How does God want us to give? What kind of spirit should we cultivate as we give with our financial resources? Welcome to the line of fire. I'm Michael Brown. We're continuing to study the words of God.
Jesus, we're in the Sermon on the Mount.
Now Matthew chapter six Beginning in verse 1, And Jesus is going to talk to us about giving, about praying, about fasting, how to do it in a way that honors the Lord, how to do it in a way that gets us a heavenly reward, how to do it in a way that is not for human eyes. But for the eyes of the Lord. And look. Let's be honest. our flesh often wants to be recognized.
Our our flesh often wants the praise of people. Jesus said, go ahead, get it, but that's all you get. That's your reward. And It reminds me of a story. in a particular town in in Eastern Europe.
decades ago when the Jewish population was larger there. And There was uh a miserly Jewish man. Very rich. but incredibly miserly. That that when The people would go around the town making collections for the Jewish community and to help the poor and urgent needs in the community.
He'd always send the people away: No, no, go away, go away, go away. And Everyone thought, what a greedy man, what a selfish man. He's so rich. He of all people should be giving and helping and all he does is send the people away. Go away.
Go away. Well, when he died Suddenly they realized there was a massive gap in the in in meeting the needs of the poor. and other emergencies in the community that their funds were way, way, way down. And they learned that this man was giving all the money, but he wanted to be so sure that he got no credit for it from human beings that he acted the opposite. It's extreme.
Yes, I get it. I get it. But th that that's that's a lesson there. That's a lesson. And we have to ask ourselves: if nobody on the planet ever found out what we were doing, would we do it just the same?
Hopefully, the answer is yes. But many times there's a dual motive. Yes, I want to do good. But I want to be known too. Yes, I want heavenly reward, but I like my earthly reward too.
Jesus said it's one or. The other.
So Rabbi Yeshua teaches us. Be careful. not to practice your righteousness. in front of others to be seen by them. Literally your your acts of righteousness.
And In in Jewish thought today Over the centuries, the word tzadaka, which means righteousness, is actually a word that has become uh charity So you talk about sadaka, you're talking about giving to the poor. acts of charity, but the word is actually righteousness. And so it's a good act, it's a righteous act, and ultimately it takes on an identity of its own, sadaka. But here We have the same concept. Your acts of righteousness, your deeds of righteousness, you're giving, you're praying, you're fasting.
Be careful. Not to practice, not to do those things in front of others to be seen by them.
Now, it doesn't mean you can't pray together. We'll get into that in a little while. We know the disciples prayed together. The book of Acts, they're praying together. It doesn't mean you can't pray together.
It doesn't mean that you can't. give and others find out, it means your intent. is not to be seen. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. If your intent is, I'm going to do this so that people can see me.
I'm going to do this so people say, wow. Look at you. Isn't she spiritual? Isn't he generous? Wow, whoa, they're fasting again.
Look at that. And again, it's amazing how the flesh can want to be known, the flesh can want to be seen. He said, don't. Don't do it for those reasons. Otherwise you'll have no reward from your Father in heaven.
And ultimately what we need is the smile of heaven. Look, the flesh is so deceitful. I remember It's in a parking lot. Not far from where I live. on my way into a grocery store and I hear someone say, Dr.
Brown, Dr. Brown. And immediately there was a little flush like, oh, I'm being recognized. They've Listened to me on radio, they seen me on YouTube, they read one of my books. And I turned, and it was someone from our home congregation that saw me.
I thought, oh, that's disappointing. I mean, it was a passing thought. Trust me, it was a passing thought. But it was there. I thought, how carnal are you?
How fleshly is that? But this can happen with human nature. Th this Is who we are. I remember John Cooper from Skillet, dear friend, so the frontman of the Christian rock band Skillet. And he was talking about early on in the career, this.
girl comes up to him on the street, Oh, I love your music and I love this and I love that. He's getting pretty puffed up, like, wow And then she's mentioned something else to him, either the record that she loved or the called him by name, realized she thought he was somebody else. It was some other star, some other rock star. But that's the flesh.
So what we do is we say, God. I don't do what I do to please people or to win the praise of people. I heard one powerful evangelist, he said, I am not moved by criticism because I am not moved by praise. And when someone asked him, with all the power of your ministry and all the people you've reached, the tens of millions you've reached. How do you avoid pride and How do you deal with criticism?
And he said, when you're on your knees. the praise and the criticism go over your head. What that means, friends, is we need a deeper consciousness of God. It's not a matter of beating ourselves. I won't think what people say.
I won't think what people say. I won't think. No, no. there's a greater consciousness of God. And when we're more conscious of Him...
then we really don't care what flesh and blood has to say.
So When you give to the needy, Do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others. I. I'm giving this much.
Now, I'm in meetings every year. where our Missions Director raises funds for our missionaries. It says, okay. We need 30 people here to give $20 a month. Can I see hands?
We all say, okay. You know, I can do that. We've got this immediate need. They're building this project. They need $25,000 immediately.
