When It Is Wrong To Give - [Matthew 6:2-4]

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While I think it's never right to tell jokes from the pulpit, I do think once in a while a story is apropos.
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I don't like to start off every sermon, but maybe once in ten or twelve weeks there'll be a little story, but the story should have a little edge to it or a point.
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And the story goes this way. There was a seven -year -old little girl and she went to church with her parents.
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And she observed everything that was going on, some singing, some special music, pastoral prayer, preaching, and then the offering basket came along and she watched her father put something in it.
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Service ended and on the way home the family was prone to critique the message and the service and everything.
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The mom said, I thought the music this morning was just horrible. The father piped in and said, and the sermon was not only too long, it was downright boring.
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The daughter in the back was listening the whole time and after a few minutes she said, well mom and dad, you've got to admit it was a pretty good show for one dollar.
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The interesting thing is about hypocrisy, it is so insidious, it is so deceitful that it even leaks in to righteous, quote -unquote, religious activity.
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Our hearts are such an idol -making factory, as John Calvin said, that if we're not careful we will do things for God with wrong motives.
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Allegedly for God, but with motives of praise or wanting to be noticed.
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And I'm so thankful that Jesus, our Creator, recognizes our hearts and He gives us instruction.
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And as our hearts began to make these different idols, I think of a factory where you're making widgets and the supervisor just turns up the conveyor belt faster so the widgets have to be made faster and pretty soon you just can't do it fast enough.
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Except the crazy thing is our hearts are making all the same kind of widgets because they're not really some false goddess that you'd buy made out of porcelain in India.
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They would be little mini versions of ourselves. Whenever I go to India my wife always tells me don't bring home some little idol and so of course
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I have to bring home some kind of idol. And I love to teach the kids, I like to bring a little education idol to them and I even said it to John Ramos' daughter this week.
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I said, here's the goddess of knowledge and education. Instead of studying hard this week at school and memorizing things, and for those of you who are older and language paradigms and Latin and all these things, forget all that, just bow down to the little
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Indian goddess for knowledge and education. And they all were, oh we'd never do that, we don't want to do that, oh
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God forbid that we'd bow down to that little god with a kind of broken off hand. I found out my little
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Ganesh goddess, by the way, at home was actually glow -in -the -dark. I found that out this week. I've had that thing for two years and I never knew it was glow -in -the -dark until this week.
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But getting back to the point, I then have illustrated this with children. I said, you know, that's bad but let me show you something worse.
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There's another idol that you all worship and then I have kind of a little blanket and then I make them peek under the blanket and inside the blanket is the worst idol ever.
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Or at least it shows the worst idol ever. And what's under that blanket is a mirror.
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And our hearts just continue to manufacture different versions of the same idol and that is ourselves.
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And thankfully God our creator and God our savior won't let us do that and he's given us instruction in the
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Bible so that we might not do that and we might give all of our worship, that we might give all of our love to our triune
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God. So let's open our Bibles to Matthew 6 this morning as we're marching through Matthew verse by verse and we're in the
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Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6. If you don't have a Bible, there should be a black pew Bible in front of you and you'll need one.
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You're going to be lost without it. Bethlehem Bible Church, because we want to teach the Bible and I believe it should be taught for the most part verse by verse by verse so you can just get the context.
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By the way, I have an ulterior motive dads, to teach your family in what type of Bible teaching fashion?
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Verse by verse by verse. When you read the Bible for yourself if you're single, how should you read that Bible?
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Here a verse, there a verse, everywhere a verse, verse. I mean it's not going to work. I'm trying to model for you how you should study on your own.
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And I think parents you should put your money where your mouth is and this week was costly to me but I think it was a good costly.
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I tell my kids if you read from Genesis 1 -1 to the end of Revelation 22, you read every word
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I will give you $100. And this week I had to pay up my first $100 as Haley finished the entire
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Bible. I was glad for that. And you think how could you pastor? Well you can talk to me after the service if you'd like.
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I want to promote systematic verse by verse reading just like I want to do the teaching. And as we've been going through Matthew, Jesus, the great king of Matthew, as Matthew presents him as the king, not just the king of the
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Jews but the king of the universe, Jesus comes along and he says, you know the Pharisees in chapter 5, they teach certain things and don't you dare believe it.
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Because the Pharisees will teach you that as long as you do the externals, you're fine with God. As long as you have some water thrown on your head or have some kind of ritual bath or give the right kind of things, help the poor enough, etc.,
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you'll be fine with God. And that is a lie that goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 2.
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Nothing we do can make us right with God because we are broken. And our brokenness manifests itself with our hands and our lips and everything else and so we need to be saved from not only our sins but from God who justly and righteously and with holiness judges every sinner.
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If you're not as perfect as Jesus Christ is, with the perfect motive of God's glory in all that you do, with the perfection of loving
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God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, with the perfection of loving your neighbor as much as you love yourself, love your neighbor as yourself, you will fall short of the kingdom of God.
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And God could have just said, you know, okay, I rid myself of you, I've made you upright, you have fallen and I just let you go.
