Matthew 6:1-4 - Secret Giving
Tom Shrader examines Jesus' teaching on giving in Matthew 6:1-4, contrasting the Pharisees' public displays with true righteousness. He emphasizes that God cares more about our heart motivation than our actions, warning against giving for human praise rather than to please our Father who sees in secret.
“God doesn't want your money if He doesn't have your heart.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Sermon on the Mount
Recorded: April 18, 2002
Duration: 41 min
Themes: giving, motives, pride, humility, hypocrisy, righteousness, service, generosity, struggling with pride, church leader, wealthy believer, new to giving, comparing with others, seeking approval, mature christian, ministry volunteer
Scripture: Matthew 5:20, Matthew 6:1-4, Matthew 6:5, Matthew 6:16, Matthew 23:15, John 5, 1 Chronicles 29:11, Job 41:11, Psalm 24:1-2, Haggai 2:8, James 1:26-27, 1 John 3:17, 1 Timothy, Galatians 6:6, Luke 16:9
Theological Themes: sanctification, pharisaism, religious legalism, heart motivation, true righteousness, kingdom ethics, sermon on the mount, biblical stewardship
Full Transcript
We are back today into our study. It's our ninth, I can't believe that, our ninth session on the Sermon on the Mount. We've focused so far and spent our time and energy on chapter 5. We begin today chapter 6.
Let me remind you, if you got your Bibles, great time to open them to Matthew chapter 5 verse 20. Matthew chapter 5 verse 20 becomes really the key verse for us to understand what Jesus is saying here. He says this: "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven."
Now like so many of the verses that we come across, the verse loses its impact to us in our time frame, our culture, our setting. When we read that, we just kind of go through. Part of that is just based on our perception of the scribes and the Pharisees, but to these guys who heard this message in that moment, this is a bombshell.
Understanding the Scribes and Pharisees
We see the scribes and the Pharisees as kind of these sinister guys, these corrupt evil fellows. That is not the way they were viewed in that day and age. The scribes and the Pharisees were the men. We've said it before.
It's kind of you could take the way that, as a culture anyway, we're not going to get into theology here, but as a culture, the way you look at a Mother Teresa and the Pope and a Billy Graham and all these, and you have a general kind of categorical respect for them. Again, we're not into theology here, we're just into respect. You look at that respect across the board, that's the way the scribes and Pharisees were viewed. And if you miss that, you're not going to get the impact of what He's saying here.
These scribes and Pharisees were the guys. Remember the saying? There was a Jewish saying that said this: if only two people could go to heaven, one would be a scribe and the other would be a Pharisee. They were highly respected. One author says very quickly, the scribes and the Pharisees appeared to be the most holy of people.
What Made Them So Respected
Let me read to you from Martin Lloyd-Jones. He's talking about the scribes and the Pharisees. He said this: "We must remember that the scribes and Pharisees were in many senses the most outstanding people in the nation. The scribes were men who spent their time teaching and expounding the law. They were great authorities on the law of God. They gave their whole life to the study and illustration of it. They more than anyone else, therefore, could claim to be concerned about it. They were the men who made copies of it, exercising great care as they did so. Their whole life was lived with the law and everyone looked to them for that reason."
"The Pharisees were the men who were quite outstanding and famous for their sanctity. That's why they were called Pharisees. The word Pharisee means separatist. They were people who set themselves apart and they did so because they formed a code of ceremonial acts connected with the law which was more rigid than the law of Moses itself. They had drawn up rules and regulations for life and conduct which in their stringency went far beyond anything we find demanded in the Old Testament Scripture."
Let me just continue just for a second. Here's what Lloyd-Jones says as he continues: "For example, in our Lord's picture, the Pharisee and the publican went up to pray in the temple and the Pharisee said that he fasted twice a week. Now there's no demand in the Old Testament that men should fast twice a week. Indeed the Old Testament asked for only one fast in the year. But gradually these men, again he's speaking of the Pharisees, elaborated the system and it actually brought it to the point at which they exhorted and commanded the people to fast twice a week instead of only once a year. It was in such ways that they formed their excessive stringent code of morals and behavior and as a result of that everyone thought of the scribes and Pharisees as paragons of virtue."
