Father, I thank you so much for this day. I thank you for everyone that's here today. I thank you for our church family, those who aren't able to make it this morning. We pray for them. Lord, I thank you for another milestone, another year on this earth and a third of that following you. And Lord, I pray that the rest of my life is spent doing that and helping others to do the same. And we love you, Lord. We want to continue our worship from singing praises to your name to now studying to your word to see what you would have us do and how our thinking must change in areas. I pray that you would accomplish that. And Lord, I do pray for your return. And we long to be with you. We long to be reunited with loved ones who are with you. And we pray that that comes, Lord. And if not, Lord, I pray we'd be diligent to continue reading, studying and living your word being grown by you, set apart by your spirit. And we thank you for the salvation that we share. So I pray for our time now and Matthew, we pray this in your son's name. Amen. All right, we're in Matthew chapter six this morning, studying the book of Matthew, we're in a major section of Matthew. commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. Now, if you compare this with some of the other Gospels, some seem to suggest that it wasn't on a mount, but it was on a plane. My explanation for that is I think this was a teaching or a discourse that Jesus gave more than once. One was on a mountain, I think. Another was on the plane. Perhaps another was in the city. Perhaps another was in a house. The idea is he taught. And what he taught, he taught frequently. And he taught to different audiences. And this audience in particular, we've looked at some of the important observations. I think we can clearly discern that these are disciples. Now I've talked about disciples. There's really two categories of disciples. the casual, curious disciple or follower of Christ, that they've heard the rumors, they've heard the talk, they've heard about the miracles, they've heard about the teaching, and they're curious. They want to know more. They're interested in following Jesus to find out more. Then there are the formal disciples, and those are those who enter into a committed following relationship with Christ. And usually in the first century context, that's by invitation only. And we've seen that thus far with four disciples, Peter and his brother Andrew, or Andrew and his brother Peter, John and James, the twins, or I don't know, I think they're twins. They're brothers. So two sets of brothers, four disciples at this point. The next disciple we're going to come across is Matthew himself. Now, we haven't gotten there yet, but these are men that God the Father handpicked for the son to be his followers. They were chosen for an explicit purpose to serve the Messiah. Now, it's curious, and we'll get into this more as we get later into this gospel. Judas was one of those, and he was chosen for a purpose that we will become more familiar with as we get deeper. So there's a gathering of followers. Christ is teaching, He's healing, He's preaching the message of the Kingdom. Now the Kingdom was something that the original audience had no issue with. They understood from the Hebrew Scriptures all of their prophets saying that the Messiah was going to come and the Kingdom was going to come with Him. So Jesus, who is checking all the boxes thus far, as far as his messianic credentials, is now teaching the principles of the kingdom. Now it's important for us to understand that the audience that Jesus is speaking to was being offered the kingdom. There are principles within this book, or within this section, that apply only to them. Now with them being kingdom principles, I think there are quite a few principles that apply to us. We find out later in scripture that as Gentile believers in Christ, we are fellow heirs in Christ. We are sons of the kingdom. We are heirs of the kingdom promises. certain application that we want to be careful to highlight when we come across it, but we want to be careful to recognize that Jesus is talking to people who are under the Mosaic Law. We are not under the Mosaic Law. Now, recently, the section of the Sermon on the Mount we've covered thus far, Jesus has provided the code of conduct for the kingdom citizens, or the kingdom heirs. Those who would be, quote, great in the kingdom will do such and such, will be exemplified in such a manner, in such a way. Now he's going to get into the conduct of the citizens of the kingdom, and the conduct is going to be threefold, and they all deal with proper worship. So Jesus' discourse on proper worship, there's three areas of worship addressed by Jesus, The first one we'll look at today, and that is giving, verses 1 through 4. Prayer, verses 5 through 15. fasting 16 through 18 now we'll look at all of these in their appropriate context some of you are have heard the term fasting now your familiarity with fasting would probably be less of a religious connection and maybe more of a dietary or health reason that is a popular thing you know such as intermittent fasting such as Things like that. But I want to look at the religious connotations. How is it practiced? How should it be practiced if we feel the desire or need to do so? And what does Jesus say about how it should be practiced? But essentially, these are three areas where we worship the Lord. Three ways that we can worship the Lord. The title of today's message is The Heart of Giving. The Heart of Giving. Now I want to highlight, be very careful to highlight, that last week we covered chapter 5 verses 43 through 48. Next week, Lord willing, we will