This is as close as you will ever get to healing someone like the apostles – have you ever considered that?
[This sermon is one of a series entitled "Sermon on the Mount, Concentrating on the Beatitudes," which is being preached on Sunday mornings by Pastor Tim Senter.]
Last week we discussed three things: righteous worship, giving worshipfully, and praying worshipfully, all under the heading of “public and private worship.” Considering how people treat the church today, as some sort of political stepping stone in establishing credibility, we can see how these things can easily get confused, and how people can become very jaded concerning church. People also use the church as a tax funnel many times in order to save a little on their tax return. This is not all bad, for we too give regularly and take advantage of this as well. However, that should not be the only way you give, do, or make yourself useful for the church.
I have recently talked to people who are jaded about church, about the falsehoods of church, and about the façade that people put on to be at church. Many people come and act as if they want to be here. However, when they get home they go on about their lives, never once during the week telling those around them about Jesus. Worse yet, they tell others they do believe in Him yet live the life of a heathen. Many people come to church, then, because they think it is a “shot in the arm” or a necessity. Many give only here for the same reasons. You go to church to put your money in the offering plate. You go to church to do your weekly duty. This is part of the public and private worship issue as well. The scripture says beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. What if you are not necessarily giving in public, but simply coming here for that purpose? What if you are showing up on Sundays to make sure everyone sees you here and putting your offering in the plate? All of those reasons are putting your righteousness out in public so that you can be seen. There is nothing about worshiping God in any of those circumstances.
The Beatitudes in action describe the true believer’s life. Since all of the Beatitudes are from God and for God, they amount to a life of worship to God. This is true Christianity. People have said to me, “I don’t need religion.” What they mean is they are good enough for the world and what is around them and they do not need anyone else telling them how to be moral, acceptable, pleasant, or good. They know right from wrong and they are mostly on the right side already, so they are okay. This is not only debatable because it compares you to man, which is not the real standard from which to seek approval; but it is, above all, a false view of real Christianity.
You might ask, then, why do we or should we come to church? It really amounts to the same reasons for which we seek Jesus as our Savior. It is not for some emotional comfort, it is not for some moral standard to follow, and it is not for any of these esoteric, unimportant and wholly worldly issues. We come here because we know we need to come here. We worship here because we have a poor spirit that knows it needs to hear God’s word exposited. We come because we mourn that this poor spirit within us can be made acceptable to God through the washing of the water of the Word of God (Eph 5:26). We are meek because we know how poor our spirit is and only in meekness are we able to absorb the teachings of Christ for He loves the humble but opposes the haughty (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5). We want to be a member of His kingdom, and we desire His presence, therefore we hunger and thirst for the righteousness that is apparent there. We are merciful, pure in heart and peacemakers in order to worship Him more perfectly because of His salvation of our souls.
Open with me again to Matthew Chapter 6 and verse 2. Today we will look through to verse four. Consider the idea that instead of just worship, and giving yourself for worship, we look at a specific type of worship – giving, doing, or making for the needy. Many people think that organized religion is about this stuff – taking what is given. In actuality, the way things are established in scripture there are expectations levied upon every individual concerning their giving. We will look at some of those today.
When I was first saved, we did not give much to the church. I was in the Navy, not making a lot of money, had a mortgage, kids, bills, two vehicles, you know – stuff. Life was going on and those are the things that were going on in our lives. Three kids, a dog, a house, two cars, and a partridge and a pear tree. You know – stuff. I was trying to save up money for retirement, trying to put a little away for the kids’ college education, trying to get some things done with what little money I had, and there were no plans for God in it at all. Soon, we began some giving. We gave of our time. We gave of some of our resources (I cooked for men’s prayer breakfast and supplied food). We tried to do some things, but money never really worked out because giving was not part of our life.
