of Holy Scripture as God speaks to us through his living and active word. God is a speaking God. And we'll hear him speak to us now from Matthew 25. This is verses 31 through 46. It's found on page 831 in the Bibles in front of you. And because God is speaking, we stand in honor of his holy word. Please stand together. Matthew 25, verse 31. When the Son of Man comes in glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you clothed me, and you welcomed me. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them. Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me, naked, and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. Then they also will answer, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them, saying, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Come now to our second scripture reading, which is found on the back of your white bulletin insert. Has your sermon outline on one side, scripture reading on the other. We're getting towards the end of our series through Proverbs and our strategy throughout has been to take different topics on different themes and string together Proverbs that are all connected together on that topic. And the big theme we've been looking at the past couple weeks has been money. Now we're going to see another sub-theme on the topic of money, which you will see in the Scriptures here. This is the living and active Word of God from the book of Proverbs. Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him. Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered. One gives freely, yet grows all the richer. Another withholds what he should give and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor. A righteous man knows the rights of the poor, but we can't understand such knowledge. The rich and the poor meet together. The Lord is the maker of them all. Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. Let's follow the reading of God's holy word. You may be seated. Let's pray. Lord, there are so many dimensions of the Christian life, so much that's involved in giving our whole lives to you in love. And we thank you that the word of God is sufficient for all of these dimensions. It shows us the way in every sphere of our life, the way to live out love of God and love of neighbor. And so we pray, disclose to us in a new and fresh way what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and refresh us also with the grace that enables us to follow you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, two sermons ago, we talked about money and how money is not inherently bad, but the love of money is. So money is not inherently bad, but the love of money is. And this sermon is going to build on that. As Christians, we're trying to love Jesus with all our hearts, give our all to Him. We don't want anything. to take that central most place in our hearts, that place that we reserve for God alone. Jesus is our first and greatest love. So part of what that means for money is we're trying to resist what you could call the game show mentality. You know how it goes. You've seen it. The contestant spins the wheel. They solve the puzzle, they win the big money, and what do they immediately have? Well, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. They're jumping up and down. They're going crazy. They're so happy. Why? Because they've just gotten all this money, and they think, my life is now going to get way better. I'm rich. Contrast that. was something Pastor John Piper said. This is what he said about money. He said, money is not something to leap up and down about. It's not something to go crazy about. Rather, he says, money is a dangerous opportunity. Money is a dangerous opportunity. It's like a live wire. Think about that. Live wire, you can hook it up. If you hook it up right, you can use that electricity for all kinds of useful things. But live wire is extremely dangerous as well. It can zap you if you're not careful. And so, in the same way, money is a dangerous opportunity. Greed and the love of money can shipwreck your life. It can destroy you. But money can also be a beautiful way of showing your love for Jesus. And so remember, Jesus, He's claiming all of our lives. He saved us so we can then honor Him with everything that we are. And today, the book of Proverbs is gonna show us one wonderful opportunity that we have with money. One way not to live out the game show mentality. And it has to do with being generous. to those who are in need, being generous to those who are in need. We're gonna see first how God calls us to be generous and to care for those in need. And then we're gonna ask ourselves, why is it so hard for us? Like, why do we so often not do this? And then we'll see how through Jesus, God sets us free to really love our neighbor from the heart in this tangible way. So first thing I wanna establish is that God really does call us to be generous. to those in need. And we see this, you know, in the first proverb I read, it's really all over scripture, but first proverb I read was this, 1431, whoever oppresses a poor man insults his maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. In other words, honors that poor man's maker, our maker. So God is calling us to honor him. One way to do that is by being generous to the needy. 