cover chapter 6 verses 5 through 15, and you'll notice that I'm going in order of the text. This message is not because of necessity. Sometimes churches, you know, you'll get a message on giving at the end of every quarter. They'll be looking at the numbers and say, oh, we really need a message on giving. We need to twist some arms and ring the wallets of our congregants. That is something you won't hear from us. And I think one of the benefits of preaching or teaching expositionally, verse by verse, as you avoid those issues, you avoid the nitpicking, teaching the picking on a certain topic or an area of emphasis. Rather, when it comes up, you can treat it as you would any other passage. So we're going to talk about giving. But I want to preface giving by saying that this is a isolated passage, a single passage on giving. As much as possible, for the sake of time, I'm going to try to treat the matter as a whole, but just recognize that this conversation that Jesus is having, this teaching, is not exhausting. It doesn't have principles for how the local church, for example, should be giving. And so we'll try to make some of those applications as they come up. But how should the people of God give? Well, there's four parts to this passage. Each verse having its own part. The first is the principle, the heart of giving. What is the principle Jesus is getting at? Verse 2 touches on the hypocrisy in giving. Verse 3 is the hiddenness of giving. Now that one doesn't flow as nicely, but I was trying to get all H's and so I went with hiddenness. The hiddenness of giving. And verse 4, the hope of giving. What is the result or goal or reward of giving? So starting in verse 1, just to read it and get the flow, "...take heed," Jesus says, "...that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven." So some observations here. First of all is the warning of false giving. Take heed. In other words, be careful. Be cautious that you do not do your charitable deeds to be seen by men, that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, essentially giving. What is a charitable deed? It's a deed of charity. It's giving, doing your giving, as he says, with the purpose. to be seen with the purpose to be seen by men. Now, he's not saying, you know, if someone catches you putting money in the giving plate or the tray or giving money to someone on the street or, you know, then you forfeit that reward. He's not saying that. It's with the purpose to be seen. The idea is you're flaunting your generosity. Someone as well said that they're not giving, they're buying. They're buying the praise of man. They're not giving out of the goodness of their heart. They're buying the favor or the commendation of people. And so the outcome of false giving, otherwise you have no reward from your Father in Heaven. So what is some summary and application? The implication here is that the Father will reward. That's an important observation for us to make, is God will give rewards. Now there's another implication in this, in that not everything we do, even quote good deeds, are rewardable. There are things that are rewardable and there are things that are not rewardable. I mentioned downstairs. I think there is going to be a surprise when people get to heaven. And they think that they are going to have a lot of rewards and they find that much of what they did wasn't rewardable because maybe it was done with wrong motives. Maybe it was done in the wrong way or for whatever reason, it didn't pass the purity test of doing deeds. I think ultimately through the enablement of God in our life. So the warning is to prevent behavior not worthy of rewards. Now again, the context is a people listening to Jesus with the offer of the kingdom. The idea of the kingdom is imminent. It's about to be inaugurated should they accept their Messiah and come under their covenant obligations to the Lord. And if they do, they'll enter the kingdom and they know that with that comes individual rewards. There's the corporate reward of the kingdom itself. They will enter and it will be glorious. But then there's individual rewards where, as it's been well said, those who enter the kingdom will all have their cup overflowing, so to speak, but not everyone will have the same sized cup. So the idea of those who receive more quote personal rewards will have a larger cup. The idea of they will have more rewards. Now we'll talk about what those rewards are in a moment. But this is a warning to prevent behavior not worthy of rewards. Now another little sub theme that's been going on here is Jesus has been attacking the religious leaders. The religious leaders were full of pompous religiosity. false practices. They were misinterpreting the Mosaic Law. They were misapplying the principles of Scripture. And they thought that they were righteous. They thought that they were super religious. They thought that they were good. They thought that they were very spiritually wealthy. And Jesus is highlighting that they are impoverished. They are poor. They are, he'll later say, whitewashed sepulchers, all pretty on the outside, but full of dead men's bones. In fact, we'll get to in a moment, we'll get to it, but he calls them hypocrites. Now that word hypocrite comes from an idea of a playwright, and it was literally one who wears a mask. So a hypocrite is someone who wears a mask to present something that is not true to reality. And so Jesus is trying to warn against this hypocritical practice. And the warning explicitly is to not do your giving publicly or to be seen by men. But go back to chapter 5 for a moment. Matthew chapter 5 verses 13 through 16. where after the Beatitudes he says, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket. but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven." Uh-oh, here's one of those contradictions, right, that the Bible skeptics are often telling us is all over Scripture. Is this a contradiction? What do we do with this? He says, let your works be seen by men, But then he says, don't let your good deeds be seen by men. Well, he's talking about two different things. First of all, it boils down to motive. In chapter 5, 13 through 16, he's talking about the good deeds being seen by all as a testimony, as a witness. Your behavior testifies to God's work in and through you. And if done right, your motives are pure. You're not doing it for their praise, their acknowledgement, for accolades. You're doing it unto the Lord, and they see that, and they glorify God. Now what he's getting at in chapter 6 is entirely different. It's those who want their deeds to be seen, so that those who see will appraise them higher, will think of them better, will give them applause. That's why I said they're not giving, they're purchasing. They're giving in order to receive something back from people in this case. The warning is explicitly against giving with the purpose of being seen and praised. What is our motive in giving? And this is a very subtle issue where even something, a good thing, can easily be twisted by the flesh into a bad thing. The goodness of giving or generosity can be undone by the selfishness of what might I receive from this? How can I feel better? And sometimes it's not just looking for the accolades or praise of other people, sometimes ourselves. Oh, that makes me feel so good. I feel so warm and fuzzy. I just did a good thing. Be cautious about those motivations. Do as unto the Lord. all things. A little more personal, how does this correct false giving that we might fall into? Example, tax write-off or giving records, etc. Now, this one I want to be careful to explain. Is it wrong, for example, our church keeps track of giving, not so we can see who's giving what and how much you're giving so that we can make sure that you get special treatment. or anything like that, it's because, I think, very practical reason. Jesus said, render unto God that which is God, and unto Caesar that which is Caesar, right? Well, if your giving to a church is tax deductible, don't you want your giving to go more towards God than to Caesar? Absolutely, and so for that reason, I think it's absolutely appropriate to do that. But I want to caution you, or encourage you, to not let your giving only be limited for tax deductions. In other words, if you give until that deduction is capped, are you done giving for the year? Is that the reason you give is for the tax write-off? If so, there might be some corrections that are needed. Now, giving records, I mentioned that, of course, as a church, because we do the tax thing, we have to keep track of that so that we can appropriately allocate how much was given and so you can get credit for that. But there are churches that will treat people differently based on their giving. Now, I am a firm believer. As a pastor, I have no idea what any of you give. I have no idea if you give at all. And Frank, well, I don't want to say I don't care because I do care simply because I think we are under grace giving and it is an obligation for us to give unto the Lord that which he has given to us. But it's not my business and I don't want to know. But there are churches out there where the pastor is intimately involved. And when there is a perhaps wealthy parishioner or congregant who doesn't or maybe stops going to church, he wrings his hands and he makes sure that he reaches out and visits them and wants them to come back. Why? Because he wants the money, right? Not the person. And so there's these types of issues that are motives in even ministering to people can be driven by wrong things. And so, it's just something to be aware of. Again, I'm not saying that if you give for a tax write-off or a tax deduction that it's wrong. I'm just saying if that's the only reason you're giving, there may need to be some priority adjustments. Now, following this principle of not being seen by men, what about Acts 4? Go to Acts 4 for a moment. Might be, if you're familiar with the Book of Acts, this is the famous or infamous communist or alleged communist passage. This is where people try to say that communism is biblical because the early church practiced it. Anyone who takes that view, by the way, I just say, well, keep reading. What happened later in Acts was they had to take up offerings because the Jerusalem church gave up everything, right? They had nothing. But in Acts chapter 4, verse 34, Well, let's start in verse 32. Now, the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. Now, I will be very careful to point out that they considered it so, not the government. That's the big difference here. Those who want to say this is teaching communism, The government was saying, oh, we have all things in common. Let's share. It was the believers volitionally saying, we have all things in common. Let's pool our resources and work together. Which is descriptive, by the way, not prescriptive. What I mean by that is it's not telling us that we must do the same. It's simply telling us that's what they did. And I think if you keep reading, you see that maybe that wasn't the most wise or best stewardship of their resources. So verse 33 and with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. Verse 34 nor was there anyone among them who lacked for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold. and laid them at the apostles' feet. And they distribute