Secret Giving Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Money can be our idol, and we can be its worshippers. God wants to break the stranglehold money has on our hearts, and the key is giving in secret. Today, finding the right motives and methods to do just that. 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, a lot of us are like the Pharisees who wanted everybody to know that they were big givers.

You know, Dave, that's true. There are some people who will not make large gifts unless their name can be on a building, unless they can be honored in some way. And I'm not necessarily judging their hearts, but I do need to tell you this. God loves secret givers, people who give with a right motive. And that's why this passage of scripture is so incredibly important. I'm holding in my hand a book entitled A Closer Look at the Evidence.

Now, at the end of this message, I'm going to tell you more about this book, except to say that it's going to be a tremendous blessing with 365 devotionals for the new year. For now, let's open our Bibles as we go to the pulpit here at the Moody Church and learn more about what Jesus has to say about giving. 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 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. So we're talking about motivation, a motivation of love. Did you know that there is only one other saying of Jesus that is not found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in all the New Testament?

At least the only one that I know about it. And that is in the book of Acts, where Paul said that Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And what we need to do is to stay before the Lord until we say, God, God, this monster within us is so great. The evils of it is of such a magnitude. You think of the extremes or people who gamble and who are willing to sacrifice anything to gamble just to make money easily, and people who buy lottery tickets hoping to win it big, and people who think that the trust in God is not sufficient.

What they need to do is to resort to all kinds of means. The power, the power of the demonic power of money is just unbelievable. I said to a friend, I said, how could these Christians, how could these Christians take other Christians to court when the Bible is so clear that you shouldn't? And he said, you never underestimate the evil of the human heart when there is big money involved.

Don't ever underestimate. Even fine, committed Christians whom we thought would have known better will do silly things if they can get a couple million dollars. I should have said sinful things if they can get a couple million dollars.

So Jesus said the right motive. You give because you love. You give because you love. Did you give this morning because you love?

You say, no, I cried before I give. Keep it. Keep it. Next Sunday don't give. Don't bother.

Really don't bother. So the right motive, number two, second principle is the right method. You give in secret. And he says, don't announce it with a trumpet as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to be honored by men.

They have received the reward in full, but when you give, give to the needy or do your alms. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Jesus said, don't announce it to others and don't even announce it to yourself.

Don't dwell on it. Don't think to yourself, you know, I'm such a generous person because look at what I just did. You give in secret. Now we here at the Moody Church give anonymously. I'm not sure if I've ever met anonymous.

I'm sure that he must exist somewhere, but all giving is really in secret. And this has an upside and it has a downside. This has a downside.

Let me tell you about the downside first. The downside is we could actually have ushers here at the Moody Church who aren't giving and we wouldn't know it. Now you know the Bible talks about those who do not give are robbing God. Now we would not invite robbers to take the offering, would we?

And yet that's possible. It's possible to have members of the staff or the elders or the deacons or people who sing in the choir. It's possible that they are not faithful with that which God has given him. And Jesus said in Luke 16, he says, if you are not faithful with unrighteous mammon, who will give the true riches to you? And he says, Jesus, whether or not you get the true riches is dependent upon what you do with your money. That's the kind of importance that God puts on it. So giving a secret. The upside of secrecy is of course that everyone is treated alike.

We do not cater to the rich. We recognize that there are people for whom giving $10,000 is much easier than for someone else who gives $100 because of their financial situation and we leave the matter with God. We leave the matter with God. Jesus is not saying that nobody should ever find out what we give or that it is wrong if giving is known. In fact, in the Old Testament, in the book of Ezra, an entire chapter lists everything that people gave, including those who did not give. All of their names are there on God's register. And when Jesus was sitting across from the treasury and he noticed all the people who were giving, he saw the woman.

The text is very clear. It says he sat across from the treasury and watched as people gave and he saw a widow giving two mites. Christ was that close so that he knew how much people were giving. I think I told you some years ago about the little church that I used to attend when I was a child and my parents would go to it and they weren't getting enough money.

You know, that's a perpetual problem, isn't it? Not enough money. And what they decided to do is to publish at the end of the year all of the members and how much they gave and put it on the church bulletin board. Wealthy farmers who bought thousands of dollars of machinery that year and had fantastic crops, you know, $200. It was there. It was all there for the people to see. Can you imagine? Can you imagine how excited people were to have that put up? I mean, some of the people. Can you imagine how angry it made people? Absolute anger.

I think the next year, though, I think that the giving was up somewhat. I don't advocate that. I'm just telling you what happened. Just telling you what happened. Just reporting.

Just reporting. Now don't miss Christ's point. Here's what Jesus is saying. Look, when you give, give generously because you love God and give in such a way that if nobody ever finds out about it, that's okay because you're content with the approval of God. You're content with the approval of God.