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But Jesus, our great Savior, is on a mission. And His first mission is what kind of mission?
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Seeking and saving mission. He's come to rescue sinners. And part of that rescuing is rescuing them away from the false teachers of the day and then telling the truth from the incarnate
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God Himself. Matthew chapter 5, don't believe what they teach. Matthew chapter 6, don't behave the way they do.
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And the two are connected. These things are linked together because what you believe will flesh out into what you do.
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So He says, don't do either. And then He tells very forcefully the truth to those who want to worship such a king, to be in this great kingdom.
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And the weird thing about all this is, the hypocrisy that Jesus goes after in chapter 6, 1 to 18, has nothing to do with regular hypocrisy.
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It has to do with religious hypocrisy. Doing things back in these days, or the
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Bible days, around the temple and around the synagogues. For all our days, as we think about the principles derived from this, things you do at church.
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Jesus knows we're so sinful, we're so apt to do things wrongly, that it can bleed into the church and He wants pure worship for His Father.
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He wants to guard and be jealous over His Father's glory, so it's not divided up, or divvied up, or somehow diminished.
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So Jesus comes and He's not going to say, well you've got hypocritical motives when you're committing crime, or when you're trying to manipulate people for some business gain.
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But when it comes to the church, when it comes to religious things.
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And today we're going to look at Matthew chapter 6 verses 2 to 4, and this is Jesus trying to root out hypocrisy that's found in almsgiving, or giving.
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And Jesus is going to say, there's a certain kind of giving that the
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Father doesn't want. I find that kind of odd myself. Every time you turn on a
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TV and there's some kind of whacked out religious teacher on there, who says he's a Christian, he's asking for pretty much one thing.
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And what's that one thing? Money. They're always after your money. When I walked into Cumberland Farms yesterday, all
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I wanted was a Diet Mountain Dew, 69 cents, and just drive away happy.
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And then all the scratcher people are in front of you, and they're wanting to scratch. And it's one thing to scratch in your car.
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It's another thing to buy something. Here's $50, and by the way, I need some Marlboros too. And then scratch right there, and then win, and I'm still behind.
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And I'm thinking, this is testing me. And as the lottery plays to people's greed, so too do the false teachers on TV that call themselves
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Christians. Give me money, give me money, give me money. Using greed against them.
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But this morning we're going to look at when it's wrong to give. I'm going to try to make you keep your money unless your motives are pure.
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I don't want your money. God doesn't want your money unless your motives are pure. And so that's what we'll look at today. Matthew 6, verses 2 -5, when it comes to proper motives when you do religious things, specifically when you are involved in giving.
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Next week we'll talk about how God wants no hypocrisy in praying, verses 5 -15.
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And then the weeks after that, we'll look at how God wants to have no hypocrisy for the
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Jewish people when they were fasting. And we'll see if fasting is even for today. Again, I think you might be surprised.
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Matthew 6, verse 1 is the umbrella over all these first 18 verses. Let's read that.
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Matthew 6, verse 1. Jesus says, Never stop being in this state.
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Beware. Don't ever stop bewaring, if you will, of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them.
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To play theater in front of them. Don't do things for other people. At least you can do things for other people, but not so others would be noticed while you're doing them for someone else.
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Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
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As D .A. Carson says, this whole section is the dismantling by Jesus Christ of religious hypocrisy.
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Carson calls it its description and its overthrow. And what's going to have our attention is
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Jesus very directly, very bluntly. I like Jesus because you don't have to wonder what He said.
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You ever met somebody and they said something to you and you go, I'll have to ask my wife. Was that a slam?
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Was that encouragement? I have no idea how to read that person. I dare you to try to find a spot in the
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Bible where you read it and go, I wonder what Jesus meant by that. And it's just like some kind of 5 ,000 pound bowling ball going right down the center, and there you are down by the pins, and it's going to make contact.
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Don't carry the illustration too far. And what
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Jesus does, of course, He's in time, He's incarnate, and so He says to the Jews, there are three things that showed pious behavior, godly things,
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Old Testament things. One was almsgiving, one was praying, and one was fasting. And so today we're going to narrow in on this almsgiving.
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And He's going to warn us that with subtlety, hypocrisy can move in.
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I can look around and say no matter if you're an elder, deacon, you've been here for 50 years, none of us, including myself, is prone to this.
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Otherwise, why would Jesus take so long to address it? Jesus, of course, wants religious things out of us, righteous things.
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He's not saying, you know, lay back and let God and never try anything. He's saying when you do religious things with effort and with verve, make sure you have right motives.
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I like to think of the pietistic circles where they're doing the elementary backstroke. I remember when I took swim class.
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Remember the elementary backstroke? You just kind of float and float a little bit longer.
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And the only way I could rationalize it in my mind was this would be good if I'm ever out in the middle of the ocean and I'm stranded and I have to just float for three days.
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Jesus wants with sweat and toil and God's grace, butterfly when it comes to serving
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God. He wants service, yes, but he wants it with the right motives.
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He wants God to be honored. He wants the Father to receive the glory as we work.
