't even know what your right hand is doing. Let me ask you this.

Do you want to tell others what you have given or what you have done? Do you make it a point to make sure that other people know what you have given or what you have done for someone else in need? That means you're blowing your trumpet. How about this? Maybe you don't want to really come right out and say anything, but you hope to accidentally get noticed. You ever done something like that? You want to do it accidentally. You want to do it in such a way that you don't purposefully do it, but you're hoping that accidentally something will happen and others will take notes.

Or how about this? You expect others to show gratitude, and when they don't show gratitude, you become angry and bitter inside. Oh, they're so ungrateful. Oh, how could they be so ungrateful? After all I've given to them. Is that the kind of heart that God wants? Is that the kind of heart that brings glory to the Lord God? Or is it something else? We ask ourselves the question, do we blow trumpets or do we give spontaneously? Number two, do you give secretly?

Do you give secretly? The text says this, that your alms may be in secret, in secret. I like that. Do you give secretly? Do you give spontaneously? Let me ask you this.

Do you forget what you have given? One man said it this way, forget it and God will remember it and he'll record it. If you remember it, God will forget it and not record it and thus receive no reward. I read that a lot to myself. Man, I like to keep track of things I give. I do. And I ask myself, well, why do I have to keep track of all things I give? So somehow I can say, you know, Lord, I'm giving to you. I'm doing the right thing. And I somehow try to justify my conscience. And I can say that maybe I give somebody more than somebody else gives.

But God never compares me to you. He compares me to him. And I never give as much as he gave. He's the standard. Do you give secretly? But lastly, give specifically. Give specifically. That your alms may be in secret and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. Give specifically to the Father. He is your audience. He is the one who's looking. He is the one that you need to please. You don't need to please your pastor. You don't need to please your elders. You don't need to please your Sunday school teacher.

All you gotta do is please Jesus. Makes it so easy. So easy. No guilt. No pressure. Just please Jesus. Point number three, by way of implication.

How do we begin our responsibility? How do we begin to enact this? Notice that the text says this. Verse number three, but when you give alms.

It doesn't say if you give alms. If you decide to be in the habit of giving. Christ says no. When you give. You notice also it says when you pray, pray this way.

And when you fast, pray this way. Giving, praying, and fasting for this is assumed by God. He assumes that those who live like a child of the King are going to engage in giving, praying, and fasting. He assumes that. James would say it well in James 2, 15 to 17. Faith without works is dead. True religion. Undefiled before the Father in heaven is this. That you visit the widows and orphans in their affliction and keep oneself unspotted from the world. That's true religion. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 8.

Very familiar set of verses. Real quickly, we'll shoot through these and give you five principles on how you can begin your responsibility when it comes to giving. Number one, I'll give you the hard one first.

Give totally. Say wait a minute. What do you mean by giving totally? You mean I gotta give everything I got to the Lord? Just in case you don't know everything is the Lord's anyway. Maybe you didn't know that. You're just a steward. Your kids aren't yours. Your house isn't yours. Your car isn't yours. Your job's not yours. Your bank account's not yours. Nothing's yours. God owns it all. He's just making you a steward of those things, right? A household manager of his possessions. Give totally. Verse 2 Corinthians chapter 8.

Verse number 5. And this not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

Paul was talking about the church in Macedonia. The church who was so poor that they had nothing to give, but they gave anyway. And the reason these people could give is because they had already given themselves to the Lord. And that's where it all rests right there. Now I want to let you know something. We've been in this church a little over three years. Three years and five months. I have yet to preach one sermon on giving. Not one. Do you know that we have never had a problem with people giving in this church?

Not one. We increase our budget every year. We increase our missions budget every year. We're always in the black, never in the red. And we've never ever preached on giving. You know why? Because there are people in this church who are serious about giving themselves to God. That's why. You just preach the word of God. And the only reason we're talking about giving tonight is because it's in the next two verses. If it wasn't here, we wouldn't even be talking about it. Just shows up in the text. So we got to hit on it.

We can't skip over it because we don't want to offend people about what they give and what they don't give. So you got to deal with it. So the first principle in beginning your responsibility is give yourself to God.

Give totally yourself to God. Give totally your life. The whole thing. Give it over. Then when it comes time to give money, you don't have to be coerced, manipulated, or convinced because God's got it all anyway. Number two, make sure you give bountifully.