God knows. Even if I don't get a letter back, even if nobody knows how much I gave, even though this is done in secret, even though people have no idea as to how generous I really am, I am content with God because these are my secrets. These are my secrets. And, of course, it doesn't just refer to giving. It refers to random acts of kindness that we do where we bless people in sacrificial ways even if nobody knows, even if nobody knows.

One of the most delightful things, and it happens often here at the Moody Church, is we, quote, by accident find out about acts of kindness and acts of generosity that happen that nobody knows about but that may come to our attention, and we just know that there are a lot of people who are doing a lot of nice things for other people, and they are unsung heroes, and nobody ever points them out, and they never get praised, and they never get thanked, but they just keep being faithful, and Jesus said that if you are that way, your Father who sees in secret will reward you, will reward you. And the question that I want to ask during this time as we emphasize secrets, the question is, are you content to have those secrets with God? Are you content with saying, God knows.

God knows, and it's okay. It's okay. It's okay if I participate. It's okay if I sing.

It's okay if I play. It's okay if I preach a sermon. It's okay if I do this and this and this, and even if it isn't really appreciated, I did it for God. So Jesus talks about the right motive, the right method, and then he also talks about the right reward. He says your Father will reward you. What reward does God give? Well, the satisfaction of having done it is part of the reward. The reward to do more because Jesus said you're faithful in something that I've given you, and you shall receive more. Also, the reward in the life to come.

You don't see it all in this life, but you will in the life to come. He will reward you. I know the King James version says he will reward you openly, and you know that at the judgment seat of Jesus Christ when all of the books are opened, and I don't want to be too dogmatic about this, but I do believe it is a public judgment. I think we're going to see one another being judged by Christ, and as I've mentioned, we'll first of all be all in the same boat, and secondly, actually what others think will not matter because at the end of the day, the only thing that will matter is what Jesus Christ thinks, and so that will be very, very important, and we'll stand there before the Lord Jesus, and the Father will reward us, and we will see all of these secret things that have been done by others, and we will see them, and the Father will reward us. Why do Christians sue one another?

Why all these hassles? It's because they don't believe in another world. They don't believe that there is a world coming in which God is going to make all of the unjust things right and bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and this is speaking about Christians now, and bring to light the hidden things of darkness, expose the motives of men's hearts, and resolve unresolved issues here on earth. That's part of the responsibility of the judgment seat of Christ.

Let me give you three very important lessons that will help us tie this together. First of all, number one, remember that every choice we make, every choice we make is a matter of pleasing ourselves or pleasing God. It's a matter of pleasing ourselves or pleasing God, and it's possible, you see, for us to be so concerned about pleasing others, more concerned about pleasing others than we are about pleasing God, and that's why we live two different lives, the outward life and the inward life, because we don't care so much about what God thinks who sees the inner. We're only concerned about what other people think and they see the outer, and all of us live that way, don't we? And to a certain extent, it may be necessary for us to, but looked at another level, the simple fact is that oftentimes we are not real because we fear the disapproval of other people, even though we don't care about God's approval or disapproval. So every choice is a matter of pleasing ourselves or pleasing God. Secondly, we are always in the presence of God.

Would you remember that? The Father who sees in secret, if there's any slogan that should be on every wall of our home, it is simply this, thou God seest me. Every deception of the heart, every lie that is told, every false impression that is given, every motivation that is either pure or impure, all of those things are naked and open before God and the Father sees in a secret, sees in secret.

And you can get away with what other people think and you can, shall we say, control or shape what they think. But at the end of the day, it's just you and God. We are all in God's presence. And finally, and perhaps most important, we will not be rewarded twice. We won't be rewarded twice.

May I read the text again? Do not do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward of your Father who is in heaven. Verse 4, so that your giving may be in secret and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Either we serve people and we get the reward, we do it to be seen, we do it because we want to make sure that there's a return and we receive that return and it's the end of the deal. It's over. You did it for man. Man praised you. You got back what you wanted.

End of transaction. But if we do it for God, if we do it for God, then we believe that he will reward us. He will reward us and will do so openly. Can we trust ourselves to him?

Do we have enough confidence in God that we don't need to get rewarded in this life? There's an interesting story in the New Testament about a young man who was a rich ruler who came to Jesus and he said, what may I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, well, he said, keep the commandments.

And this young guy being blinded by sin said, well, I've kept all of them from my youth. And of course, you know, the answer to him is, well, then you don't need to get saved because you already are. I mean, if you're perfect, God isn't going to reject anyone who's perfect from heaven. So if you've lived a perfect life, fine.