The average man said to himself, "There is very little hope of my ever being as good as a scribe or a Pharisee." They were outstanding. They just lived to be sanctified and holy. That was their profession. That was their whole aim and the objective of their religious, moral, and spiritual sense. That is really important information.
The Shocking Standard
So here are these guys. It's the populace saying, "I'm never going to be a scribe or Pharisee." Now with that background, look at verse 20 again. "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees," well you just had a whole bunch of people say, "I've got no chance. There's no way for me. The scribes and Pharisees are the holiest of these guys."
What Jesus is doing now, after verse 20, He gives that whole idea of here's what you've heard taught. This is what the scribes and Pharisees taught you, but here's what I say. Six contrasts in there. The same process is kind of picked up in this thing as Jesus begins to use contrasts.
Common Christian Advice
And again, I feel inadequate here, which is good because I know I am, but I feel inadequate in making this point, but I want you to see it. If somebody came to you, they're a brand-new Christian, or maybe they're a young Christian, or they're trying to figure out how can I grow, how can I become more a man or woman of God, you would probably say to them, "Well listen, here's some stuff you can do. You can evangelize."
If you in here have been a Christian for a while, we just had this discussion a couple of weeks ago, so it's really vivid in my mind. If you've been a Christian for a while, and you're feeling some sort of a stagnation in your Christian life, or it's just kind of sitting there, and you've lost a little zeal, you're one of those that say, "Oh man, I was on fire for a while," then one of the ways to spark that fire again, I think, is evangelism. It's to hang out with lost people for the sake of sharing the gospel with them. Now, whether God saves them or not, that doesn't matter. That's up to Him. That's not your job, but you hang out with them, and you share them, and you get around
Somebody that's new to the faith, and I'm telling you, it keeps you sharp. So somebody comes to you and says, "Hey, I want to grow, what would I do?" Well, you might say evangelize. You certainly would say to them, "You got to read the Word." You might go so far as to say, "We got to have a quiet time, you got to have a study time." We'd say regularly you have to be in the Scripture, and then we would say, I would think, "You got to practice the spiritual disciplines." You're going to have to pray. You have to understand that God now owns all your life, so your dough comes into line here, so you're going to have to be a giver, and we might talk about things like fasting.
Here's what I want you to see. All the things that you recommended the Pharisees and the scribes do. In Matthew chapter 23, you don't need to turn there, let me just read you just a brief passage. It's in Matthew chapter 23, as Jesus is just laying these guys low. "Woe to you, woe to you, woe to you." He says this, verse 15: "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, because you travel about on the sea and land to make one disciple." They were evangelistic. In John chapter 5, Jesus says to them, "You study the Scriptures." Boy, that's an understatement. They lived in those Scriptures. They studied the Scriptures, but He said even then, "You got it all wrong."
Well in the passage in front of us, you see that these scribes and Pharisees were also practicing the spiritual disciplines. See that? In verse 1 of chapter 6, they were men who were giving. In chapter 6, verse 5, they were praying. In chapter 6, verse 16, they were fasting. So they were praying, they were fasting, they were giving. Jesus affirms these as things we ought to do, but He says these guys are doing it all wrong.
The Missing Element in Religious Practice
Apparently there is something missing in their life that stops them from receiving acceptance of Christ as they do these things. And here's the key. Little key verses always to understand it. Chapter 6, verse 1, here's a key: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed of them, otherwise you have no reward with your Father who's in heaven." He said here's the deal. They're doing all of this to be seen. Their whole motivation is external. They want to walk down the street and have you say, "Oh there's the holiest of the guys over there." Jesus said you watch out.
Jesus is cutting right by the action. He's not dismissing it. He's not saying to you don't worry about giving, don't worry about praying, don't worry about fasting. He's saying no, no, no, no. You need to be doing those things. You need to give, you need to pray, you need to fast, but the issue is what's your motivation? This gets back to what we spent two or three weeks on. Jesus is concerned about the spirit of the law as much as the letter of the law.