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And we know our hearts are desperately wicked, deceitful above all else. And he says, please, when you worship, don't bring any idols.
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So Jesus says, beware. Don't be noticed by other people. Make that not your point.
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If they see, fine. And then he says, in verses 2 to 4, I'll read the section and then we'll dissect it a little bit.
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Matthew 6, 2 to 4. When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men.
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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
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Father who sees in secret will repay you. This morning
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I'd like to give you four cases where it's wrong for you to give your money to the church, to God, and then one solution.
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Four areas of our lives that we should beware, because if we're not careful, this insidious, deceitful sin of hypocrisy is going to sneak in.
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And then one proactive solution so that we can honor God with our giving. Precaution number one, beware number one, or it's wrong to give your money to the
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Lord when, number one, you give in a way to attract attention to yourself. You give in such a manner that you want the attention for yourself.
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And I just try to make every point that's in the Scripture flesh itself out in the outline.
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My outline I'm hoping to have come straight from Scripture. Don't attract attention to yourself.
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You said that last week, right? Yes, he gives the principle in verse 1, and then 2 to 4 in almsgiving, the same principles are there, and then 5 to 15, same principles.
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And so there's going to be lots of overlap, but now we're getting specifics. Don't attract attention to yourself.
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Do you see what Jesus said in verse 2? When therefore you give alms, he's assuming you're going to do it. Don't sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets.
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Now, back in those days, some Jewish teachers taught, if you give alms, you receive forgiveness. If you give alms to poor people,
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God will give that to some kind of merit account of yours, and so you're going to have less time to pay for your sins.
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There'll be less sins to pay for. I don't think that's what Jesus is after. Jesus is saying, when you give, don't promote it.
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I've been noticing this interesting phenomenon over the last few years. People sell parts of their body or body space to eBay.
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There was a man, I hate to say it, from Omaha, Nebraska, my hometown, who sold his forehead to anyone who would bid the highest on eBay, and he would,
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I mean, if he really was a true believer, it would have been permanent tattoo. But it was a temporary tattoo for 30 days to promote,
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I don't know, Bazooka Joe bubble gum. I don't know who the biggest bidder was, but there were 39 bidders.
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And so when it comes to religious things in church, you don't want to try to advertise it on your forehead, and you don't want to have some kind of sandwich board on.
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Kids probably don't know what a sandwich board is, but you go home and ask your mom. Only if she gave more than a dollar to church.
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Saying, look at me. The offering plate goes by, and you kind of clear your throat a little bit.
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I used to know a person who would give. They'd always tell me how much they were giving. They didn't always say it, but they had their giving envelope.
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They always had their jacket off, and then the giving envelope was kind of always right there. Everybody could just kind of see.
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Now maybe you just don't know how to tuck it in, but if you're doing that so everybody goes,
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Jim's giving today, it's a lot of money. This is religious things. Now think about religion being between you and God.
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This is a vertical relationship. Why get the horizontal between you and other people involved in worship before God?
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It's to God. And Jesus is saying, whether it's back 2 ,000 years ago or today, ostentatiousness is not going to do anything.
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It's going to get in the way. Yes, Moses said, give alms and money to the poor.
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Leviticus 25, it says, Now in a case a countryman of yours becomes poor, and his means with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.
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So whether it was food, money, clothing, anything, somebody's poor, especially in these days as an
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Israelite, be charitable, but don't go around bragging about it. Jesus says,
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I know you will do it. I'm concerned how you do it. Deuteronomy 15, You shall not send him away empty -handed.
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You shall furnish him liberally from your flock. You shall give to him as the
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Lord your God has blessed you. All over the Scriptures you see, God is concerned about the poor, and when there's some kind of alms giving to the poor, or giving, we could extend the principle to the local church, to have the right motives, and the motive is never for us.
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So much so that Jesus here uses singular language. He's talking on the Sermon on the
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Mount, He's talking to many people, and He often uses plural language, ye, for you old
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King James folks. He doesn't do that in this section right here. When you, singular, personally, when you give, application for you,
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I'm concerned about how you give. Whether you eat or drink or give alms to the poor, you do all for the glory of God.
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If you go back to 5 .7, chapter 5, verse 7, Of course be merciful, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
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If somebody has a need and you meet that need, that's a good thing, but Jesus wants to guard our hearts from doing it in a way that would sound a trumpet.
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Can you imagine? Let's just picture this for a minute. I used to play trumpet, by the way, growing up, and the mouthpiece was too small, and the notes were too difficult, and anything past one and a two,
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I never got, so I switched to the tuba. And so, I remember the first day, I carried the tuba home from elementary school to just show
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Mom and Dad. Well, can you play something for us, son? That was before the theme to Jaws existed, so I could play nothing.
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Can you imagine? I'm ready to give. The offering plate comes over to me, and I just go, okay, everybody wait.
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Blow the spit out a little bit of the brass, and then I start. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
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There's something. You think, it is so stupid. But the stupid part about it is, that's the way our hearts are.
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That's why Jesus is addressing it. I'll never forget the day, there was somebody at our Bible study in California.