Then we came up against a brick wall – we were not going to be able to send our kids to college unless we did something drastic. We had no idea how we were going to do that. We saw no way to tithe in our income, let alone pay a $1000 a month school bill, plus expenses. Well, we decided to turn it over to the Lord and see what happened. We decided to tithe. An amazing thing happened, we never missed the money. Sure, there were temptations and times when we failed to do what we knew we should have; but every time we got back on track, we did well, better than well, in fact. If we would only have stayed with God’s plan to begin with, trusted His provision, we would have been better off. God gave me a job with a firm that paid well. I was working days and nights, but things were getting done. God was good to us.
I have made the point to many of you that there is no real requirement to tithe in the New Testament. Does that mean we do not give at all? In addition, is this the only giving we are to do – our regular giving? Let me throw a curve ball at you and say that the answer to both is no. Our scripture says, “when” you do or make alms. We are required to give, and our normal giving is not all that we are required to do. Equally, we are not limited to monetary giving in any way. Many of you know that giving can take many forms. We can give our time and many do here to Kings Kids, Sunday school, our fellowships, special programs, and everything we endeavor to do here. You have given toasters, roasters, spoons, forks, knives and plates. People have given lawnmowers, and desks. Giving is multifaceted and all of these facets are required to keep the Lord’s ministry running.
We will consider “helping those less fortunate is a compulsion of the Lord and for the Lord in all facets.” The fact is that we are very mixed up in our thinking. We think that it is our money, our time, and our things that we give to the church. However, “you give to the church, but you should be giving to God.”
Let us talk today about this giving, doing, or making then – all the forms of giving we can think of, in this short sermon post. Let us look at this scripture and see what Jesus is saying about these forms of giving in verses two through four. What type of giving is Jesus discussing? Is He talking about giving to the church, or is it giving for another reason? Is Jesus talking about giving in general, or does He just mean the giving to the poor? Is this just an example of your giving, or is this applicable to all giving? What is the point Jesus is trying to make in what He is saying? I do not know if we will answer all of these questions, but we should try to catch a few of them. Let us begin with the kind of giving.
I. Giving in love (Verse 2a)
When we first read this, you might say, “But Pastor, how do you get love out of this verse?” The reason I think the first point in our discussion has to do with love, is the focus of the Lord in His giving to us, His ultimate gift. That gift is salvation, and it was given in love. We first give because we love to do so, and we love those to whom we give.
What is the most loving thing we can do for another in need? Give up our own desires and care for him as though he were our brother and we love him. In Luke 10:30-35 we find just such a form of loving giving, doing, and making. The Good Samaritan gave the man from Jerusalem help. He did what no one else would do – cared for him. The Good Samaritan made time and had compassion on the traveler. Because the traveler obviously had nothing, having been stripped and beaten, the Good Samaritan cared for him. When we read this story, we see an individual who had compassion – he loved others. We see a man who did not tell anyone what he was doing; he just did what needed to be done without pomp or circumstance. This Good Samaritan then simply cared for the needy and let God reckon it for righteousness.
Loving to give. That is a new concept when we read, “Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee.” It is quite simple if you think about it. When you do things for those who are needy, you should be doing it out of the love you have in your heart for them. This love in you is the love given to you by God through His Son. If you remember our lessons in 1 John 4:7, you will remember that love is from God. Love originates from Him. If we are giving, then, we are giving out of the loving heart given to us from God. If we are doing, helping, making, or in any way performing a service for the needy, the poor, those without, then we should be doing so out of a love in our heart injected into us from God. We are merciful because we were shown mercy by God.
Our doing or giving to the poor, to those without, and to the needy of the world comes from a heart of purified mercy that loves God, who gave us the capacity to love others. We do or give, therefore, without reservation and without compulsion. We do so without external show of the giving because we do it out of a godly love in our hearts. The love God places in our hearts when He saves us from sin manifests a merciful heart born to give and love others, especially those in the greatest need. Jesus Himself said He did not come to minister to the healthy, but to the sick and needy (Matt 9:12-13). We cannot save the soul, but if we are to be Christlike, we must seek the sick; we must seek those with cankered souls and show them Christ, that He might save them. We do our best to show Christ in our giving then out of love for Him. Giving is a very loving form of worship.
