Giving Without Hypocrisy
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2011 · 10 July 2011
Take your Bible and look with me again at Matthew 6. It's setting a standard that is so high that none of us can attain it, and yet all of us must and are able to in the confident assurance of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. What the flesh cannot do, God's spirit in us can do.
Jesus came into the world and set a standard that was unheard of to the people of His day. They had a religion, they thought it was biblical, but it was substandard. Their attitude toward mundane things is an inadequate. And their attitude toward their religious activity was inadequate.
Jesus comes to the Pharisees and the scribes and says in effect, "you have lowered the divine standard. And so I have come to reaffirm them. I have come to re-establish that which has always been established in God's mind."
Jesus says the problem of your worship is that it is phony. It's hypocritical. Look at verse 1, "Take heed," or beware, "that you do not your righteousness," your deeds of righteousness, your righteous acts "before men to be seen by them." You're nothing but an actor on a stage doing what you do for the applause of the people who watch.
And He picks out three elements of their religion as examples. One is their giving, two is their praying, and three is their fasting. Their giving deals with others. Their praying deals with God. And their fasting deals with themselves and the mortification of their flesh.
So Jesus really sums up the whole area of religious responsibility. Whatever it is that comes out in their worship, it should be coming from the depths of a pure heart not hypocrisy. Your giving is phony, your praying is phony, and your fasting is phony. And so He really unmasks their hypocrisy.
Through the Sermon on the Mount Jesus drives them to the realization that they're inadequate, they desperately need a Savior, and of course, He will then offer Himself to them. That's the same message He has for you. The world is full of religious people who are lost, religious people whose religion is a masquerade and a facade.
In dealing with this, the first element that He talks about is giving. Matthew 6:2-4, "Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Now when we discuss giving, in our day we open up a real can of worms. I'm sure there has not been a time in the history of the church when there's been a greater bombardment for our money from "Christian causes" than there is today.
We know in the Bible there are two kinds of Christian giving. One is systematic and structured, regular giving to the church and the other one is giving to those in need that you meet at different times in your life. Let us first talk about giving in the church.
We know the Bible teaches tithing. 1 Corinthians 16 tells us that we are the first day of the week to save and store our gift as God has prospered us. And that the believing people are to give every week, not just when you think about it, but we are every week to face the reality of the stewardship of money.
I hope you don't have a negative view about giving. I think that this has been an unpopular subject because it's been abused, number one, and number two, because people have the wrong understanding of what giving is all about.
We have to begin with this; God doesn't need your money. God got along throughout all eternity without your money before He ever made you. That's right. You know, God can do anything He wants. He doesn't need a penny from you.
But the thing you must realize is that you need to give. That's all. Paul essentially said that to the Philippians when He said, I thank you for your offering. I didn't need it, but you needed to give it because when you gave it you put yourself within the framework of God's blessing.
You see, giving is all about being blessed. God says release it that I may multiply it to your account. It's the blessing that is the issue. There's a cycle of blessedness. Look at Proverbs 11: 25. "Whoever brings blessing will be enriched and one who waters will himself be watered.”
Next Proverbs 11:26, is applied to withholding grain. If a farmer withholds the grain and never sows the grain in the ground or never sells the grain to get the money to buy the seed to plant again, he'll starve to death. There is a cycle, right? The whole thing depends upon your faithfulness to sow the seed.
I give, God blesses. Out of the blessing, I give again. And the cycle of blessing goes like that. And what you give God blesses, and when He returns the blessing, out of the blessing He returns you give again. God says to give, because you put yourself in the flow of God's blessing.
Can I give you just eight simple principles to remember in your church giving? Eight simple principles that'll help you to give in a non-hypocritical way and I’ll discuss the second part of giving, which is giving to the needy, next Sunday.
Number one, giving is investing with God. Sometimes you buy things but you get disappointed once you are home and open it. But that isn't how God is. Luke 6:38 tells us, "Give and it shall be given unto you." Good measure, press down and shaken together and running over.
When God gives you can shake His gift box and it still runs over. You don't ever get cheated when you give to God. You see returns the blessing multiplied and whatever measure you measure it shall be measured to you again. So whatever you invest with God that's what you get a return on. Giving is investing with God.
2 Corinthians 9:6 says "If you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly. If you sow bountifully, you reap bountifully." We often use this statement only in a negative way. But it is also true in a positive way. For we not only reap what we sow, we will reap more that what we sow.
Often we see only our seemingly small efforts and feel we aren’t very important. But when the great Kingdom of God "lifts off," we’ll be thrilled to find out that our efforts were essential. Often times only God knows how much is reaped by others from what you sowed. You want a rich life? That's the way to do it.
This principle has been taken to extremes – we hear of all kinds of crazy promises from radio and TV preachers – “Send me 500 dollars and God will give you 1000 dollars back!” This principle is wrongly used so as to make people think it is a way for God to make them rich.