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They said, we'd like to get baptized. This person was in Hollywood, and Hollywood people like to do things in a big way, and they said, you know what,
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I don't want to get baptized at kind of stuffy old Grace Church. I'm going to go down to South Central LA and get baptized there.
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So I said, alright, I'll be there. And I thought it was interesting that they baptized in the name of the Father, and the
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Son, and the Holy Spirit. It was a triple dunk thing, but that's fine by me, as long as it's dunking. I didn't have any problem with that.
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But here's what I did have a problem with. Offering comes by. I didn't really know these people, so I didn't give anything.
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Then all of a sudden, the pastor comes up and stands right there. It was after the offering.
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With a bucket. He said, I've gone through some difficult times, and you should honor your shepherd.
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Double honor as well. The passage in 1 Timothy 5 is talking about money. I've cared for you, and I've prayed for you, and been to the hospital for you.
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What kind of hurting is a family? Now, there's nothing wrong with that so far. I think an elder should say that about a pastor.
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We have a pastor in need. Fine. But he was holding that bucket, and then one by one, the congregation got up in rows, came up and put money into the bucket that that guy was holding.
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Now, you're looking at me like that wasn't too big a deal, but I couldn't hardly stand it. I thought, is there any way to reverse time and undo this kind of triple dunking baptism?
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I just wanted to go back in time. It was just like sounding a trumpet, except reverse.
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These people, Jesus said, they're pretending to give, but one man said, they're intending to receive.
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They're pretending to give to God, but their real intention is to receive honor from other people.
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Wow, they give a lot. Now, whether they really blew trumpets or not, we don't know.
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Some people think they did, but I think this is a figure of speech. Some people said, yes, they really blew trumpets in the temple.
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No resources would tell us that. Some people said, there was a big collection kind of box, but it was designed in such a way that you couldn't reach your hand in and get the money out to steal it.
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And so it was like a big megaphone, and it started wide, and it went down skinny, so you couldn't get your hand down there, kind of like the things at the mall that they have.
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That kind of looked like a trumpet. And you could kind of throw in the money really loudly so people would notice.
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I don't think that's what it is. I think it's just figurative language that Jesus says to the listeners, and now to us, be unassuming, be as secretive as you can.
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If you can get an envelope, put your check in the envelope. Suppress the
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God of self. Slay the God of self. And focus on the glory of God. I read this week that some
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Hindu priest actually have some kind of brass instrument going when it comes to giving.
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Jesus says these people that trumpet are hypocrites. And He says they're going to get what they want.
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They're going to get applause, but that's all they're going to get. And Jesus doesn't say this is something to be proud of, good job, way to go, attaboy.
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He doesn't say any of that. He says stop it, because this can become addicting. Praise, self -praise, praise by others is like heroin when it comes to be addictive.
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And once it gets in your system, you want more and more and more. And so then He says, do you see the text? Don't be like a hypocrite who does this in the synagogues.
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Don't be a person that wears a mask. These people are just actors. They're posers.
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They have outward displays of piety, but inwardly they're self -desirous of all that.
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They're just actors. They're not who they really say they are. They'll deceive you. Don't play that part.
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Don't exaggerate. Don't draw it out. I remember one man, he saved up all his offerings for a long time, so then when he went to the new church, he could give that offering to the new church.
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Now that's not bad, unless you tell everybody about it. Oh, I've got all this extra money to give. When you give, don't talk about it.
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Don't tell anybody. When you give, be thankful that God has given you something to give back for the work of God.
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Eric Alexander asked this question, do you need to be seen by men in order to be faithful to God in service? Number two, it's wrong to give, number one, when you want to attract attention to yourself.
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It's also wrong to give, this is on the flip side of the coin, when you want to get honor from humans.
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These go together, but I'm breaking them apart for emphasis. They're tied together, but what was implicit in the text
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I want to make very explicit. Don't give in a way to get honor from men, because we want
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God to receive the glory. God's kingdom, God's name, because of God, we're here.
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And so he says, in the middle of verse two, that they may be honored by men. I did a quick word study of honor.
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Let me give you some synonyms where this word honor in the Greek is used elsewhere in the text, and it just brings home the point.
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I'll just read a verse, Matthew 5 ,16. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify, that's the word, your
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Father who is in heaven. Don't give and tell everybody about it so you receive the glory.
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Let me give you another word found in Romans 11 ,13. But I am speaking to you who are
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Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry.
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God, I'm going to give to you so I might be magnified. It's just crazy. We're sinners.
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We're created. We're finite. We're fallen. With Paul, we say, in our flesh dwells no good thing.
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This may be irreverent. I'm not sure, but I wrote in my notes that the Trinity is complete and is not taking applications.
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Can you imagine the God of the universe and you go, the spotlight is a little too much in the center of the triune
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God. I think if I kind of give a few centavos, I kind of get the spotlight on me.
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It'd never be. No one here in this room deserves honor from God.
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No one deserves honor from other people as we do things for God. I have some questions for you and if you can answer these, then we'll sing a praise song to you immediately after I give you these quotes.