to each as anyone had need. And Joseph, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated son of encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet." Now is Barnabas violating the words of Christ here? Not letting his giving or charitable deeds be done to be seen by men? Well, first of all, I think the key word there is with the purpose to be seen by men. He is not doing this to be seen by men. It's just simply telling us what he did. He sold his property and he gave it to the church for the work of the church, for the work of the ministry. Now jump to chapter 5 and verse 1. But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not your own to control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things." Now, was Ananias punished because he didn't give all his land? Technically so, because he said he gave all his land, and he didn't. Now, he didn't have to give all his land, right? He didn't have to give anything. That's debatable. He wasn't punished because he didn't give all his land. He was punished because he was presenting that he gave more than he actually did. And thus he was lying to God. And the reason he was doing that was so that he could, hey, look at me. Look at the sacrifices I've made. Look at the inroads that I am opening doors of ministry because of this generous gift. And as a result, he died. Now, I believe he was a believer, Ananias and Sapphira. I think we'll see them someday in the kingdom. But he was a disobedient believer. And in this case, he died, I think, as a warning of the severity of lying to God. Now, have any of us lied to God before? Sure. Why don't we drop dead? Again, I think it's a warning. Could we? Sure. But I think in the early church, God was showing that He is at work in this thing, this new thing called the church. And it was a warning to not treat things lightly or to blaspheme God and His holiness by lying to Him. So again, he's not saying if your deeds are seen, like Barnabas, that you're wrong. If your deeds are seen for the purpose of being seen, if you want people to notice, to acknowledge your giving and how good you are and how generous you are, then you've crossed the line of being wrong. So that is the heart of giving. Now we get to the hypocrisy in giving. Verse 2 says, Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. So a few observations, the implication of giving. So first of all, therefore, when you give, that's an important observation, not if you give the implication here is that we as believers should be giving. But there's also a way that we should be giving and there's a way we shouldn't be giving. And so he says, therefore, when you give, and the example of false giving. Do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogue and in the streets. Now there's a couple different views to this trumpet thing. Some people Take it as the money tray was apparently shaped like a funnel shaped like a trumpet. And when you put coins in it, it would make a noise. And so the idea is guys would intentionally, you know, throw them at the thing just to show, look how much I'm giving. Others think quite literally there were trumpets being blown before the giving and that debated amongst people who have studied the history, whether that took place now in the temple. There was a great procession when a priest was giving a large donation to the temple that they would blow a trumpet and essentially show that they are giving a great amount towards the temple. But the idea is, I think, very clear. Don't broadcast your generosity. Don't broadcast your giving. as the hypocrites do. Now, why did he call them hypocrites? Again, thinking of that idea of mask wearers. A hypocrite is someone who does something or says something, but does something different. They're presenting themselves in such a way that's not true to reality. They're fakers, right? They're pretenders. That's why a saying I've recently adopted and I like saying is, as Christians, be yourself. But be your sanctified self, right? So when you come to church, don't pretend to be something you're not. Don't try to puff yourself up as, you know, I'm very spiritual or I don't do this or I don't do that. Yeah, you certainly should behave right. If you're an immature Christian and maybe have loose language or whatever it might be, you want to be respectful of your surroundings and the people around you. But at the same time, be yourself. with the modification of be your sanctified self. In other words, you are purchased with a price. You are set apart unto God and we are to live in that set apart position. And so be yourself, but be your sanctified self and enjoy the progressive growth during your life. So then the internal trumpeting, so when he says, do not sound the trumpet before you have the hypocrites do, and then he mentions two areas in the synagogue, and in the streets. Now, what is a synagogue? It was a gathering. In fact, the synagogue, I believe, is the reason we have our modern concept of church, comes from the synagogue system. In the early church, it was predominantly Jewish, and the synagogue was a place where scripture was read, taught, and memorized, and there would be singings and things of that nature, and prayer. Now, I think scripture is entirely done away with in the modern synagogue, but it was essentially church as we might think of it. So as the church kind of developed, some of those principles were adopted. Now, amongst Gentile churches, it was more of a house church. So there's a large debate on what's the biblical way to do church. And some would say that what we're doing is unbiblical, that we need to sell this building and go to someone's house. I don't