Secret Giving Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. With God, we can safely entrust any secret. In fact, there are four secrets He wants us to share with Him.

When we do, we'll experience life-changing results. To find out what those secrets are, stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, today you begin teaching us about sharing secrets with God. Tell us about the first of those four secrets. Well Dave, the first secret I'm going to talk about is secret giving. Now, this message grows directly out of the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus hated hypocrisy, and so He was very critical with all those who stood to give publicly and made a display of their righteousness. God loves it when we have secrets with Him. God loves it when we are willing to do things that nobody else knows about, but He does, and that's okay with us. So I want you to open your Bibles.

I want you to enjoy this series. Let's just take a deep breath and ask ourselves, how can we develop those special secrets with God? Today I begin a series of messages on secrets with God, secrets with God. We're going to be talking about the soul, the inner part of us, the part that nobody sees, the most important part of us. When you speak of what the soul is, it's difficult to define, something like trying to photograph the wind, as someone says. But all of us know that within us there is that part that nobody can see, that hidden part where we think and feel and desire and decide, and all of the aspirations and the ongoing part of us really takes place. The conscious part of us, that's the soul, the way I'm defining it. If you're a Christian, your soul is the cathedral of God because God dwells there. But also, even though you are a believer, it is possible for that soul to be the playground of the devil as well.

It is there, you see, in the heart, in the heart that we have, that all of the battles and the decisions are taking place because the scripture says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Like the old line says, you aren't what you think you are, but what you think you are. That's who we really are. What a man is, is a man or a woman, and what they are is what they are before God and nothing else.

That's it. Well, normally when we think of the secrets of the soul, we think of the dark secrets, don't we? We think of all of those things that are hidden within us, those aspirations that we deliberately and meticulously keep from other people because we do not want them to see what is going on in the dark part of us. And within the soul there may be deceit and lying and dishonesty, but we don't want anybody to see that and we jealously guard it.

There is something about the soul that signifies power, isn't it? You know, I was thinking when I was about 10 years old, one of the responsibilities I had on the farm was to feed the chickens. About 5 o'clock every afternoon I was supposed to take a pail of grain and pour it out so that they could eat. And one day I was in the garage and I used to spend a lot of time piddling around making little gadgets that never worked.

That seemed to be my vocation. And my father asked me whether or not I had fed the chickens and I hadn't, but it was so embarrassing. So I lied and said yes.

And a few moments later I left the garage and went to do what I had said I had already done. But I remember that sense of power. I thought, you know, lying is really good.

I mean, as long as he doesn't find out, what difference does it make? And there was that sense of control. I lied and he believed me. After coming back from feeding them, my brother saw me, who had overheard the conversation and said, you lied, didn't you? That sort of put an end to my feeling of power.

It's a terrible wave. Then you begin to feel the shame and you begin to feel the sense of rebuke and the hypocrisy and everything. Up until that time I didn't feel that because most of us, really, we are much more concerned about what others feel about us than we are about what God feels about us, at least at that point in our lives. But that's what happens within the soul and all those dark secrets are developed. But that's not what I'm going to talk about. I'm going to be speaking about positive secrets, good secrets that we should have with God, the kinds of things that we should share with him because friends have secrets and if we know God and if he is our friend, why, indeed, we should be able to enjoy those times of intimacy with him.

When you know something and he knows something and only the two of you know about it. Those are the kinds of secrets we're going to speak about. And for this series we're going to expound the sixth chapter of the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter six where Jesus repeatedly talks about secrets. And I shall be reading from the new international version of the Bible.

Well, you talk to Darrell Worley afterwards, you guys over here. It says, be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven. 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 men. I tell you the truth, they have received the reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret.

Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you, will reward you. Now the topic of course is giving. And that's enough to send some jitters through a few people who may be here.

And especially if you're visiting you say, isn't that amazing? This is the week we come to Moody Church and what is he talking about? He's talking about giving. If you're feeling that way, it could well be that you need the message that God has led me to preach today.

So join the club and stay a while. I have to say some things though to cut out the underbrush and to get to the heart of a couple of matters. We as human beings, we forget that money has demonic power. It has demonic power. Thomas Morton says it has usurped the role in modern society which the Holy Spirit is supposed to have in the church. That's how, that's how powerful money is. Jesus, you remember, said woe to those who are rich. He said you cannot serve God and mammon. And when talking about money, catch this, he said that which is esteemed highly among men. And the context there is money because it says the Pharisees were lovers of money and they were scoffing at what he was saying. And he said that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable, detestable in the sight of God. And Paul says, of course, that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Now you know what our great temptation is. It's to quote those verses and then very quickly jump to others to somehow balance it because we do not want to be reminded of the fact that money has such a power to mesmerize, to destroy, and to be a god. We forget that it is predominantly evil. And we don't want to hear that.