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If you can answer, I've done these things and I've accomplished these things, then we're going to take, and He is exalted and we're going to put your name in there.
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We're going to say, trying to think of somebody's name that doesn't really exist here, so you don't think I'm trying to pick on somebody.
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Anybody here named Rocky? Rocky is exalted. He is exalted on high and we will praise
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Rocky. If you can answer any of these questions in the affirmative, we're going to sing a praise song for you right after this.
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Have you ever in your life commanded the morning and caused the dawn to know its place? That it might take hold of the ends of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it?
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Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the deep darkness? Have you understood the expanse of the earth?
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Tell me if you know all this. Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place?
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Have you entered the storehouses of snow? Or have you seen the storehouses of hail? Which I have reserved for the time of distress, for the day of war and battle.
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Where is the way that the light is divided? Are the east winds scattered on the earth? Who has cleft a channel for the flood?
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Or a way for the thunderbolt? Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew?
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From whose womb has come the ice and the frost of heaven? Who has given it birth?
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Can you lead forth a constellation in its season and guide the bear with their satellites? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens or fix their rule over the earth?
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Can you lift up your voice to the clouds so that an abundance of water will cover you? Can you send forth lightnings that they may go and say to you, here we are?
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Who has put wisdom in the innermost being or has given understanding to the mind? Who can count the clouds by wisdom or the tip of the water jars of the heavens when the dust hardens into a mass and the clouds stick together?
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Who prepares for the raven its nourishment when its young cry to God and wander about without food?
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Where was that taken from? Job chapter 38. Job has all these questions for God and God said,
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I've got a few questions for you. And Job, you're fallen and you're finite and I am the one who is to be honored.
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And Job's response was, Job's response is a good model for any of us that would seek to rob the glory from God.
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Therefore, I have declared what I did not understand things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Therefore, I retract and repent in, say it, dust and ashes.
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We can't forget, Jesus says, the reason for doing religiously righteous things.
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No self -sacrifice, no self -graduation, no self -promotion, no self -glory.
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Just like Jesus Christ, all for the Father's glory. Augustine said, the love of honor is the deadly bane of true piety.
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Other vices bring forth evil works, but this brings forth good works in an evil way.
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Don't you want to run from that? I watched Jesus just scald these hypocrites and I just say to myself,
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God, I never want to be like that, don't you? Make me run from that. I don't want the wing of a church named after me.
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If you do it when I'm dead, fine. Don't even do it then. I don't want some plaque in the library that's got my name on it.
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Number three, it's wrong to give, number one, when you want attention.
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It's wrong to give when you want honor from humans. Number three, it's wrong to give when you want to reward now and not in heaven.
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When you want to reward now and not in heaven, it's wrong to give. I saw a commercial the other day for cereal packets to go.
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Wasn't cereal invented so you could not have to make breakfast and now you've got cereal packets to go. I thought
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I'd better do a little research so I don't see anything wrong from the pulpit. And I found out that here's the origin of cereal, just this is for free.
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Clergyman Sylvester Graham wanted to have a vegetarian diet and so he made the Graham Cracker.
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And then the Seventh -day Adventist said, you know what, that's a good idea and we can have meat or eggs for breakfast. So we want to have something that has some nutrition and so let's make cereal.
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Founded the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1860. I did find this interesting too, just for a freebie.
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At this institute, later known as the Battle Creek Sanitarium, physician John Harvey Kellogg also invented some more cereal.
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But I'm digressing. Everybody wants things now. You see computers faster.
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How fast, I don't know, but faster than yours is what I want. I even see that commercial on TV. My better is better than your better, or whatever they say.
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Here, fast. We have apoplexy, if we have to wait in line. The other day I was at Hannaford and I stood there and I thought, this sign says 12 or less and I stood there and I had 14.
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I thought the person behind me was going to kill me because I had 14 things and I wanted to say, well, I have four of all the same
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SKU, they're just these little 25 -cent Dorito bags and I'm thinking, man, just fast and have everything now or else.
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The same heart that wants that wants rewards now and so that kind of heart, Jesus says, don't have it.
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Look at what He says at the end of verse 2. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. There's nothing beyond applause from humans.
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It's done. It's paid in full. No future reward. Nothing extra. Jesus says, deprive yourself so there'll be a better reward from a better audience.
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He says, they have their reward. By the way, it's an interesting, it's a commercial term for receipt. When I drive on the pike and I'm going to go for church ministry,
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I give the guy a couple bucks and I say, I'd like a receipt please. This is the word Jesus uses for a technical commercial receipt.
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They've got their receipt of equal, fair, just value.
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Jesus doesn't say, do it now and enjoy yourself. He's just saying, don't do it now. And it's not 25 % on earth and you get 75 % in heaven.
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It's not 75 % on earth and you get 25 % in heaven. It's take it now 100 % or take it later 100%.
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Make your choice. Choose this day who your audience is.
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Clare Ferguson said, when such men are seen by their fellows, then God writes over their lives paid in full.