1 Timothy 6 says the same thing, verse 18. God is commanding us to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. And it is certainly true, not just in the New Covenant, but in the Old Deuteronomy 15, 10 and 11 says this. You shall give to the needy brother. You shall give to him freely. And your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake, for there will never cease to be the poor in the land. Therefore I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in your land. So there's another one, and really, so many scriptures. I had to condense this part. There are just so many scriptures that speak of this, how important this is. Even just think about the passage I just read, Matthew 25. There's the sheep and the goats. And do you realize, the key thing that that whole thing is saying marks the sheep, the ones who are at the right hand, the ones whom God is saying, these are mine. The key thing that that passage says marks the sheep, is concern for the needy. Concern for those who are in need. Concern, and not just concern, they actually did something. They cared for them in their need. And the goats, by contrast, those who are not of the kingdom, you know, another way of saying this is if you're not showing that concern for the needy, then that's a mark of the goats, those who are not God's people. God takes this really, really serious. In fact, He says, if you don't care for the needy, what the passage is saying is you don't really care about Jesus. Because when you care for those people, you're doing it for Him, doing it to Him. And so care for those in need, this is something that is definitely a responsibility to us all as Christians. It's something that is a responsibility, and yet it's one we love to dodge. It's right there in Scripture. It's something God wants us to do, and yet it's very difficult for us. And we'll talk about that in a moment. But as we're trying to wrap our minds around what it is that God is actually commanding us to do here, I want to make a really, I think it's a very important clarification here. And just to ask the question, who are the poor? Who are the poor that he's describing? here. And actually, from here on out, I'm going to try not to use the word, the poor, because I think it summons, at least in our modern minds, the wrong ideas. It can kind of mislead us. It can actually, if we think about it wrongly, it can blind us to many opportunities to show love for those in need. Because I think when we hear the poor, what comes into our heads today is the homeless, or people like in foreign countries, very impoverished countries where they're living on less than a dollar a day. These are all people we're not very likely to run into from day to day, maybe in some cases. So I think a better term than the poor for our present context is instead to say those in need, those in need. And of course that includes people who are struggling financially, But it also includes other needs, as you hear all those different needs in Matthew 25, right? What about the sick? Those who are weak in body, say, someone who has, you know, they have funds, but they can't anymore take care of their home or of their person. Or take somebody who may be very well-to-do, but they're incredibly lonely. They're impoverished in terms of human relationships. Or take another person who maybe, again, had plenty of money, but they're very confused and they need help sorting out their life. They need counsel. They're impoverished as to counsel and they don't know what to do. And so I hope you're starting to see those in need, of course it includes and it focuses us on the economically disadvantaged, but also includes you and me from time to time. It includes the people you're sitting next to right now. when they have needs that they cannot meet, but you can. Starting to see poverty is not necessarily a financial concept. It, of course, involves that, but much of what I'm about to say to you applies to all kinds. of other needs. And the key idea that we need to see about this is we're thinking about those in need. The key idea that God's trying to get across to us is that when we see someone in trouble, when we see someone in need, God wants us to be compassionate towards that person. Remember, 1431, I'll say it again, that when we're generous to those in need, we honor the Lord. That's how we show our love to Him. And yet we're sorely tempted not to. We're sorely tempted not to. And so before I talk about the joy of generosity, how Jesus helps us to be generous and concerned for those in need, we first need to confess and be honest about why this is so hard for us. Why are we so tempted to be tight-fisted? Why? What goes on in our hearts when we don't help people who are in need, and I think one reason is we're afraid. We are afraid, and we say to ourselves, if I give this, I might not have enough for me. What about if I don't have enough to live on myself? And of course, there's a legitimate concern here. There's a level of responsibilities that are given to us. Like, you should not take bread from the mouth of your children to give to the beggar, right? There are priorities in this. But very often this fear is not founded. One of the most poignant examples of this, still blows me away, is at a previous institution I was at, educational institution I was at, a fundraiser actually took me with him on a fundraising appointment. And we were gonna go, we visited this 85-year-old lady who was a multimillionaire. And we were going to ask her to help fund the education of future Christian leaders. Now, if you were to visit this lady, it would be really surprising, because this lady, I don't know how much money she had, something like seven to eight figures, but she's living in this very simple, small, ranch-style home with no air conditioning. She had these ancient fans. in there. And, you know, we shared about all that, you know, God was doing through this educational institution I was part of. And then we asked, you know, will you give? Will you give to this great cause? And her reply was this, I don't know. What if I don't have enough to live on? Now, what do you think is going on in her heart as she's saying that? She's believing. that money gives her protection, and she's afraid. She's afraid that if she gives