So He looks at them and there He is, He said, "Here's your concern, verse 1 of chapter 6, that men are going to see you," and now He gives Him that same idea in verse 5: "When you pray, don't pray as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corner." Why? In order to be seen by men. Verse 16, He said, "Whenever you fast, don't put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men."
The Reality of Eternal Rewards
There's one other issue that's kind of tucked away in here, and I want to let it kind of hang around for a second, but I want to spend a lot of time on it. Jesus is comfortable talking to you about eternal rewards. It seems that often we fall into a trap of saying, "You know, listen, if I'm doing what I'm doing for any reason other than just for the sake of the activity itself, then somehow if rewards enter into my motivations, something is wrong there." Let me suggest to you that Jesus very freely talks about it.
Again, verse 1: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them, otherwise you have no reward with the Father in heaven." He says it again, look, here's what I say, second part of verse 2: "Truly I say to you they have the reward in full." But verse 4: "Your alms, give your alms in secret that your Father who sees in secret will repay you in secret." It's the same thing, virtually verbatim, when He gets to the idea of giving.
In verse 5: "Truly I say to you they have the reward." Verse 6, second part: "Pray to your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees in secret will repay you." Here it is again in fasting: "Truly I say to you they have the reward in full." Verse 18: "So that you may not be seen fasting by men but by your Father who sees in secret and He will repay you in secret."
There is absolutely nothing wrong with you and I understanding that at the end of this life there is reward. Virtually one of the last things that Jesus says in the last chapter of the last book is "Behold I'm coming quickly and my reward is with me." There is in Christ's economy this idea that there is a day in which there is reward, compensation. I don't know what it means, I don't know what it is, but I know that it's there and I know that it's real. And as we begin to live our motivation is to please Him and maybe that's the reward, to receive a crown in heaven that is an exhibit of my pleasing Him. And now we begin to present those crowns themselves to Him. Don't know. Know this though, He says there's a reward. There is that time, there is that great day.
The Anticipation of Heaven
I've been teaching a lot lately about resurrection in heaven and the more I teach about it the more I anticipate it. I'm convinced that's what all this teaching about heaven is for. Why does He tell you this? Well number one He wants you not to be afraid of death, but number two there ought to be a yearning in your life. I'll tell you my view. The great failure that most of us have is that we're treating this place like it's home and it's not.
used the illustration with you before. I don't know anybody that's ever rented a car and they get that car and go "you know these wheels are off. I'm going to get an alignment, get the oil changed, get this thing tuned up, get the belt." Nobody does that. Why? It's not yours.
And yet we move into this world and we treat it like this is the final destination. There ought to be in your life a homesickness. You aren't home yet. That's why I told you home, your deepest desires as a Christian is to be with God, to be in the presence of the Lord. That's what heaven is. It's easy to get distracted by streets of gold and all that. I don't know. Whatever. That's fine. What I know is Jesus is there. So there ought to be a desire to be there.
Secret Giving
Well here's spiritual discipline number one and He talks about giving. Let's read the verses. They're verse 1 through 4 and we'll come back talk about them very briefly this morning.
"Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father who's in heaven. When therefore you give alms, do not sound the trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogue and in the street that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you they have their reward in full. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your alms may be in secret and your Father who sees in secret will repay you."
He's talking about giving but He's talking about a very specific type of giving here. He's talking about giving alms. The idea or the word here is mercy or pity.
Understanding Old Testament Giving
When you get to the Jews and you get to giving, we don't quite grasp all that was involved there. Here's the term you've heard and we'll talk a little bit about giving today because it's here. Here's the term you've heard: tithe. If I say to you that I go to a church where we practice the tithe, then how much money would you assume I would give? 10%.
If you get in the Old Testament and you look at the tithe that the Jew paid, the Jew was paying a tithe to the priesthood, a tithe for sacrificial system, a tithe special offering. If you total all of the Jewish tithe together, it's about 23%. So if somebody says to you, "we're a tithing church," by the way, I don't think we're under that tithe anymore. I think God's put us under something far more difficult than the tithe. He's put you under "whatever." And the other is much easier because we can go, "check, got it." But He says, give. How am I supposed to give? Just give, baby. That's far more difficult. I like the "give me the number" because we check it off and I'm okay. See, that's what these guys like. They like checking it off.