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Jesus said, don't use the poor to promote yourself. That sounds like celebrities or something. A live aid.
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Who knows what it is. And look at how He uses the language. Verily I say to you, truly, 32 times in Matthew, more than any other gospel times too, don't do this.
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Expect nothing if you're going to act this way. Praise of men. Here's how I describe praise of men.
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Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. And isn't it true for us as Christians that God Himself is our reward?
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When I think of someone who wanted his satisfaction right away at the expense of the future,
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I think of one man and he should repulse us. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 25 and I want to show you this quick story of Esau.
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Esau. Genesis chapter 25 -28 and I want to give you an illustration of a man who wanted everything now and how the
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Scriptures don't look with affirmation upon that.
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Genesis chapter 25 -28 Esau. I don't hear too many parents that name their kids
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Esau, by the way. Maybe there's one out there and I guess it's better than Ichabod. But Genesis chapter 25 -28
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Now Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
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And you can imagine in an environment like that, in a crockpot cauldron like that environment, that certainly there was going to be a struggle and problem between the boys.
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Verse 29 When Jacob had cooked stew, Jacob came in from the field, and he was famished.
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One thing I notice about that verse is the minimal details. There's hardly any details in there.
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It doesn't tell me the time. It doesn't tell me the situation. It doesn't tell me the reason. It doesn't even tell me what's in the stew.
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You know, you're going to think it's these big chunks of meat. Some kind of good roast beef in there. Esau's name's
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Red. He liked some big red raw meat back in the day where they couldn't get a lot of meat. We are not told.
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He came in from the open country. Not too good of a hunting trip this time. Didn't get anything, and he was famished.
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And here's a man who lived for his belly. And here's a man whose life was summarized by Solomon.
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I'm going to eat and drink and be merry. That's my life. That's my character.
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And literally, he's got this kind of attitude. Well, we can just look at the text.
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He said to Jacob, please let me have a swallow of that red stuff for I'm famished. For his name was called
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Edom. Let me gulp some of that stuff down. I'm so hungry I could die. I'm so hungry
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I could eat a horse. Why do I make that accent when I say that? 31.
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Jacob replied, First, sell me your birthright. In the
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Hebrew, it's no please. It's emphatic to me. It's right away.
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I think that he knew all this was going to happen someday because he knew the character of his brother. And this was premeditated.
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This was planned. He was going to exploit his brother and get this great honor.
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And everybody thought that Esau was some great hunter. But the real hunter was Jacob as he lays this trap.
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And here is the bait. And he's hunting for the blessing.
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The blessing that would not only give the double inheritance, but the blessing that would make him the family priest, that would give him the family power, that would give him the family honor.
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And he laid in wait and here we go. Got it. Gotcha.
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It's like you put that line in the stream and you can feel that fish bite and then you rip it up.
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Hook right through the mouth. Look, I'm about to die. What good is this birthright to me? Jacob said,
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Swear to me first. So he swore an oath to him selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave
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Esau some of his bread and now we finally get to hear what the stew is. Some of the big old, you know, there's tenderloin in there all chopped up and a bunch of asparagus in there and just all kinds of butter and garlic and you just think something is just good.
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But this godless man, this immoral man, wasted.
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Verse 34, Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew.
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I mean, Kim's a great cook, but she makes a mean lentil stew. It's my favorite dish.
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Lentil stew! He ate and he drank and then got up and left. You can just hear the language. He ate and he drank and he got up and he left.
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So Esau despised his birthright. Going down in the annals of history, unfaithfulness, wanting things now, shaming
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God as He had set up this family inheritance and birthright. Hebrews 12 has a little comment here.
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See that no one is sexually immoral or godless like Esau who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.
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Now let me just morph these two concepts together. Matthew 6 and Genesis 25. See to it that no one is hypocritically religious who for a single applause from a man sold his eternal reward from God.
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Let's go back to Matthew. Let's not do that.
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Forget now. Let's think long term. When you give, just don't tell anybody.
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But you know what? If you give and don't tell somebody, you know what we could be tempted to do? Tell ourselves.
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Boy, we're such a good giver. We drive home and you go, I didn't tell anybody. I didn't clear my throat when
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I gave. I didn't go down and play the piano. I didn't play the trumpet. I just gave. I know Mozambique could use about another ten grand.
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I didn't tell anybody. I just wrote my name really small. By the way, the offering counters in there, they're supposed to just tear off the part over here to see the number.
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That's all they see. And only one man should know all the different details. And that's a big responsibility for one man,
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I think, who bears it well. Fred. Somebody is going to see, but Fred needs to just suppress all that stuff like he does a good job of doing.
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But you say to yourself, I give and I don't tell anybody. Nobody knows. Jesus knows that those kind of people are tempted to pat their own selves on the back.
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Number four. Number four. It's wrong to give when you attract attention to yourself.
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It's wrong to give when you want honor from others. It's wrong to give when you want your reward now. And it's wrong to give when you want to revel in your generosity later.
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Verse three. Oh, you're going to like this. I just looked at my watch. I'm not going to like that.
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Here we go. When you give alms or when you give to the poor, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.