away that money, she will give away her protection. She will become vulnerable. It's like what Tim Keller, Pastor Tim Keller, described once, a man and woman who were in marriage counseling, and one of the troubles had to do with money, and the man was really grudging the woman, because he felt like she was being selfish. She was spending way too much money on herself. And whether she was or not, what Keller realized was, actually the guy is really the one. I mean, maybe both of them being really selfish, but the guy is definitely being selfish too. This guy was being selfish by saving. Saving all the time. And what Keller realized was, this guy in his saving was, he was actually spending. He was spending his money on his idol of safety, of protection, and of control. And so having lots of money made him feel safe. And he was tight-fisted because he was afraid if he were to be generous, it would make him vulnerable. Now remember, we already talked about how saving, of course, is a wise practice. We've talked about that. But why are you saving? Are you saving and not giving to the needs of others because you are afraid? Because you are concerned that, you know, this is my protection, this is my hedge of protection. Are you trusting in the Lord to give you this day, your daily bread? Or are you trusting in yourself, your funds, your insurance, your stuff? So one reason why we don't give is we're afraid. We need to renounce that. Another reason we don't give is we put it off. We say to ourselves, you know, oh, you know, I definitely want to do this. This is really important, an important part of being a Christian. I'll do that when I'm financially secure. That's when I'll get around to doing that. I just got a lot of expenses going on right now. You know, hopefully I'm going to land this better job. It's going to be really good, be able to make a lot more money next year. I'll start giving then. Brothers and sisters, do not delay obedience. This is not something we can defer. Think about it. This is true of all different dimensions of the Christian life. We don't start carving out the Lord's Day as a day of worship and of rest, you know, in those times we're not busy anymore. We don't wait to start taking time to be here in worship. for when we're just, when we have the extra. No, it's a matter of obedience. Or, you know, we don't start a practice of daily prayer when we feel like getting up in the morning. Wow, that might be a long way out for some of us, right? No, we do that because we're called to do it now. We don't wait. And in the same way, we don't wait to give generously to those in need. We don't wait to give generously to the church until we have a really big paycheck. This is something that God is calling us to do as a lifestyle. These are basic Christian practices. And if you are faithful in little things, you will then be faithful with greater things. So don't put it off. Here's another reason. Here's another thing that short circuits the generosity, keeps us from giving to others. We think to ourselves, okay, if I give this, what if the person like mismanages the gift? What if the person mismanages the gift? And we have to realize there's something true about this. It is true that sometimes helping hurts. There's even a book by this title, When Helping Hurts. And it's all about, it's really sad, but it's about how throwing money at various needs without any discrimination very often does do. more harm than good. It can enable all kinds of patterns of sin, patterns of helplessness, patterns of dependency, patterns of laziness, patterns of addiction. So to take an extreme example, you're getting out of your car at the supermarket and there's a stranger approaches you, they're holding a beer in their hands and they say, hey, I was just wondering if you could give me some money for food. Okay. If you give them money, they're probably not going to use it for food, right? So we need to be really discerning. We need to think and use our generosity wisely. We do not want our generosity to encourage sin, to encourage irresponsibility. But at the same time, We cannot let the possibility that someone will mismanage our gift keep us from giving. Think about it. Jesus has given every one of us unbelievable gifts, right? Like he's given us so many things, time, energy, health. He's given us financial gifts. He's given us, you know, the stuff we need to live. Have we been very good stewards of that? No. And yet he still is generous to us. He still is kind to us and gracious to us. You know, sometimes being generous, even not knowing how is this going to be handled, sometimes being generous in a wise way means, well, I'm going to give this in a different way. I'm not going to give you money, but hey, listen, here's some actual food so that you can have something to eat today. There's a way we can give wisely, but as Christians, we need to be careful not to say, I'll only give to you if you can prove to me that you're going to use the thing wisely. Rather, Luke 6, Jesus says to us, this is his words, Luke 6.35, do good and lend, expect nothing in return, and you will be sons of the Most High for the Lord God is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. So all these excuses we make, there's plenty more we could come up with, right? What if I don't have enough for myself? I'll get around to it later. What if the person mismanages what I give? All these excuses are a cover for what we could call the deep lie, the underlying lie, which is this, and this is what powers all of our tight-fistedness. It's a lie that when we give to others, we're losing something. When we give to others, we're losing something. That is a lie. The idea that it hurts to be generous, but it doesn't hurt to be stingy, don't believe it. The