Well, the Old Testament tithe was about 23%. This is giving that would just be done to those who are truly needy. We're going to expand the discussion a little bit, but He's talking about those who are really hurting in this process.
The Problem of Pride in Giving
He says, here's the first thing: Don't let your motivation be that somebody will see you. John Stott writes this: "They love the praise of men more than the praise of God. So insatiable was their appetite for human commendation that it quite spoiled their giving. Jesus ridicules the way they turned into a public performance. He pictures a pompous Pharisee on his way to put money into a special box in the temple of the synagogue or a gift to the poor, and in front of him marched trumpeters blowing fanfare." That's the scene here.
Now I'll give you, because you read this, Jesus says, "let your good works shine in such a way that men see them and praise your Father in heaven." Well, how do I give in private, pray in private, do everything in private, and still have people see my good works? That's a very good question, isn't it?
I think what Jesus is saying here is that when it comes to giving, and it comes to fasting, and it comes to praying, that all of a sudden I'm dealing in a devotional area, and that's between God and me. My life itself, beyond the religious devotion, my life itself is so distinctive, my life itself is so unique, that all of a sudden everybody around me sees it. They know it.
The Battle Against Pride
I'll tell you, for some of you, this is a huge challenge, because I can get quickly so proud of how humble I am. I can get quickly so proud of how subtle it is. And how do I keep my good works from becoming a source of pride?
You know, some of you I know pretty well, some of you I know a little bit, some of you I don't know from a post. But I know this, I know your besetting sin. Your besetting sin is pride. That's what drives all that you do. That's the ultimate vice. That's the most evil of evil. C.S. Lewis the classic line: it was through pride that Lucifer became the devil. And pride drives so much of what we do. We want desperately to be seen by others and thought of and praised by men.
I was at a meeting not long ago and there's five or six of us around and somebody said something and everybody just stopped and said, "that is so, that is incredible, that is so profound." And I wanted to stop because I'd spent hours with this guy getting to the point where he saw this and all he did was regurgitate what I said and I wanted to say, "hey you idiots, I've been saying this for years." That's a real sickness.
Do you have that? When all of a sudden you've worked with somebody and now they begin to grow and people around them begin to acknowledge it, isn't it amazing how sometimes we feel slighted by that? That's how sick you are, my friend. You are a sick, prideful, arrogant duck. And I know that because that's the way I am. And I've got to wrestle that dog to the ground every day, don't you?
That's one of the hardest things about this, is that you have people coming up to you and say, "boy that was great and that was great and that was great." You've got to make certain, I do, every time I get in the car when these are over, I'm saying "okay Lord, that one worked okay, that must have been You. Compared to last week which bombed, that was"
I've got to keep that right in front of people all the time. That's what He's saying. Listen, I want you to give. Not like these guys do.
So do you get this? You may be here today and you may be a giver, but your giving may be worthless in God's eyes. You've got the whole reward right here. They put your name on the building, you know, the Smith Memorial Hall. Well somehow that doesn't strike me as being secret.
I was in a situation once where a guy said, we'll give you a million dollars if you put our name on it. Now, to me, that kind of violates what Jesus is saying. I think on the other hand, somebody says here we're going to give you a million dollars and you say, you know, listen, we want to thank you for that and boom here's the name. That to me is different.
The Heart Behind Our Actions
But see this gets Jesus right into your heart. He's not distracted by what you're doing. He's saying, why are you doing that? What's your motive there? Is it just to be seen by others?
So if there's a wrong way to give, there's a right way to give and you see it there in verse 3 and 4. Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Your alms may be given in secret and your father who sees in secret will repay you.
When it comes to this idea of giving, now what He's talking about here are meeting the needs of people who are really hurting. What He's saying is there's a spontaneity to it, there's a compassion to it, there's a reason to it. He's saying not only, this is incredible, not only should other men not know what you're doing, you yourself in a sense don't even know what you're doing. Now obviously that's impossible, but He's giving you the picture. That's how secretive this is to be.