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What does that mean? Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. What does that mean?
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Don't tell your wife. That's what I used to think. I can't tell Kim. Secretly giving.
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An Arabic proverb said that it was the left hand that stood for one's best friend.
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So don't tell your best friend. Is this just kind of language? What is this?
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But what Jesus is going to say is you don't want to have other people praise you. You want all the glory for God.
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And you don't even want to praise yourself after you give. Don't think about it any longer. Give so completely and totally that you're unaware of other people.
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I think of this text of men and women who are unaware that they did something great for God. Then the righteous will answer
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Him, Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You or thirsty and give You something to drink? And when did we see
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You a stranger and invite You in or naked and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and come to You?
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Matthew 25 .40 says, The king will answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.
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Forget about yourself is what Jesus is saying. When you do something, don't do it for other people.
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And when you're driving home or you're at home someplace, just forget about yourself. Forget about yourself.
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Don't gloat. Don't preen. Don't tivo yourself giving. Don't digitally record yourself.
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Then you can just kind of watch yourself. You know, it's like you get a digital camera and you set it up on a tripod and you write the check out.
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Bethlehem Bible Church. Pastor's Relief Fund. Don't.
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Mozambique Fund. Mozambique Fund. Okay, I've got to get the right angle.
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And you tape it all and you go turn it off and you just play it a few times. The way
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I wrote that check is like I really meant it. I used my best cursive. Man, one zero was hard, but I forced myself for another zero and then another zero.
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Oh man, maybe I should take calligraphy or something. I am just...
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Jesus is trying to emphasize. Refrain telling other people and doing it for them, but also refrain from your own self -deceit that turns into humility.
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Don't let your left hand even know what your right hand's doing. Don't watch yourself. Don't even pay attention.
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These things usually work in conjunction. The brain controls both. I operate them the same. If I pick up something,
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I use both hands. If I move something, I use both hands. And they use their hands in this aggregarian culture.
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They just did things together. So he's saying when it comes to giving, don't... This is a force, but I think you get the idea.
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Don't clap for yourself. Because these hands are just working independently. Of course, you have to use your hand to give something to the poor or give something to the local church.
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But forget the freeze -frame, slow -mo, self -altruistic replay. Jesus is basically saying this.
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When you give, start trying to actively incorporate spiritual dementia into your life.
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Forget it. If there's a ginkgo biloba that's supposed to be for your memory, then take the anti -ginkgo biloba.
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You don't want to do that. You don't want to kind of give a standing ovation for yourself. Who said this?
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It is more blessed to give than receive. Who said it? Jesus Christ, Acts 20.
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And you know what God's going to do? He's going to do something wonderful.
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For those who forget after they give, for God loves a forgetful giver, God does something wonderful.
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When is it wrong to give? When you attract attention? When you want honor from humans? When you want your reward now?
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And when you want to revel in your generosity later? So what cure does God give? Found in verse 4.
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Here's the solution. Here's Jesus in all His goodness and kindness. If Jesus gives the greatest gift, death on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for sinners, and then raises from the dead to show that He has victory over Satan, sin, death, and hell, wouldn't
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He give us everything else including instruction, including help so we don't wander around?
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Of course He would, and He does that here. It says in verse 4 that your alms may be in secret.
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And when they are, your heavenly Father who sees in secret will maybe repay you.
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Will, once in a while, repay you. Will, when He doesn't have
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Alzheimer's, repay you. Will, when He's not paying attention to everybody else who's doing the wrong thing, repay you.
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Proverbs 19 .17 says that when one is gracious to a poor man and lends to the
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Lord, He will repay him. God will repay him for his good deed. God will not miss one of the elect to get to heaven and He won't miss one reward done with good motives for other people that are done in secret.
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Not one. Not one. I love it when my kids do something and they turn over and they want to look to see if I saw it.
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They say a woman who's pregnant kind of glows. Do you know a father when he sees his son do something well or a daughter do something well?
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What happens to his face? I should have done it harder. Should have thrown it farther.
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Should have been on your tiptoes with the ballerina thing a little higher. That's to the daughter. Should have done something.
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What does the dad do? If the dad's got any clue, the dad's up there in the stands going, Yeah! Smiling! There's only one time
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I looked at my dad in the stands when I was playing basketball and I wanted something besides a smile. And this is when
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I was in a 5 foot and under league. I was in 5th grade. I was a center jumping. We went to a really rough part of town and the other guy came up to me and I just thought,
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Hey, you know, how you doing buddy? He didn't shake my hand and he said, If you won't let me win the jump, I'm going to kill you after the game.
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I thought, Well, it's a 5 foot and under league. He's not that big. And so I looked over at my dad and my dad was 6 '4", 240 and I thought,
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Dad, this is the time where I don't want you to smile. I want you to go, I'd crush that other 5 foot boy in a heartbeat.
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Jumped my hardest and by the way, I lost the tip. But when you look to the stands, you want to see the smile.
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And you know what kind of scripture language is used when God looks with pleasure upon His people?