Like that cab driver that I told you about a couple of weeks ago. I mean, if you're absolutely perfect, you're going to slide into heaven and do so with a lot of flourishes and a great deal of fan fare. But Jesus suspected that he was unaware of his sin and that that was his problem. And he said, well, if you've kept all the commandments, fine, sell everything that you have, give it to the poor, you'll have treasure in heaven and then come and follow me.

Now, let me ask you a question. What if Jesus asked you and me to do that today? Let's suppose he said, well, you want to inherit eternal life, sell your house, sell your car, get rid of it all, go live in a monastery, follow me and give it all to the poor and give up all of your wealth, all of your securities, all of your retirement accounts, all of your mutual funds, sell it all, give it away and come and follow me. Well, what would you do? I think we'd all choke a little bit just before we made our decision.

That's a tough thing to do. Jesus, of course, was not saying, as we know, that it is through such an act that you are saved. We are saved because of the sacrifice of Christ and the gift of salvation. But what Jesus was saying to this young man is, look, don't you realize that you have to be converted from your money to me? And that it is your money that really makes you stumble and not see the great need that you have to come in humility and receive eternal life. That's why Jesus said woe to the rich because it is unlikely that they will inherit the kingdom.

It doesn't mean that they won't. There are some who will, but it is hard, Jesus said. It's because you've already got a God.

Why do you need a different one? It's a God that we intuitively love. It's a God that makes us all those promises. It's a God that gives us what we want.

It's a God that gives us power and leisure and ability and freedom and all those things. So why do we need this other God called Jehovah? There are some of you who are listening to this message today and you need to understand something. The purpose of this message is not so that you may give more money to Moody Church, though if that happened, I think we'd try to work it into our system here.

I think we could use that, but that isn't really the purpose. The purpose I had was a much deeper purpose, a much deeper purpose, and that is to say that have we been willing sincerely to give to God this God called money that wraps itself around us and builds rationalizations in our hearts and minds and that will not allow us to be free? That's the question. And for those of you who have never received Jesus as Savior, do you realize that you have to turn from that idol and maybe a whole host of others, you have to turn from that idol and you have to turn with your heart toward God and to receive Him in humility, recognizing that you're an idolater. But you come as an idolater. You come helplessly, bound by idols to receive the gift of eternal life and to say, Lord, I want to accept all that you have for me.

Jesus said it clearly. He said, give in secret and be content with that. And your Father who sees in secret, trust Him. Trust Him.

Trust Him. He'll reward you openly. Let us pray. Father, we confess today that it is difficult. It is difficult to give you everything that we own, everything that we've worked for, all that we have saved. We confess, Father, it is difficult to crown you Lord over all of it.

But we ask today that you shall help us to do that. The issue is not even where we give or how much we give, but whether or not, Father, we have transferred finally and totally the power of money from our hearts to yours, to use the mammon of unrighteousness for just ends. We ask today, Father, that there shall be deliverance in the minds of businessmen who are present and other people, Father, for whom money has become so important that they don't even see, they don't even see, Father, that they are worshiping another God.

It's become so much a fabric of them. And then, Father, there may be those who aren't businessmen, but there are those who are struggling with finances, and to them they don't realize it either that money has become their God. We pray, Father, for all of us as a staff, an elder, an executive committee, and ushers and choir members, we pray today, Father, that you will make us faithful, faithful in the thing for which you promised us a harvest of righteousness if we'd be faithful in it. We ask, Lord Jesus, that you shall transform us into God lovers. May we be intoxicated by our love for you and therefore give with joy and hilarity and peace and contentment. And for those who have never accepted your son, we pray that even today they may do that to know that they can ultimately bring nothing except to receive your grace. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, this is Pastor Lutzer, and yes, isn't it wonderful that we come to God with our sin, we come with our idols, we admit who we are, and he changes our hearts.

What a wonderful lesson from the lips of Jesus. Well, you know, we're living at a time when parents and grandparents are being hard-pressed for questions, oftentimes these questions asked by their children or grandchildren, about evolution, biology, logic, and philosophy. I wish you could have in your hands the book that is in my hands right now. It's entitled A Closer Look at the Evidence. It has 365 devotionals, one for every day of the year, and it succinctly discusses all these issues complete with beautiful, full-color pictures. What a gift this would be as you begin the new year. It's entitled A Closer Look at the Evidence, written by two scientists.

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 call us at 1-888-218-9337.

You'll be captivated by these explanations of Scripture and explanations of science, showing that the Bible actually is the basis of science, and science is compatible with the Bible. Here's what you do. You go to rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Thanks in advance for helping us as we continue to share the good news of the Gospel with thousands upon thousands. Thank you. We find out what secret praying is all about. Running to Win is here to help you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.