True Secrecy in Giving
The right hand in that culture, the dominant hand, not in our world, but in that culture, the dominant hand, He said this left hand is here. They don't even know. There's a disconnect. That's how you're to give.
Now that's what He's talking about. This same theme, and we could do this, we could just now go right to prayer, right to fasting, because it's the same theme all the way through. It all flows from your heart condition.
So what you need to do every moment of every day in every action is ask yourself, why am I doing what I'm doing? What is my motive here? And to the extent that you're doing it, to call attention to yourself, or that somebody will think better of you, or that you'll have a favorable reception in somebody's eyes, even for their praise, because the problem comes on the other side. Now, will you disappoint them when you tell the truth? And if that's the case, then now, not only do you want their praise, you're afraid of them, so now it's going to take what you say, and now you won't be able to tell them the truth.
Freedom from Man's Opinion
You cannot be concerned about how other men and women and those around you view you as it relates to these issues.
I want to talk about giving just a second, and give you some real principles. We, in this study, I think probably of any organization I've ever been around, we are as pure with the money as you can be in this sense. We never talk about it. Y'all come in here, nobody talks to you about money, and I will confess to you that's a hard one for me, and I'll tell you why. Because it's a spiritual issue.
You love to have me say, don't shack up. You love to have me say, don't steal and tell the truth, and you love to have me talk about the scripture, and you love to have me say, we got to get into your spiritual life. You're okay if we talk about prayer, but oftentimes we get defensive when it comes to money, and that's our weakness. That's not the scriptural weakness.
Scripture's Focus on Money
Over 2,000 verses in this book on money, less than 500 on faith. There's just more conversations about possessions in here than virtually any topic other than Lord God Himself, and the reason is it's a great indicator of how we see all of life.
Here's some things quickly. Number one, and this really becomes important, is to remember that God owns everything. Let me give you two references. Number one, we have a tape series called Financial Foundations, and this is really helpful stuff. It's about borrowing, it's about stewardship, it's about giving, it's about all sorts of things. If you're interested, go on the website, tell Al, he'll send you the tapes, no charge.
God claims ownership over the whole universe. First Chronicles 29:11, for everything in the heaven is yours, O God. Job 41:11, who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me, God says.
God's Total Ownership
He narrows it down. He goes from the macro to the micro, not just the heavens. God claims ownership on the whole earth. The earth is the Lord's in everything in the world. Psalm 24 verses 1 and 2.
He narrows it down even more. Every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills are mine, and I know every bird in the mountains and the creatures of the fields are mine. If I were hungry, I wouldn't have to tell you the whole world is mine. Everything in it is mine, and then in Haggai 2:8, the silver and the gold is mine.
Everything in this planet is under His ownership. He created it all. If we go down to the title company and we run the title report on this, we go back a little bit, and then we go back, and we see Jerry King on this for a while, and then it was bad, bad, and we go back, back, but if you go all the way back, back, back, back, back, all the way preceding statehood, all the way back to when it was a territory, and preceding that, if you could get an accurate title search all the way back, somewhere it ought to say God Almighty. He's the original owner. He's the creator.
He owns it all. He owns the heaven. He owns the earth. He owns everything in it. He owns the stuff. Everything here that you have has been given to you, so when you reach into your back pocket and you pull out a bill,
Our tendency is to say this is my money. Well, that may be technically true in one sense, but ultimately the truth is it's His money. Here's what happens: we sit in here and go "mine, mine, mine, mine, mine," but it's His. This is very important, because that establishes your relationship with your stuff, and your relationship is one of a trustee.
You have a fiduciary relationship. Listen, if I come to you and you're going to be my financial manager, I'm going to give you my financial resources. You have a fiduciary relationship at that moment to look out for my best interest. We're trustees in this whole process. We're not owners, and this is a tricky one.
God Determines Our Financial Success
God determines the extent of our finances. We don't like this, and this doesn't preach well at a sales seminar, but it's God who's going to determine whether that deal closes or not. It isn't you or your work. Now, that doesn't mean you don't work.