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It's the best language. I love this language. I looked up every place this is used. And I'm just going to read these and I won't tell you where they're from yet.
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You're going to have to study on your own. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
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The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Make your face, God, shine upon your servant.
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God, cause your face to shine upon us. Restore, O God, cause your face to shine and we shall be saved.
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Restore us, O God of hosts, cause your face to shine and we shall be saved. Restore us,
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O God of hosts, cause your face to shine and we shall be saved. Two other places it's used.
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Nothing escapes the pleasure and the countenance of God as He sees a reward done for the sake of the
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Son, for the sake of His glory. And He will reward when He sees that work done in secret.
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Do you see your text? In crypto. That's where we get the word crypt. When something's done in a crypt, it's done in secret.
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When you do something in a secret way, God will reward you. God won't say paid in full on earth.
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You did it for other people. You did it for Me. And I noticed that. And I will gladly repay you.
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So much so, that I might use your gift on earth to help people and then I'll double give
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My eternal rewards. Not just of knowing Me, but knowing Me more intimately. That's what
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I believe rewards are. I don't think you get a bunch of rewards and put them in a big bag and carry them around. Maybe there are some that you get and cast at the feet of Jesus.
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But I think as the rewards increase, the metaphor of rewards in the text, it gives you an increased appreciation of God when you get to heaven.
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You might like classical music and I might like it, but the trained ear appreciates it more than the untrained ear.
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And I believe as God is gracious to give us rewards, that reward is manifest in heaven and increased appreciation for God Himself.
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Whatever the reward is, God will give it to those. I never think about God this way unless I read the
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Scriptures. But in Jude, it says that God is to present us before His presence without fault and with great joy.
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My question to you is, whose joy is that? Will you have joy in heaven? Yes. But this text is talking about God is going to have joy when you stand in heaven.
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Jesus, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross. I love that, that God would have joy when
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I gave. Spurgeon has a little devotional called, Giving Without a
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Whisper. And then God's going to give with a big bang in heaven.
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Well, to wrap it up, somebody said there's three kinds of giving. Grudge giving, duty giving, and thanksgiving.
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And I would add another one, giving to the Father. When you realize you have a Father who's good, you work for Him.
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You serve Him in His lavish provision and blessing. Satan says God's a miser.
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Back in the garden, God says I'm your Father. I give good gifts.
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And my eyes move to and fro throughout the earth that I might strongly support those whose heart is completely mine.
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Work for the reward. No, work for the Lord and the rewards will take care of themselves.
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God does not reward those who earnestly seek rewards. I believe He rewards those who earnestly seek
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Him as a Father. Well, Jesus knows these things won't come naturally, so therefore
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He tells us in Scripture through His servant Matthew. And I would be wrong to not conclude this sermon by saying this.
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I know we have many visitors today. Some visitors might say, well, you know what? Christians are all hypocrites.
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It's true. But Jesus doesn't want His followers to be hypocrites. And by the way,
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I don't want you to follow the hypocrites in this church. There's only one person who's not a hypocrite and it's not you.
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It's Jesus Christ who never did anything hypocritically in His entire life and therefore we want you to follow
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Christ Jesus. One day you're going to stand before God. You're going to die. I do funerals all the time and you will be in that case.
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Your body will be in that casket. But your soul will be standing before the living God and it will never do, if I could just shock you, some kind of little trite comment to God like saying, you know what?
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I never believed in you because of all these hypocrites were in the church. That kind of language, friends, will damn you.
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Because it's not comparison in heaven. It's you and a thrice holy God. And God will give you what you have earned on earth which is called hell forever unless you'll bow your knee and kiss the sun.
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You will perish. Jesus is the only one who perfectly lived these commands. Therefore, He can be our perfect substitute.
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You don't live that life so you cry out to God and say, God, I sinned. I could never do that. And some little patty cake shenanigans going on by saying,
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I'm going to have my head sprinkled when I'm a baby. Please, spare me.
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That's not what God says. God said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. He didn't say, do something.
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He said, believe in the Son. And so, that's the only hope for those today who say, you know what? Here's another sermon about giving.
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Here's another sermon about hypocrites. But I want to point you today to the only hypocrite that never was a hypocrite.
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Who would that be? Jesus was never a hypocrite. I misspoke. Jesus is the one who was never the hypocrite.
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And He's the only one that can save you. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for our day. Lord, in a room this size, there have to be some who are here for anything but worship.
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Maybe they think they're worshiping. Lord, it would be our heart's desire to use these words, these scalding hot words of Jesus about hypocrisy, to drive them away from themselves to the
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Savior. And we are thankful that You saved to the uttermost those who believe in Christ Jesus. We're thankful that You've not come to destroy and to judge this time around, but Your Son came to save.
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You're by nature a good God, a saving God. I pray that You'd use these words to open the eyes of those who have in their mind an idea that they can save themselves and to be good and to do better.
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God, rescue them from that thinking, even using the words of Christ Jesus to drive the hypocrisy out of our hearts.
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And for us, Lord, would You please forgive us. Would You please help us to do everything that Jesus Christ may be praised.