think, again, any of those passages talking about it is prescriptive. It's descriptive. They did what was natural. Rather than buying a building and having a central location, they said, hey, come over to my house. I'll make a meal. We'll study the scriptures. We'll sing praises. We'll pray. And we'll eat. And we'll share the Lord's table. And then we go our separate ways. That's just what happened. And so I think what we can apply from this Don't do this as the hypocrites do in the synagogue and in the streets, the internal trumpeting. How might we trumpet things in the church amongst ourselves? How might we trumpet or broadcast our goodness? And this goes beyond giving. It might be, hey, did you see how well I cleaned those bathrooms? Hey, did you see that meal I made for potluck? Hey, did you see this? Hey, did you see that? You're broadcasting in order or with the purpose to be seen, to be recognized. There's some issues, some recalibration, I think that's needed. And then what about external trumpeting? They do it not only in the synagogue, but in the streets. How do we broadcast our goodness in a wrong way to the world? Now, yes, we want our good deeds to be a witness and a testimony. We all have a testimony when we go somewhere. And it's a question on whether it's good or bad. But what if our good testimony or what we think is a good testimony is actually a bad testimony? How are we broadcasting ourselves in the streets in the world when we go to work? How do we behave? Do people think of us as self-righteous? Do they see right through us? Or maybe they misunderstand and you are doing the right thing, but there's a level of persecution there that they mock you or whatever. But the idea of avoiding this open flaunting of your religiosity in order to puff yourself up to make you feel better. The goal of false giving, verse two again, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. that they may have glory from men. These first century hypocrites gave in order to be acknowledged for their generosity. Again, they weren't giving, they were purchasing. They were purchasing the praise of men. What do 21st century hypocrites do? So these are first century hypocrites. How do we perhaps play the hypocrite? Well, I was thinking about, you know, you think of a wealthy person. And they often like to broadcast their donations, right? And the world sees it as, oh, they're such a good person. They're so giving and they're so neat. I think of, maybe it's on this one. I think of, some of you are on social media and you might be familiar with the term influencer. Anyone not familiar with the term influencer? It's a modern vernacular of someone who influences society. And I have to say it's usually for the worse, not the better. But there's these influencers that apparently they don't work. They don't do anything, but they make a living much better than any of us from doing nothing and posting their life online. Well, oftentimes what these influencers do is they will take a large stack of money and they will give it to people on the street. Now, is that a good deal? Sure. But why are they doing it? Why are they filming it? First of all, because they're careful to, you know, count the stack of bills there and the transaction of giving and then they want to see that person crying or overwhelmed by the good deed that they did. And that's exactly what these religious leaders were doing. Exactly. Now, We can argue that still blesses the person, right? The person receiving, are they going to complain and saying you're doing it wrong? No, but from God's vantage point, what is rewardable? What does God see and say, well done? And that is not it. And so that shouldn't be our motivation in giving. How can I get more likes on my social media? How can I get more praise or applause from men? We should be seeking to please God. The reward of false giving, truly I say to you, they have their reward. That praise and applause that they receive, that's it. Congratulations. That's all you'll receive. The acknowledgement they receive is their only reward. Is that ever going to be enough for the public eye? So you think of it in terms of return on investment, right? If we're saying that they're buying the praise of men, is that ever going to be enough for people? Thinking in the modern terms, You think of the class warfare being waged right now, and I don't want to get too deep into this, but if you think about an exceedingly wealthy person and they give a million dollars, is that enough? That's a lot of money, right? But you'll always have someone say, well, that's nothing. They're a billionaire. They should give more. Okay, what if they give a billion? Well, they should have gave two billion. That's not enough. They should give everything, right? My point being is the reward itself, even if it's by men, is not satisfactory. It will never satisfy that person or people in general. Right. And so point being, it's much better to let the Lord handle our reward than trying to make it come from people. And so what reward does that wealthy person receive? You know, maybe a tax write off. So summary application, giving is not a spectator sport. Giving is not a spectator sport. We should be giving. We should be, as the people of God, very generous. God has given us all things. We should be very generous in return. But it's not a spectator sport. Look how much I gave. I gave more than you. I gave more than that person. Or we as a church gave more than that church. It's not a spectator sport. Avoid the hypocritical motivation for giving. Are we doing it to be seen by other people or more insidious and perhaps more dangerous because it's more secret