And what's the Lord saying?
Well, hey, the Lord laid on my heart to pledge this amount. We're not doing it to be seen, we're doing it in a joint way and it works well and faith rises, et cetera. But for you If you feel pride in doing that or want people to say, wow, look at me, then just do it privately. But by all means, by all means. We don't go around announcing, I gave this much last week.
Oh, yeah, you know that building, that beautiful building. Who do you think gave the first million? Yeah, that was me. Don't do it. That's flesh.
That's carnal. That's baby stuff. When you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others. Your preferences, I don't want anyone to know. Your preferences let others take credit.
Your preference is If God knows and the needs are met, that's what matters to me. Not what people say. Truly I tell you, They have received their reward and Fall. That's it. It reminds me of another story.
that many centuries old story. That A rabbi dies. And he was a great, again, it's a Jewish story.
so he was a feigned teacher of his people and known for his godliness and piety. and a terrible criminal died. wicked man known for his violent acts and selfishness and greed and criminality. And The rabbi is now looking down. from from heaven with God.
And he sees the wicked man's funeral, the criminal's funeral, as massive. People have come from all over. to honor his memory. And he sees his his funeral There's a handful of people there. Again, just a Jewish story.
And the rabbi says to God, how can this be? I lived for you so carefully all these years, and this was a wicked man. And God says to him, The wicked man. One time he did a good deed. One time he helped someone Just out of the Compassion and Basarit.
So This is his reward. that he gets the big funeral, otherwise he's going to suffer. He said, for you. He said that one time you you were Not compassionate, you weren't kind, whatever it was. He said, so that's your punishment, but you get eternal life.
Again, just a story, but it's illustrating it doesn't matter what people think. I think of what Leonard Ravenhill once told me. that there was a missionary who had served in Africa. for decades. and coming home for the first time in decades.
coming home on a ship. And Theodore Roosevelt, who had been the president of the United States, had been on a hunting expedition. And he was on the same boat. And When they came back. Um They're getting off the boat.
And there's a band, a marching band there waiting to greet. Uh Theodore Roosevelt. Congratulate him as he's come back from his hunting expedition to Africa. and I believe it's Africa. and gets off the boat to a hero's welcome.
And the missionary gets off the boat and there's nobody there. He spent Several decades serving sacrificially in Africa. Theodore Roosevelt's been away for a few months on a fun time. He gets the marching band. This guy gets nothing.
God said to him, You're not home yet. You're not home yet. Oh, for God to open our eyes, to lift us from an earthly perspective to a heavenly perspective.
So he says. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. The typical hyperbole that Jesus uses Through the whole Sermon on the Mount, obviously. He's not literally saying that your right hand writes the check and your left hand doesn't know or your left hand takes the money out of your pocket and the right hand doesn't know. These are figures of speech.
to say you are doing it in the most discreet way.
so that God knows and people don't know.
so that your giving may be in secret. Then Your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Some texts they will reward you openly.
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So call now 1-800-771-5584. one eight hundred seven seven one fifty five eighty four. or online at T R I V I T A. Trivita dot com So there's some ancient manuscripts that read here Then your father who sees what is done in secret. will reward you openly.
So here's the big question. Would you rather? that the whole world knows what you did. Look, you gave sacrificially, you sold your car and you you gave it the proceeds to that missionary so he could he could get a vehicle overseas and Now you're gonna have to just take a bus to work or walk extra and you want the whole world to everyone applaud you what a beautiful thing Wow What a special person you are And God says, that's it. That's your reward.
You got it. Everyone thinking how special you are. We want to do it that no one even knows what happened They don't even know that you don't have a car because you don't go around announcing it. Nobody even knows about it. But your father knows.
God knows. And he's not just going to reward you. He's going to reward you. Openly. He sees what you do in secret and he rewards you openly.
This is not just about giving, this is the way we live our lives. Let people think what they think. As long as God knows the truth, as long as God's with you and for you, it's all you need to know. It's all you need to have. In the end, People can't hurt you.
They can't help you. Oh. Yeah, they can do a lot of damage. Painful damage, horrific damage, take your life. And yeah, people do a lot of good to help, etc.
I get it, but in ultimate, ultimate, ultimate. People can't hurt you. People can't help you. ultimately only God. can help.
and give us what we need. And he gives grace to the humble. He opposes the proud. gives grace to the humble. The proud want to be seen and known by people.
The humble say, Lord, you see, you know. Hear it again. I just sent steeply some of you need to be reminded because you labor. In obscurity, you labor behind the scenes, you work so hard, outwardly you have so little to show for it. God ceased.
Your father sees. Your father knows. He knows the tears you shed in private. He knows the days of fasting. He knows the burden that you carry.
He knows the sacrificial acts that others don't know about. He sees, he knows, he's going to reward you in the world to come. and he may surprise you in many ways in this world before others. All right, we will continue on our journey on the next broadcast.