Give bountifully. Turn over to second Corinthians chapter nine, verse number six, then verses eight through 11.

Now this, I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. Jump down to verse number eight. And God is able to make all grace abound you that always having all sufficiency in everything that you may have an abundance for every good deed as it is written he scattered abroad he gave to the poor his righteousness abides forever now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness did you see that God says if you give bountifully he will not only supply he will multiply man that's great isn't it you can't out give God the generous man is going to be prosperous why second Corinthians nine God's going to multiply what you give he's going to give you an abundance of what you've given that's how God works number three not only are we to give oh i'm sorry there's proverbs 22 9 let me verse number nine says this he who is generous will be blessed he who is generous will be blessed are you blessed is your life blessed to have your life has your life received the blessing of God has your life been blessed because God has prospered your life has it the generous man's blessed these are the biblical principles this is not some prosperity gospel this is this not some tv preacher speaking to you about giving this is what the word of the Lord actually says and Paul knew about that he knew about it very very well in second Corinthians chapter nine he said it this is how it happens you give to God he will not only supply he will multiply so you give totally you give bountifully and thirdly you give purposefully you give purposefully second Corinthians chapter nine verse number seven let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart you purpose in your heart that you are going to give to God before you give to anything else or to anyone else you give purposefully you decide that gracious giving is a heartfelt conviction because if it's not from the heart it will be given grudgingly when a need becomes evident the one whose heart has been given over to God feels that need and responds with one purpose and one purpose only and that is for the glory of God remember Acts 4 there was nobody in that church of Jerusalem and we're talking over 3,000 people because when you get to Acts chapter 5 5,000 all right 5,000 men are added to that church in Acts chapter 4 it says that there was not one person in need because people would sell their homes they would sell their land give the proceeds to the apostles and they would distribute to all those who had a need they saw a need they purposefully responded to meet that need they purposed in their heart to give to God and give to God only and God blessed those people you read over in Acts chapter 11 remember Agabus who came on the scene and prophesied that Gentile church and they decided to take an offering because there was going to be a famine in Jerusalem and the Gentile church took an offering gave it to Paul and Bartimaeus and says we have purpose to give to you to give to that church because they wanted to show not only that they were brothers and sisters in Christ one in the body of Christ but they saw their brothers in need and as you recall in Acts chapter 11 we talked about these people they were new converts they were new believers they were Gentile Christians and when a need was made known to them they did not withhold their money why because a true converted heart knows that when there's a need it will be met by the true converted that's why and these people responded just out of the fact that God had saved their souls and they'd given themselves to God and because they'd given themselves to God to give to their brother in need was no big thing because they wanted to meet the need of their brother so they did you give totally you give bountifully you give purposefully and you give cheerfully it says in second Corinthians chapter 9 the latter part of verse number 7 that each one do just as he is purposed in his heart not grudgingly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver a hilarious giver when it come time to take the offering on Sunday mornings that should be the happiest time of your worship that should be the most glorious time of the 75 minutes that we spend together you should come in here thinking I just can't wait to the offering and when the offering comes man you just can't wait to get rid of what you're going to give to God and say praise be to God and just give it away and just smile as the offering plate passes it should be the highest upper you could ever take is the offering plate say man here it comes man because God loves a cheerful giver or do you give grudgingly you give out of compulsion or do you give because man you just love to give to God and lastly the fifth principle is you give sacrificially David said in second same of 2424 I will not offer burnt offering to the Lord my God that which cost me nothing says second Corinthians chapter 8 verse number 9 for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that you through his poverty might become rich you give sacrificially most of us say we'll give bountifully but not give sacrificially we'll give cheerfully but not sacrificially we'll give purposely but not sacrificially how was it you give and inevitably people always ask well how much do I give and whenever somebody asks me how much do I give I tell them read Luke chapter 19 the first 10 verses and then that will tell you how much you should give to God now you're wondering what Luke 19 says don't you I'm not gonna tell you I'm gonna have you go and read it but it ain't 10% it ain't 20% it ain't even 30 or 40% it's 50% Zacchaeus gave back half of what he'd taken now that's not the norm I'm not telling you got to get 50% of your income I'm not saying that I'm just saying if somebody ever asked you how much to give take in the Luke chapter 19 have him see what happened this man who got converted what he did as as a result of his conversion his life was transformed giving is not God's way of raising money giving is God's way of raising his children