or hidden from us? Are we doing it to puff ourselves up? Are we doing it to make ourselves feel better? Rather, unhypocritical motivation, pure motivation from the heart, giving unto the Lord. Contemporary example online influencers giving You know, what is their motivation? well, they make a living based on the people that like their videos watch their videos comment on their videos and So they're going to do things that illicit those types of responses, right? That's their motivation Which on that point In case you're one who's familiar with influencers, they make some popular ones in the millions. So you might be tempted to say, well, that's not a bad reward for giving, right? I'll take that reward. But I want to, the heart of this message, and I alluded to it downstairs and we'll get to it more when we talk about ebony rewards, can they take that with them to the afterworld? Let's say someone does that and they become the best influencer the world's ever seen and they become a quadrillionaire. Money that they could never spend in a lifetime if they wanted to. Can they take it with them when they die? No. But what we do that is rewardable from God's vantage point lasts for eternity. So how we live now determines what eternity is going to be like. And so if you're tempted to think, well, that's pretty good reward. That's a good trade off. I promise you God's reward is better because no eye has seen, no ear has heard what God has prepared for those who love him. I can't tell you what exactly it is, but I promise you it'll be better than anything this world could possibly offer. But that's the constant battle with worldliness, right? Point number three, the hiddenness of giving. So verse three says, but when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. So the implication of giving again, when you give, but when you do a charitable deed, and then the principle, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Now is this talking about just give and don't consider it? I don't think so. I think that would be poor stewardship, right? be a good financial manager, but what is he saying? Well, I think it's figurative language, and the figure seems to communicate the intention of giving being hidden from public eye rather than impulsive giving. Impulsive giving It's one thing to just give and say, you know, the Lord will provide. But if you have a family and you've got a hundred bucks before payday comes and you see someone in need and you give a hundred bucks, is that a good idea? Is that good financial management? No. You need to be wise with your money. You want to be generous with your money. And so I don't think this figure is talking about impulsive giving. Give and don't let your left hand, you know, just forget it right away. It's talking about The intention of giving in secret, in hidden. Don't let others know. Even yourself, you might say. The idea may suggest that we shouldn't make a big deal of our giving personally. Just give and move on. No self-congratulations. And that's hard, right? And sometimes I think it might be a fine line, because is it wrong to feel good about helping other people? No. But if that's our motivation, then we're crossing that fine line, right? So we want to just make sure we are testing our motivations. Now, I will say, when it comes to giving, do we have to wait for our motivations to be pure before we give anything? Well, that's another issue, right? Because we are under some obligation to be giving in certain areas. Again, this passage isn't giving us the exhaustive full picture of biblical giving or generosity. It's just a small glimpse, but it is talking about that issue of motives in giving. A giving spirit was to be in the people of God. God wants his people to be generous. It's throughout even the Mosaic Law, it talks about the certain aspects of society that were to help the poor. In fact, when they would harvest, if anyone's familiar with agricultural life, now we have great combines. They didn't back then, obviously. But even with a combine, there's pieces that are missed, right? And that's why the term glean, you know, when you talk about gleaning what you can from something, it comes from that concept in scripture where the things, the crops that weren't harvested, there were gleaners, people that would come in and harvest from those crops that weren't harvested by the landlord. And the idea is scripture said that was to go to the poor. It was to feed them and to nourish them. And so throughout scripture, this idea of generosity or a giving spirit in the people of God was something God desires. Another principle is giving should be hidden from the praise of man and ourselves. We must guard against this tendency to want to puff ourselves up or be puffed up by someone else. This is the type of giving God desires in His people. In other words, our giving should have the right motivation. So thinking of this practically, what obstacles stand in our way to the giving God desires in us? Well, there's five things listed by Arnold Fruchtenbaum. First of all, the concept of the tithe. This is something I've mentioned before, but tithe was an Old Testament concept. It was a Mosaic law concept. The tithe was, the Israelites were to give 10% and that 10% essentially went to the Levitical tribe to help them because they didn't have land. They were the priestly tribe and they did priestly duties with the temple and such. So one of the obstacles that we might have is the concept of the tithe. Charles Ryrie has once said that the tithe being 10% If we go by that number, sometimes in our life, 10% is too much. Sometimes 10% is too little. We are not bound by the tithe or a