We don't want to hear that. You see, the thing is that money asks our allegiance just as much as any other god. Let me ask you today, do you recognize that we have to be converted from money to God? And the reason that there are some people who are unconverted is because they are unwilling to make that conversion? I think that Martin Luther was right when he said that everybody needs three conversions. The conversion of the heart, the conversion of the mind, and the conversion of the pocketbook.

And it may well be that the last conversion is the most difficult. Let me ask you, why did Jesus say, woe to those who are rich, for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven? Why did Jesus say that? It's because money has all the characteristics of deity, all the characteristics of God. Richard Foster says it gives us security. It can induce guilt. It gives us freedom. It gives us power and seems to be omnipresent. But most sinister of all is its bid for omnipotence. It wants to be all powerful and it can be all consuming. And the reason that when we talk about money, the reason it is so sensitive, well, you've had a sore on your arm.

Maybe you were lacerated and blood flowed and now that part of your arm is so tender and when somebody comes and begins to poke around it, it really hurts and you say, no, no. I want you to know today that whenever we talk about money, we begin to touch our idolatrous heart. We begin to touch that heart and we don't like it because it's painful and it reveals who we are and we come to a message like this filled with a whole set of rationales and a whole reasons and these are deeply ingrained and not easily unsettled.

Now for the text itself. What was happening in those days? Well, the Pharisees were misusing money. They were misusing it and doing a good thing with it. They were giving it to charity. But in the process, they were hypocrites and the Greek word hypocrite means actor.

They were play acting. Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them. If you do, you have no reward of your father who is in heaven, says Jesus. I want you to know that in those days, giving to charity was a big thing. There was a quote from the rabbis which even says, he who gives to the poor does better than he who offers a sacrifice. And the Hebrew word righteousness, tzedek, that Hebrew word is actually the word for the giving of alms. So in ancient times, a mother may have said to her son who came from the synagogue, did you do your righteousness today? And what she meant was, have you given your gift today?

Very important thing. And Jesus commends the fact that people give because that's what we should be doing. But here you have people who are using a very legitimate and necessary good act and they are doing it for wrong reasons and they're doing even that to serve themselves. He says, when you give, do not announce it with trumpets. Now, you may visualize somebody standing on a street corner and blowing a trumpet and saying, everybody watch, I'm giving now and you know as soon as the trumpet blows that it's time for an offering. It could well be that Jesus is referring to a custom that the Jewish scholar Edersheim refers to, that in the temple area there was a cylinder, it was like a pipe, and people came and they put their money in and the money would go around this cylinder and would eventually come into a pot, into a pail that was there in the temple.

And some of the people would stand there giving their coins like this, one at a time, making sure that those who were behind them saw how much they gave and they were blowing the trumpet. And Jesus said, when you do that, don't, don't give that way. But give in secret. In the process, Christ gives three very important principles about giving. Three important principles about giving and what might they be? Number one, you give with the right motive. You give with the right motive. Now, there are three possible motives that people can have in giving.

One is a sense of duty. I give because I have to. It is expected of me.

People will not think well of me. I'm giving because I'm kind of trapped I have to give. Have you ever been at a banquet where after the food has been eaten, an offering is taken and they say now we're going to take an offering and the offering basket is passed and you want to make sure, you want to be very sure that you give something you hadn't planned to give it, but there's an elder who's sitting next to you. And heaven help him if he doesn't give anything, but, but you're just a regular church member, but you need to give every, you know, you don't want to, well, you know that story of an usher who went by a very, very well dressed woman and she didn't put anything into the offering plate and he held it right before her and she wouldn't put anything in and he said, she said, I don't give. And he said, well, then take some out because it's for the heathen anyway, he said.

And you don't want to be feeling like a heathen. And so you reluctantly you give. Now that is giving out of a sense of duty. How do you know whether you're giving a sense out of a sense of duty? How do you know whether this morning you gave out of a sense of duty?

I'll tell you. When you give out of a sense of duty, you give the gift, but you don't give your heart. You don't give your heart.

You reserve your heart for yourself, but you say, here is the gift. That's a sense of duty. There's a second motivation and that can be prestige, which is exactly what the Pharisees were doing. You give in such a way hoping that it will come back to you. You hope that there are other people who will see what you are giving and because you have given to them, you have certain expectations. Number one, you're thought of as a generous person and that's worth something to you. And number two, you actually give in a way that you hope you will receive back because you've given. As a matter of fact, did you know that there are certain religions and cultures and some of you are familiar with who those are, what those are, in which there are intricate social theories of obligation, where you do something good for someone but it is completely understood, even though no words are said, that the intention is that they in turn owe you something and you expect that in return and woe to them if they don't give that to you. Whatever it may be, whether it's hospitality or a gift or whatever, that there's a very intricate network of obligation. Now, the Pharisees, you see, were not necessarily expecting that people would give back to them, but they were thinking that people would watch them give and say, I just can't believe how spiritual that person is. Look at how generous he might be, even though he has a very, very sour face, but look at how generous he is.