Being a kingdom saint, your abode is the kingdom of Heaven, you have the love of God within you and it is first from that love that you give. Love to give, and give to love.
Along with the “how” being in love, it also has to be personal. People give anonymously all the time. That is fine. There is nothing wrong with that. However, there is something about the act here in the verse that makes it a much more personal activity than just giving to the church. Part of the point Jesus is making here is that the giving does not have to be part of a public exhibition – it needs to be private. Equally, you do not always have to give through the church - after all, if you give there, someone knows. Giving in love and giving personally in the name of our Savior is one thing, but what does not letting one hand know what the other is doing have to do with anything? Are we not supposed to give wisely, or is this telling us to give recklessly?
II. Giving in person (Verse 3-4a)
Verse 3 still deals with the overall motivation of giving. When you do give, it is supposed to be so secret that it is as though one hand does not know what the other is doing. This is not to preclude giving to or through the church, but it is meant to indicate that we should be giving in such a way that we are not known. We are supposed to give in private. How, then, do we give in person and privately.
The first thing we should note is that privately does not mean anonymously, although many desire this. Many want to remain that way because they do not want others to feel in any way obligated to return their love. That is a proper heart attitude. However, this does not eliminate the personal interaction with someone in need to let them know that others personally love them and want to encourage them. When we give, therefore, we should be considering the needs of the person as a whole, and not just their material necessities. If giving is an act of love, love involves evaluating the realities of the one you love and helping care for those needs. This means when you give, it is as much an encouragement in the spirit as it is in the pocket book or pantry. We should then evaluate the needs of the ones we love and feed them physically, emotionally and spiritually. Though this is done privately with respect to others, it can be done personally with respect to the target of our compassion. It does not have to be anonymous to them, only to the public.
There is an aspect of this type of giving that we should address, which is that it is not always material in nature. We alluded to this above, but the fact is someone’s needs may just be for comfort. Where James says,
“If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” (Jas 2:15-16)
We could also consider the truth that,
If someone comes to us full of food, well clothed and physically fit yet we tell them depart in peace, be content and happy; notwithstanding that we do not give them the assurance in their spirit, we did not give them the comfort of a loved one in Christ, or even just the loving care and concern of a fellow believer in their spirit; what doth it profit them?
Giving, folks, is giving to others the very things that they need – out of love. A personal act should reflect the personal interest and charity of those who are giving this gift.
Yesterday the ladies revealed last year’s secret sisters and gave to their secret sister a last gift. One thing that they wanted to do in this last gift exchange for the year was to enjoy the gifts. The reason that they wanted to take their time, open them one at a time, and enjoy the happiness that they got from each gift, is because each secret sister put thought into the gift that they gave the other at the end of the year. Many times, we do not take this time. We do not consider the actual effort that might go into someone giving to another. On the other hand, in what we do for another, we often times do not consider their real needs. I know my mother and my grandmother truly cared for gifts that were hand made. They cherished them greatly because effort was put into those gifts.
Giving in Christ to those in need is no different. We should never try to absent ourselves unless it is warranted for a specific reason. People should know who loves them, just as much as they should know they are, in fact, loved. Giving personally to someone involves getting to know them, spending time with them, and caring for their needs materially, emotionally, and spiritually.
Now – back to our scripture. What is this saying when we are commanded that we not make the trumpet sound when we do our alms? This understanding is now simplified. If you go to be with someone, to support someone in need, to give them the love of God from your heart to theirs; this you need not tell anyone. This caring love for another, the support you can give one another, the care you take for one another, can all be done without anyone else knowing. Essentially, it can be anonymous to the public. The individual you have cared for may be overjoyed and tell others, but that is their choice.