I was just talking to a guy the other day. He's in real estate. I said, "How is it?" He said, "You know, last quarter was lousy. This quarter's been great." I said, "What are you doing different?" And he laughed, because he knows very well. He said, "I'm not doing anything different. In fact, I just did three deals with a guy. I sell homes. I'm in the third deal right now, and I haven't yet—I'm going to closing—I haven't yet asked him how he got my name."
I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "This guy just called me out of the blue and said, 'Here's what I need for these houses, I can buy three of them, here they are,' bam, bam, bam, and we're just doing the third one." You see what he did? Nothing! He answered the phone. How does that happen? Because God's going to determine this area of responsibility.
Some of you, He's going to give you a lot, and some of you, He's going to give a little. This is not an anti-work message, you know that. This is not an excuse to be apathetic or slothful. This is just simple fact for you to understand that everything you have, God gave to you, and you better understand, my friend, that there's a day of accounting to Him.
The Day of Accounting
Just as if I entrust everything to you, and I say, "You know what, I'm going to be out of the country for a year. You manage all of my stuff for me." And then I come back in a year, and I come rolling in, there's a brand new Rolls-Royce out there, and I go in, and I say, "Hey, that's a neat car. That's a great car. Whose car is that?" He said, "Well, it's yours." "Mine?" "Yeah. Well, you needed a car, and while you were gone, I thought I'd get a car."
"Wait a minute, I'd never get a car like that." "Well, I thought you'd want it. It's got a nice ride." Listen, that's not the issue. I'd never spend money like that. He's violated the trust. He knows me. He knows my agenda. He should never do that.
Here you go. Then you better figure out, if you're a steward, you better figure out what God's agenda is. And you better be figuring out, is this where God would live? Is this what God would drive? Is this what God would wear? I think He would wear something like this. These are really serious questions.
We just had a discussion about a half hour ago sitting up there. How much house is too much? How much is not enough? These are really important issues. Why? Well, for a variety of reasons, but ultimately, because you have to give an accounting to God. Those are just basic principles that I have to understand.
Two Common Questions About Giving
Let me get to giving real quickly. There are basically two questions that we get all the time on giving: How much should I give and where should I give it? I have never, ever had this question: Should I give? Nobody's ever asked me that question. Instinctively, we know we're supposed to give. But where should I give and how much should I give?
Here's the first principle you've got to remember: God doesn't want your money if He doesn't have your heart. If you're not a Christian, don't give to anything here. We don't want it. We're pretty clear about that in church, and we're pretty clear about that when we talk to people.
If you're not a Christian, because we see a lot of people who want to come in and write a check, and somehow that just soothes their conscience. Remember, wasn't it Oral Roberts who had the view, the 90-foot Jesus, and he was going to take him home if he didn't have five million dollars? And some dog track owner who found Oral amusing, basically, said, "I'm going to write you the check for the difference." That's an abomination.
You know, I hope you understand this. God's not going, "Oh man, if that dog track owner doesn't come through, we're in real trouble here." God's got it all. So don't you start throwing cash at God and think He's going to be happy with you because of the cash. What He wants is your heart. Now, when He's got your heart, He's got your cash. But He wants your heart. That's the thing you've got to understand.
Proportional Giving
He wants you to give in proportion to the way you've been blessed. That deals with the how much should I give. If you want to tithe, then I'd suggest try that Old Testament tithe to 23%. "Well, that's too much." Well then, we're not even talking. See what we're doing here?
He wants you to give proportionally to how you've been blessed. If you're some college student that's barely getting by and making 20 grand a year and paying 12 for tuition, and you don't have much money, and you say we're going to throw 10% out there, this guy's going to struggle to get to two grand. If you're an executive and you're making 250 grand, 25 doesn't seem like that much. But see, it doesn't matter. Because it's not between you and me, it's between you and God.
I'll tell you when you're trying to figure out how much to give, here's the great question that ought to be asked. Not how much to give, but how much should I keep? How much of God's money should I invest in the stuff of this world for my agenda?
Now, where should I give? I'll give them to you. You know this is pretty simple.
James 1:26-27 seems to say very clearly that we have a responsibility to the orphans and to the widows. The picture there are the poorest. You should give to the poor. You should give especially to believers who are in need. 1 John 3:17 says, "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need and has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?" Somebody comes to you and they have a need, there ought to be in your heart your flinch - your flinch is to meet that need.