book of Proverbs has a very different take, and that's what we're going to talk about now in our third point. The truth is, this is amazing, this is counterintuitive to us. The truth is this, is that tight-fistedness, is what actually hurts. Actually, it goes even further than that. Tight-fistedness is actually what leads to death. Proverbs 28.22, a stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him. Or 21.13, whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered. Did we not see that very poignantly in Matthew 25? with the sheep and the goats, that call of the unrighteous, hey, wait, wait, wait, save us too. And they're not answered. According to Proverbs, stinginess actually leads to poverty, and this connects to so many different things in Scripture. Think about Jesus in the parable of the soils. Remember how he talks about, you know, there's the good seed, but it lands in the soil, and the soil has all these brambles and thorns, and what happens? The cares of this world choke out the word, strangles the word. What's it talking about? It's not just talking about the rich. It's talking about those who wish they were rich. And it's saying to us, stinginess kills. In contrast, and again, this is against our expectations, that it says generosity leads to abundance. Listen to this. This is amazing stuff. And this is where the wisdom of Proverbs is like, okay, wow, I needed you to tell me that. 11.24, one gives freely, yet grows all the richer. Think about that. One gives freely, yet grows all the richer. Another withholds what he should give and only suffers want. Or 1421, whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor. Who is blessed? He who is generous to the poor. Now, if you think about those proverbs on the surface, they just don't make any sense, right? Like, okay, if you give away your money, you have less money, right? And if you keep your money, you have more money, right? So these don't really make sense on the surface, but they do make sense when we look to Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate example of how you can give with astonishing generosity and be none the poorer for it. He is the paradigm example of generosity and yet he is none the poorer for it." Think about it. Jesus saw us in all our self-protective, selfish lives. He saw lives that were big on us and very little on others. Our lives were those where our desires came first and way distant in the second place was everybody else's dilemmas and problems. And if we gave in that mode, it was mercenary. It was, well, I'll get a tax break for this, or I'll look really good for doing this, or I'll just ease my conscience for doing this. So Jesus, he saw us in all of our earthly wealth, and he pitied our poverty. Yes, our poverty. How is that? He saw that none of us, and naturally, in and of ourselves, none of us were rich in true wealth, which is love. He saw our profound neediness. And even the neediness went this far. We were poor and didn't even realize we were poor. We were deeply, deeply caught in the cycle of sin. And we were thinking to ourselves, we don't even need saving from this. I'm a pretty good person. I mean, look, I do give some things, right? I'm not nearly as bad as that guy. And yet we were oblivious that whole time to so many needs all around us. Jesus, by contrast, was not poor." He was actually infinitely rich with the love of the Father. The Father's love was upon him. He was in the bosom of the Father, John says, rich in that mutual love of Father and Son. And you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. How? Though he was rich, Yet for your sake He became poor, so that you, by His poverty, might become rich. We were helpless. We were helpless to save ourselves, and Jesus saw us in our deep neediness, our deep distress, and he gave up his riches. He came down from the Father's side to be with us. He endured the most painful of agonies. You could call the cross the place of abject poverty, where the wrath and curse of the Father was justly laid on him for all of our sins in that incredible place of impoverishment on the cross. Jesus did that so that we might become rich. And do you know what happened? Jesus, when he helped us, when he helped the helpless, what was the end result of that? He did not become poor. You know, he was raised on the third day to the Father's side. Yes, he was restored now to the love of the Father, but you know what? He's now all the richer. Why? Because he now has our love, too. That was what he came to purchase. That was what he came to obtain, was the love of his people. Now, talk about rich. He was already infinitely rich in the Father's love. Now he has our love as well, one who gave, and yet was none the poorer. Indeed, he was made still richer. There's one point I want to make as we're thinking about that, about Jesus coming to us in our helplessness. Just, can I just say, let's just get this all really clear. God helps those who help themselves. Let's be real clear, that's not in the Bible. It is the exact opposite of the Bible. What is the Bible saying? God helps those who cannot help themselves, namely us. He gives us his grace in our hour of need. And in giving, he became not more impoverished, he became all the richer." So you're starting to get it, you're starting to get it because this is so, so central to the Christian life. Let me put it very bluntly. If you are pursuing riches right now, you are a fool. You are stockpiling the least valuable thing on planet Earth. Don't do it. It hurts you to be stingy because you are holding on to this dust when you could be using it for what is true riches, love. And so let us stir up our love for those who are in need. Let us become those who are marked by deep concern and deep longing to bless those who