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When You Give
Matthew 6:1-4   |   Shaun LePage   |   August 6, 2006
 
 
I.
Introduction
A.   I want to tell you about two famous pastors I’ve met.
Both were very impressive men.
Great preachers of the Word of God.
Both pastored enormous churches.
By all outward appearances, both men seemed to be great husbands, great fathers, great pastors, and great men of God.
1.
One was Chuck Swindoll.
I benefited from his teaching for many years on the radio.
In fact, in many ways I feel he discipled me because I didn’t have anyone in that period of my life who impacted me the way he did through Bible teaching.
When I went to Dallas seminary, I took a part-time job at the seminary as a photographer.
During my second year at DTS, the rumor began floating around that Chuck was going to be the new president of DTS.
I was excited, but to be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to meet him and work with him.
I was afraid he would not be who he was in the pulpit—on the radio.
If he wasn’t, I didn’t want to know.
He did become the president for the final two years I was a student and a staffer.
I had quite a bit of contact with him and I found him to be the real deal.
He treated lowly peons (like myself) with respect.
He always remembered my name and seemed interested in how my studies were going.
More than once, he wrote hand-written notes to me, thanking me for some little thing I had done as part of my job.
I’m convinced Chuck Swindoll is—in his heart—the same great man of God we hear preaching God’s Word on the radio.
Perfect?
No, but authentic?
Yes.
2.     I met the other man—who shall remain nameless—very briefly at a large pastor’s conference.
Everyone at that conference wanted to be him.
Wanted to pastor his church.
Wanted to stand behind his pulpit.
He was a very handsome man and a very impressive preacher.
I liked him.
A few years after I met him at that conference, word got out that he had been in an adulterous relationship—at least one—for more than a decade.
When the church found out, the leadership asked him to step down as pastor.
But he tried to hang onto his kingdom.
He left without repenting and split the church.
He tried to plant a new church nearby and invited hundreds of people from his former church to come with him.
He was not who he seemed to be.
He was a hypocrite.
3.     Jesus reserved His harshest words for the religious hypocrites of His day.
In Matthew 23:27-28, Jesus said, “*Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
28 “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness*.”
4.     Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount—Matthew 5:20—that “*unless your righteousness surpasses /that /of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven*.”
In the rest of that chapter—chapter 5—Jesus explained that the surpassing kind of righteousness is not outward only, but deep—an issue of the heart.
5.     We’re now going to look at what Jesus said in Matthew 6.
In the first verse, Jesus gives a summary of what is to follow—the broad principle.
Then, He gives three illustrations that make His teaching crystal clear.
II.
Body—Matthew 6:1-4
A.   Matthew 6:1: “*Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven*.”
1.
In verse 1, Jesus gives a broad, summary statement.
Read it very carefully.
He did not say, “*Beware of practicing your righteousness*.”
True righteousness is of the heart, but that does not mean we don’t have to practice it with our mouth, our hands and our feet.
He didn’t say, “Don’t practice your righteousness.”
He kept going.
2.     He didn’t stop at “*Beware of practicing your righteousness before men*.”
This would completely contradict what He taught in Matthew 5:16: “*Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven*.”
If Jesus would have stopped with “*Beware of practicing your righteousness before men*,” He would have contradicted Himself.
3.     Look at the full statement: “*Beware of practicing your righteousness before men /to be noticed by them/*…” It’s about your motives.
In this passage—Matthew 6:1-18—Jesus specifically applies this to giving, praying and fast.
It doesn’t matter if someone sees how much you give or hears you praying or finds out you’re fasting.
It does matter if you do those things */so that/* people will be impressed with how spiritual you are.
I believe this applies to other “acts of righteousness” as well.
If I share the gospel with people with the purpose of being noticed by my Christian brothers, or if I preach so that people will think I’m a great Bible expositor, or if I change diapers in the nursery making sure everyone within ear shot knows how much I’m suffering for Jesus, my motives are selfish and prideful.
Jesus said, “*Beware*.”
4.     Look what He said next: “…*otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven*.”
You might find it very rewarding to receive the praise and admiration of people, but that’s all the reward you’re going to get.
The obvious implication here is wonderful!
It’s life-changing!
Don’t miss it.
If you do your acts of righteousness with the right motive, you do have a reward with your Father who is in heaven!
We’ll talk about this more in a few weeks when we look at v.20, but for now, let me just read that verse to remind you that there is such a thing as eternal reward and Jesus consistently held it out as a proper motivation for righteous living: “*But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal*…”
5.     In this one verse, Jesus gives us a synopsis of where He’s headed: He’s telling us to do our acts of righteousness with the right motive, for the right audience, for the right reward.
B.    Look at Jesus’ first illustration in vs.2-4: Giving.
1.     I’m well aware that many people think preachers are only interested in money.
I also know there’s some pretty good reasons why people think that.
If someone’s only contact with a “preacher” is television, it’s easy to see how they could get that idea.
Most preachers on TV are part of the Faith or Word-Faith Movement.
This movement teaches that the human mind and tongue contain a supernatural power.
So—the Faith preachers teach—we can speak whatever we want into existence.
This is also known as the “health and wealth” movement.
2.     I reject that teaching and believe it is flawed on several levels.
We’ll talk more about that another time.
But I want you to know is that there is a lot of false teaching out there on the subject of giving, so it is important that we study and teach this.
We obviously need to be balanced—we can talk about money too much and confuse ourselves about what is really important.
On the other hand, we can talk about it too little and be biblically illiterate on the subject.
Neither is healthy.
Jesus taught about giving in the Sermon on the Mount, so I’m going to teach on the subject this morning.
That’s how I think it should be done—as it comes up in the text—not a hobby horse I get on and ride whenever offerings are down.
3.     I also want you to know that I don’t know what any of you give.
I don’t want to know.
That’s between you and God.
So, if you think I’m focusing all my attention on you this morning as I talk about money, we’ll assume that’s just the Holy Spirit working on you.
4.     What did Jesus teach here in Matthew 6:2-4 about giving?
*“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men.
Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
3 “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees /what is done /in secret will reward you*.
a)    A.
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