Now does that mean you meet every need? Well, you're going to have to use some discretion here and you don't have infinite resources, but it means that I understand that that's an obligation I have.
Primary Giving to Your Church
I think your primary source of giving is to the church that you attend. In 1 Timothy, Paul writes to Timothy and tells Timothy that the elders who direct the affairs of the church are worth double honor. Cash. Especially those who are preaching and teaching. The scripture says the worker deserves his wage.
Periodically somebody will say to me, "Priority Living is my church and I'll give here." Now you need to know something about giving. You all know this. I don't ever see any money. It all goes to somebody. I don't know who gives, I don't know who doesn't give.
When somebody says that to me, I stop them cold and say, "Number one, this isn't a church. We aren't a church." If you want to use a golf illustration, a church is a driver through a putter. They got them all or they ought to be. This is a five-iron. This is one thing in your bag that maybe helps you and supplements what God's doing. You may use it to reach out to guys or gals in the office. I don't know, but this isn't a church.
The Problem with Wrong Church Attendance
If you're using this as church, I'll hear this: "I don't believe what my church is doing, so I don't give there. I give in other places." Let me tell you something, buddy. You're in the wrong church. Get out of that church. How can you go to a church where you don't believe what they're doing? If you can't give to it, then you shouldn't be going there.
That is a real simple principle. How stupid is that? I go to this place, I take up a pew, I use a parking place, but I won't give them any money because I don't believe what they're doing. Well, how hypocritical are you? Get out of there, and it doesn't matter if your family - I know all these excuses. "My family's there. Been there a long time. My dad started the place. My dad's the pastor." I don't know. Get out.
If you can't give your dough to it, then you're in the wrong place. And I personally - this is just me now, the personal part - the predominant part of your giving ought to be at your church. I would say, if you are tithing, and again I usually turn around what it means, that that's where your giving ought to be going.
Additional Giving Principles
A couple other places. I think you should give to those who teach you. That's Galatians 6:6: "Anyone who receives instruction in the word must also share the good things with his instructor." And the overarching thing is Luke 16:9: "I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself." He's not talking about running for election here, and He's not talking about people saying good things about you at the club. He's talking about using your wealth for kingdom issues.
Threw all that at you. If you want something more elaborate, we've got eight weeks on that. You can order them off the website or ask the Colonel and he'll get those tapes on financial foundations.
The Heart of the Matter
What I want you to see is this. Same thing we'll see in prayer. Same thing we'll see in fasting. It's the same thing we saw in verses 21 through 48 of chapter 5. This is all about your heart. Here's another one: if you can't give cheerfully, don't give at all. Keep it. God's not going broke. It doesn't matter. This is about your heart.
But you ought to be a steward who understands God owns it all and who is distributing your financial resources accordingly. Here's what He says. Look at your heart. When you look at your heart and you begin to come to this issue of giving, you make certain that you give in such a way that your motive is not to please men or not to find the praise of men or not out of fear of men.
A Story About Wrong Motives
This is a great story. Just popped into my head. Years ago, I was a little boy at home, and we were having a little bit of a financial crisis in our church at the end of the year. And the monsignor decided, "Don't worry, I got a plan." Here was the plan. For the first time ever, right after the first of the year, they would publish every name in the church and what they gave.
It's December. And I don't remember the numbers - cut me a little slack here - but we're banging along at about three grand a week. All of a sudden, it's 18 grand, it's 20 grand, it's 50 grand. And I'm telling you, there they were. I remember this like it was yesterday. There were the bulletins and in the back was a sheet with everybody's name on it and what they gave. I'm telling you, it looked like the New York Times when they were running some of those great articles. People were scooping these things up.
It seems to me that might be the wrong motive, too.
Give from Love, Not Fear or Pride
Don't give for the praise of man. Don't give out of fear. Give because you love the Lord God and it's the most natural thing in the world to give Him your praise and to give Him your thanksgiving and to give Him all of your life. And that includes your finances.
Next week, we look at prayer. Father, help us see this truth. Let it transform our life. God, we ask this of You in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a great week. We'll see you next week.