Your reward? Your reward is the love of God in your heart that compels you to love others. It gives you the ability you have. Your reward is the joy you receive from giving, as Christ gave so unconditionally. That is your reward – that you are becoming Christlike. What great glory we see when the Lord is pleased with our testimony. Further, what an exceptional experience to know and be a conduit for the love of Jesus flowing through us to another in need.
This is as close as you will ever get to healing someone like the apostles – have you ever considered that? Giving properly, then, is giving in the name of Jesus who personally came to this earth and gave Himself for you.
III. Giving for God (Verse 4b)
The only reason you give, is to give because it pleases God. You do not give anything to God, you give for God. Equally, you do not give anything to the children of God, but you give for the children of God. You give out of a love of God in your heart that encourages that very thing – giving, doing or making for those in need.
Did you know there is a specific gift of giving (1 Cor 12:9)? Not everyone is a gifted giver; however, everyone is required to do something for the needy. I believe this is also a reason the words in the original writings are “to make” or “to do” and not “to give” – because this would confuse the normal process of doing or making for God with the gift of giving. We are, therefore, to make time for, make things for, make allotments for, and make room for things that we give to the needy. We do this as a normal function of our lives. We make or do things for those who need those things done. I know men in our congregation that shovel the walks of other people. The men here should be making it a point to make room in their weeks to help those that need assistance. Did you know the primary reason that deacons were established in the scriptures was to care for the widows among the believers? Our men are supposed to do things to show their love and personal care for those ladies who need that assistance. We should be shoveling walks. We should be picking up branches after a windstorm. We should be specifically making time to go and do these things, and no one needs to know the difference. Further, the things that we do should be between you and God.
Ladies, it is not only the men who have these responsibilities. You are in contact with a variety of other women in the ministry on a regular basis and I know you care deeply for one another. I am not aware of anything that is missed among you for the care and nurturing of one another, but I should also never be made aware that something is missed. You all should look for opportunities to make time for or do things to help others – especially your sisters in Christ, when they are in need.
Now, as I said, I am not necessarily aware of anyone in particular that is in need or goes without. Chris and I get around to visit many people, and those we do not visit, I know that some of you do visit. This is a blessing to me. This is especially true with other ladies that may be home alone. For me this is a difficult situation when I cannot take my wife with me. Regardless of the situation, the doing, making time for others, or the giving of whatever you give to the poor has to be done with the right heart attitude. This is the biggest point that Jesus is making here.
Doing and making anything for anyone is between you and God. As noted in the beginning of this exposition, your efforts are not for you, and they are not necessarily even for the person that receives your love. The alms are for the approval, honor, glory, and testimony in Jesus Christ our Lord. I pray that He is the only one that you personally seek to please with your giving. I pray that the only person on your mind when you give is the Lord – doing what He would have you do to fulfill the need.
Consider this:
- If you give for the Lord, you give to this ministry because you know we minister to and for the Lord.
- If you give for the Lord, you give to the ministries we support because you know they too minister to and for the Lord of Hosts.
- If you give for the Lord, you give without concern for approval from anyone except God.
- If you give for the Lord, you give all you can without concern because you trust that your giving will result in pleasing Him and you seek rewards from Him for it.
- If you give for the Lord, you believe you will receive godly rewards because this scripture says that you too will receive a reward from God.
- If you give for the Lord, your giving, your doing, your making only glorifies Him when it is done purely for His glory.
Giving then involves giving to those around you with love and personal involvement, to satisfy the true needs of those who are poor. Remember, they could be poor in spirit in a negative fashion, needing the love and nurturing care of a fellow believer just as much as they may need a piece of bread for their body. All of this you can do in secret, but it does not mean secret from everyone, only in such a way, that the Lord’s glory is your intention. You do all this to receive the rewards promised by God. Those rewards are the love of God in your heart, and the assurance of His love in you as it comes out on full display in service and obedience to Him and His commandments. Your reward is the love of God that brought you eternal life.
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