cannot help themselves, who are in need. I just finished this tremendous book. It's in your church library. That's what I always say. It's on William Wilberforce, this Englishman who lived in the 1700s and 1800s. He was instrumental in ending slavery in the British Empire, the huge, sprawling British Empire. And this man, I just love the picture of his heart that came out in this book. This man, he didn't do good to the poor because he wanted to look good or to ease his conscience. He was deeply moved by the plight of the needy. And he recognized what so many people of his time completely were blind to. He recognized that the slaves and other needy in Britain, they were people too. They were human beings with real needs. There's this famous picture from this time that shows a slave lifting up his hands that are locked in chains and asking, am I not a man and a brother? Think about that. Am I not a man and a brother? Am I not a human being? Our heart of love for our brothers, for our neighbors, for anyone in need, is that they are human beings. They are made in the image of God. They bear His image, and therefore, to honor them and to love them is to love and to honor the maker whom they picture. Proverbs 22.2, the rich and the poor meet together. The Lord is the maker of them both. We are all, we are all equal, image bearers. We are all people who are in need at different times in different ways. And Jesus says, I identify with the needy. I identify with those who are in need. Do you realize the extent to which He identifies with those in need? Matthew 25 just blows my mind when it says, when you did it to the least of these, you did it to me. That's the extent to which Jesus identifies with those who are in need. Is this your lifestyle? Is your lifestyle one of compassion for those who are in need? Here's a couple ways in which your life will look different if you internalize this gospel truth. Number one, your radar will always be up. Who are the invisible people who are across your path every single day? Who need your help? And again, it doesn't have to be like the kind of classic people you think of as the poor. But who are these invisible people that are just around you all the time? A friend of mine did this kind of crazy stunt when he was giving a talk at this big city campus. And it was this Christian group. He was gonna talk about giving to the needy. And he had his friend get dressed up, look like a homeless guy, and just lie on the steps outside of the building and like moan. And just lie there and moan. And what happened is, you know, the entire Christian group entered this building. The guy, my friend, gave his talk on being needy and says, do you guys think you guys have this figured out? Well, I'd like you to meet my friend right here. And he said, hey, did anybody talk to you on the way in? Uh, no. OK, guys, you have a problem. You have a problem. People are all around you. in need. You need to open your eyes. And remember, it's not just about money, it's about time. It's about your talent. All these different treasures that God gives you, these are wealth that God has given, not for yourself, but for others. And so, we got the radar up, and then we are preparing to use them. We're being purposeful, proactive. We are, for example, budgeting funds that we intend to give. And in some ways we give, like for example, to the deacons proactively, investing in different organizations that are out there and in a very purposeful, wise way, seeking to reverse cycles of poverty. But in other ways, we're just like, we've got the funds at the ready and we're sort of like, Lord, you show me how you want me to give these funds. You show me how you want me to use this talent, this time, this energy. And this was going to cost you something. Like to budget that means you're not going to spend that stuff on other things. Remember, the real cost is when you hold it back. And finally this. Give wisely and thoughtfully. There is definitely a place for quick and simple relief. A cup of cold water. Jesus talks about for the one who is thirsty. But remember, what really is going to break the cycle of poverty is not handouts, but wise and thoughtful and creative and time-consuming investment. Investment in the lives of people, relationships. This is going to take time and take energy. And I'm not going to prescribe anything more concrete than this, because let me tell you something. True love finds a way. If you're serious about this, there are opportunities everywhere for you to invest in this kind of wise way, purposeful way, in serving those in need. But it requires real care, real love, real relationships, It requires the power of the Holy Spirit. Brothers and sisters, never forget it. Jesus saw you in your helplessness, and he made a way to save you. If you see your neighbor in need, do the same thing. Love. Love them. Love makes a way to be generous. And don't miss out, because it will be to your joy. Let's pray. Lord, we confess that the Word of God does expose us. It exposes our self-absorption and our blindness to the needs of others. But thank you also that even as you peel back yet another layer of our sin and bring it to light, that at that very same moment, you bring that cleansing and healing balm of the gospel, that knowledge that we are forgiven. And not only forgiven, but the corruption of our hearts that leads us, all those lies that lead us to selfishness, those things have now been reversed through the inconquerable power of the resurrection and the Holy Spirit in us. Lord, thank you. Thank you that we lack nothing to carry out this great call. On the great day, may we be among the sheep who have cared for you in your distress. We pray in Jesus' name. Will the elders please come forward for the Lord's Supper.