percentage for that matter in the church. The misunderstanding of grace giving. Another obstacle that stands in our way of giving the way that God would have us give is not understanding what does grace giving mean? Well, it's freely. We must give freely. Okay, how much? Freely. It's different, right? It may look different in different seasons. Now, some of you might be the type that just for organization's sake, you set a number, maybe it's even a percentage, but you adjust that as needed based on a percentage of your income. There's nothing wrong with that. It's a free gift, right? Grace-giving is what we are under. I will say on that matter, Dave Ramsey also talks about this. If you are that type that organizes your giving, I would encourage you to allocate your giving at the beginning of your budget, not the end. Because what tends to happen is towards the end, you're kind of like 5%, 1% or hey, there's no money to give. Look at that. I must be poor. So you want to give first to the Lord and let the rest come after. Another obstacle is the American lifestyle. We live in a very worldly environment. Now I will say, is it wrong to have nice things? No, but it is wrong when we start to blend the idea of want and need. Sometimes our wants become needs, and if we reach that point, There might be some recalibration needed. Now again, this is between you and the Lord on what that looks like, but just be mindful of this obstacle. Tax-deductible receipts. I mentioned that. Is the only reason we give so that we get that tax deduction? Well, if so, then we might have a major obstacle in giving the way that God desires of us. And then fifthly, simple covetousness. Sometimes we, you know, as we're thinking through our budget, Hmm, do I give this to the church or to a missionary? Or do I buy a new boat? Or do I buy this? Or do I go on vacation? Now again, is a boat, an RV, a vacation bad? No, it's just a matter of priority. And again, just keeping in mind that you might buy a boat and be raptured the next minute. You might buy an RV and plan an awesome camping trip, be raptured the next minute. You might plan a great vacation to some island resort, and on the plane, you get raptured the next minute. So just keeping in mind that this life is not our own. Now again, I'm not harping on, if you have nice things because you are a good steward of your finances and you still give, that's between you and the Lord. But just always keep in your mind, anything we purchase here and now will not be taken with us. And what we do now, even with our money, has eternal consequences. So how might we use or leverage our finances now for kingdom or heavenly benefits? That should be our benefit or our motivation. Oh, and there's a typo in fruit and bomb. Um, another quick, funny story. There's a village missionary. He bought a pontoon boat and he goes fishing and he named his boat visitation and he'll take people out on his boat. And he says that he's on visitation. Um, now I've heard that from other pastors that they don't take people out, but they named their boat visitation. So when someone calls the church, Oh, pastor's out on visitation. He wasn't using for that, but he was using his things and being hospitable. So I think that's another way that we can give. If you have nice things, are you open with them? Do you share them with others? And so there's another way that we might give. What's the hope of giving? The objective, verse four, that your charitable deed may be in secret and your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly so that the sense of result, your charitable deed may be in secret. And then the reality, your father who sees in secret, in other words, God sees all. And I hope that encourages you, not just with giving, but anything you do. How many times maybe have you done something and you don't feel appreciated? How many moms don't feel appreciated? God sees. He will reward. And husbands do a better job acknowledging. And I'm speaking to myself, of course, as well. Had to get that in before my wife objected. But God sees. And He will reward. And as John mentioned downstairs, even a cup of water given to someone in need is something God sees. How much more is He going to see and notice you moms taking care of the babies that He gave you as stewards? He sees all. What about you men? You go to work. You think your job is menial or meaningless. God sees. And if we do all things as under the Lord, even if it's quote useless or worthless here and now, it's not to God. He sees the motivation. He sees the why to the what we're doing and he rewards. So if only God sees our giving, only he can give the reward. And this should encourage you when you're giving or any good deed, for that matter, seems to go unnoticed. That is the point. Our deeds should not be done for notice, but as unto the Lord. I will save the reward for next time. I promise there is a reward. There is an end goal, a worthiness to all of this conversation on giving the right way. But until then, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your son's words on giving. It's a challenge, especially where we live, Lord. We experience so many blessings being Americans. And we also deal with challenges that perhaps other Christians throughout history haven't been faced with. The temptation of worldliness, Lord. I pray that we would be generous, both corporately and individually, and that we would recognize that all things come from you and that we could never out give you that you can supply our needs. And so we pray, Lord, that we would develop that in our lives and that you would develop it in us. We love you, Lord. And thank you in Jesus name. Amen.