That's what they were hoping people would say. There's a third motivation and that's what Jesus is talking about here. Were you give because you love to give? Your wallet has been converted. You've given yourself to God and you've said, God, I've given you my heart and therefore I can give not only my money. When I give my money, I'm also giving my heart. Samuel Johnson was a very generous person and he always had people living in his house who were poor and somebody said, why do you put up with all of these poor people? And he simply answered, if I didn't help them, no one else would and they cannot, he says, they cannot be rejected or lost simply because they are needy. In other words, you give because you want to give and because there's the motivation to give and you don't care whether or not anybody knows about it, you just give because giving becomes a part of your nature. It's a part of who you are. It's like a mother. She doesn't, my wife Rebecca didn't say, well now, you know, I got up at night to take care of the children and I want everybody to know that I got up and took care of the babies.

No, no, that isn't the important thing. The need is there, the love is there, the commitment is there and so you do it because you love to do it. The Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver.

He loves those who give joyfully, who maybe even give more than they should because it is not merely their mind that has been converted but their heart has been converted and their pocketbook has been converted and all that they have is God's and so they enjoy giving. They enjoy it. Now you say, well, if you don't have the right motivation, what do you do? How do you get that? That's not natural. That's not natural. That doesn't come just because you go to a good church or because you read the Bible or because you listen to a wonderful choir. That does not come.

No, no, no, no, no. This, this monster called greed and selfishness is so much a part of who we are that being generous is not usually something that comes very, very easily unless there's some return, unless there's some, some prestige that's going to be involved. If you're a billionaire and you want to give a billion dollars, you call a news conference and announce it to the world. That's different. But we're talking about secret giving.

How do you do it? Well, what you do is you deal with it as you deal with other sins. You repent as thoroughly as the Holy Spirit enables you to and you spend as much time in God's presence as you have to until that monster is subdued, until he's subdued. And you deal with the rationalizations. People say, well, you know, if I had more money, I'd give more.

Nonsense. If you are a bad steward with a little money, Jesus taught you're going to be a bad steward with a lot of money. It does not have to do with the amount because we're talking about proportionate giving. And so what you need to do is to, to deal with that rationalization. Or the idea is we'll begin to give when we get out of debt.

Now, now that's a real good one, isn't it? And you know, of course, as Rebecca and I have had to learn and as young couples always learn that debt, devil and dirt, they're all related. They're all related.

I'm not sure exactly the connection, but I know that it's there. So there are people who are in debt and that would be a separate message. The, the absolute curse, the, the terrible, terrible curse of debt.

And if you're in that situation, I suggest that you purchase some books if you can afford them, that will enable you to, to learn how to get out of debt so that you can have some financial freedom. But the problem is this, that we use that as an excuse and by bad management, we're always in debt and therefore we excuse ourselves consistently and we never learn how to be generous. So there are all these rationalizations. Or here's another one. Listen up for this. I'm not going to give because I don't like what the church did with its money.

Ten years ago, they did something that I don't like and, and because I don't like it, my vote is going to be, I'm not going to give. Do you notice how easily these rationalizations come? You know, Jesus blessed the woman who gave two mites, even though the temple was not perfect, even though the running of the temple was not perfect. Jesus still blessed the motivation of the woman because he saw in her a generous spirit, a generous spirit. My friend, this is Pastor Luther and I certainly don't want to give the impression that it is not important to know where we are giving our money. I always believe that we should do as much investigation as we can as to where our gifts go, whether or not the ministry is run with integrity, whether or not it shares the gospel.

All of these things become important, but isn't it wonderful to know that as I've emphasized, it's not necessary for a church to be perfect in order for us to support it. Well, I wish that you had in your hands the book that I now have in my hands. It's entitled A Closer Look at the Evidence. It's written by two scientists. It is a book that is published with full color photos. It has 365 devotionals, one for every single day of the new year. This book discusses issues regarding science, archeology, biblical history. It's the kind of book that you want for yourself and for your children and your grandchildren. Last year, I gave it to all of my grandchildren because I want them to have the Christian perspective on science and what is happening in the world. Now, for a gift of any amount, this book can be yours.

Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com, or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the book A Closer Look at the Evidence. I assure you, you will not be disappointed. You are going to be pleasantly surprised at the beautiful pictures, at the issues that are being discussed in this book from a Christian viewpoint. Again, for a gift of any amount, RTWOffer.com, or if you prefer, call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Ask for the book A Closer Look at the Evidence. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. It can happen to any of us. Money can become our idol. God wants to break the stranglehold money has on our hearts, and the key is learning to give in secret. Next time on Running to Win, finding the right motives and methods to do just that. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Thanks for listening today. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.