Secondly, giving correlates with spiritual riches. In other words, if you're not faithful in what you do with money, God's not about to give you the true riches. It says in Luke 16:11-12, “If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?”
We don’t give to get richer materially. We give so to be richer spiritually. God chooses the way to bless. It’s all up to Him. But let us recognize how blessed we already are. Giving is nothing more than a natural response to the blessing of God.
What are true riches? Souls, people, ministry, and God is not about to give a strategic ministry to somebody who can't handle money. So your spiritual effectiveness, the dimensions of your spiritual influence will have a lot to do with how you handle your blessings.
Thirdly, giving is to be sacrificial. If there isn't a sacrifice involved it's questioned whether you're even giving at all, giving means there is some sacrifice. David said, "I will not give God that which costs me nothing." That would say nothing to Him. You don't say God here is my gift, I don't need this. It's when you give God that something which you need that you've made a sacrifice.
Jesus lived the life of sacrifice. He sacrificed the glory of heaven. He left that perfect fellowship of the Trinity to come and be a sacrifice for us. And in so doing, He set us an example. He lived simply in order to reach others so that they might be a member of the kingdom of God. He gave liberally and generously. All that He had and was, He gave for our benefit.
Proverbs 3:9 tells us to honor the Lord with our "substance." We normally give to God from our surplus, but He desires our substance. Note how Paul describes our giving partnership in 1 Cor. 16:2, “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.”
Fourth principle, giving is not related to how much you have. People say if I had more, I'd give more. I'm waiting till my ship comes in, then the Lord will hear from me. Your ship won't make any difference in your giving. In fact, you'll probably get on your ship and sail away and indulge yourself like you've always done.
Luke 16:10 says, "He that is faithful in little will be faithful in much. And He that is unjust and little will be unjust in much." It isn't going to change your character to have more. When we give to God’s work, it is an expression of gratitude to a faithful God for all His goodness to us. Solomon tells us in Proverbs that we are to give the first-fruits. This means that we give our best, not our leftovers.
The trend is that the lower incomes give away a higher percentage of their income than those with higher incomes. It ought to be the other way around. But it does reveal the hold that money and possessions have on us, Christians! The more we have, the less we let go.
Giving is not a matter of how much have; it's a matter of where your heart is and what your commitment is. And so we know that the New Testament teaches that giving is investing with God. Giving is to be sacrificial; it's not related to what we have.
Fifth, giving is to be personally determined. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, "As every man purposes in his heart, so let him give." Whatever you purpose in your heart to give, that's between you and God. You are to give prayerfully and you are to give what the Lord lays on your heart.
The Macedonians gave abundantly out of their deep poverty. The Philippians gave because they chose to give out of their heart of love. It is to be a spontaneous act of the heart. It's all personally determined.
Our priorities are going to change for when we give ourselves completely to the Lord, the view of our finances is going to change. We are going to see ourselves as stewards of our possessions more than owners and we are going to want to use them in a way that will please God because He owns it all.
Sixth, we are to give in response to need. We are to be sensitive and listen to needs. In Acts 4 and Acts 5, the early church shared its resources because there were people who had a need. Paul went all through Asia Minor collecting money from the Gentile churches to give to the saints of Jerusalem because their need was great.
In our church we give sacrificially when we know that someone has a real need. God is more concerned with the attitude in your giving than he is in the amount you give. You can also give in a lot of ways that are not always financially.
Have you ever heard the quote from Billy Graham? “God has given us two hands, one to receive with, and the other to give with. We are not cisterns made for hoarding; we are channels made for sharing.” We are to be a conduit of God’s blessings.
Seventh, giving demonstrates love not law. Unbelievers are guided by a life philosophy that promotes selfishness (the attitude that says, “You’ve got to look out for ‘Number One’), a philosophy that models greed (“Take what you can get!”), and a philosophy that assigns importance in dollar figures (“What do you think he’s worth?”).
Some people will never be convinced that giving could be something good other than an act to gain other people’s confidence in order to manipulate, exploit, and victimize them. But it should be an act of love when Christians give. That's why giving has to be cheerful, not grudging and not of necessity only.
Love is not just action. Love is sacrificial action. Love always has a price. Love always costs something. Love is expensive. When you love, benefits accrue to another’s account. Love is for you, not for me. Love always gives; it doesn’t just take.
Number eight, giving is to be generous. The first thing we need to understand is that it is God’s resources, not ours, which enable us to give. Our God is a generous God, after all, our giving, abundant God, gave His Son. That basically changed us all.
By God’s giving from His abundance, we have been transformed by Him. And by that transformation, we are able to lead others to God’s abundance. Remember our new heart and new mind and a new willingness to give to follow His will, and the understanding to give of yourself, so that we will store up treasures in heaven.
There is one thing for sure and that is that you can never out-give God. What you give back to God can never come close to the blessings that He has and continues to pour out on you and your family for the rest of your life. Let us change to become more like Christ who gave everything to us, so we might live, Amen?