Matthew 6:21-24¹

I. Introduction

We live in a shaky economy.

Right now we’re going through some difficult economic times. But as we saw last week, it doesn’t matter whether the economy is good or bad—it is always shaky. We cannot depend on it.

Last week we began a four-part series on finding financial security in a shaky economy.

II. Choose the Right Bank

You have a choice.

Jesus says, Don’t store up treasures for yourselves on earth,
because in the world bank, your deposits disappear.

But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven,
because in Spiritual Trust and Savings, your deposits are guaranteed.

This week: You have to make a choice.

III. Stick with long-term investments.

Let it ride.

You can’t have it both ways.

Why? Three reasons.

The pursuit of money affects your attitude, your understanding, and your actions.

IV. Single Heart

Wealth can change your devotion.

It’s a heart issue. Core. Your heart can’t go both ways.

Treasures—not on earth, but in heaven
Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

HEART: center of the personality; mind, emotions and will
concerns, interests, feelings, what is valuable to you
what you devote your time to
subtly controls the direction and values of the whole person

1 Timothy 6:9-10 (NIV) People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.

[10] For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Ecclesiastes 5:10 Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.

V. Single Vision

A. Wealth can change your perception.

There is no guidance in materialism. Your focus can’t go both ways.

B. Wealth can change your sense of direction.

Matthew 6:22-23 The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.

We use our eyes to find our way.

good = single, undivided loyalty, generous

single: no ulterior motive

[23] But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

evil eye = doesn’t work, Jewish metaphor for stingy, envious, greedy

eye brings person light

double vision = blind

Walking in the dark in the middle of the night.

Proverbs 18:10-11 (NIV) The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. [11] The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall.

Where there is no light, there can be no sight.
no clear vision, direction or orientation
morally and spiritually blind, plunged into moral darkness
materialism is a life of moral darkness
life in the dark. whole person groping around in the dark
selfish materialism gives no light toshow the way
no proper interpretation of true worth.
distorted view of material things is a distorted view of life as a whole
false set of goals
faulty vision results in wrong action
Actions that are wrong no longer appear wrong.
Thinking about the bottom line instead of thinking about God or people.

vs. a purposeful life, directed towards its true goal

see things clearly and in correct proportion.

If what is supposed to provide you with light, does not,

how great is the darkness

in the attic with a flashlight without batteries

Having difficulty finding your way in life? Finding God’s direction.

Sometimes it is difficult to find. But one thing that might be standing in the way: is your spiritual perception clouded by double vision.

Does money become a major issue in whether or not you will follow God?

Reader's Digest (Jan. 2004) survey of readers, "How Honest Are You?"

• 17% Cheated on your tax return
• 18%Misstated facts on a resume
• 32% Lied to their spouse about the cost of a recent purchase
• 37% Downloaded music from the Internet without paying for it
• 50%received too much change but did not tell the cashier
• 63% Called in sick at work when not ill
• 63%Taken office supplies from the company for personal use

VI. Single Allegiance

Wealth can change your dedication.

Slavery, dedicated service, is single by definition.

Your commitment can’t go both ways. Obedience

Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and Money.

Mammon means money

impossible to be slave to two (not employee)

outcome: hate

not feelings or emotion, but a decision to favor one over the other

comparative. Displaced by a higher loyalty

degrees of loyalty

he will neglect one of them while trying to please the other

forced to choose

Will find himself stooping to all kinds of evil practices.

can’t be godly and greedy at the same time

often must choose between profit and principle

1 John 3:17 (NIV) If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

Luke 18:18-24 (NIV) A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" … [22] Jesus …said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

[23] When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. [24] Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!

Money is neutral, but it can be corrupting in

1) how it is gained,

2) how it is regarded and

3) how it is used.

attitude

understanding

action

VII. Where is Your Loyalty?

We live in a world that operates on money. But the pursuit of wealth and the accumulation of wealth can have negative spiritual consequences. Specifically, it can warp our perception of reality and compete for our devotion to God (which should be wholehearted). We need to have a singularity of focus on God’s kingdom and never allow money to dilute our loyalty to God.

¹ Copyright © 2004 by Lewis B. Bell III. This is the edited manuscript of Lesson 2 in the Kingdom Economy series delivered by Chip Bell at Fellowship Bible Church Arapaho in Dallas, TX on September 19, 2004. Anyone is at liberty to use this lesson for educational purposes only, with credit.

Matthew 6:31-34¹

Introduction

What does your faith mean to you?

For many, it’s a comfort. In a crisis, facing a death, their faith sustains.

For some, it’s a tradition. It ties them back to their roots.

For some, faith is their fire insurance policy. It keeps them out of hell.

For many, faith is a nice activity to round out their interests. Everybody needs a little religion. It helps them to be a balanced person. Church is a great place to make some friends, hear some good music, and hopefully hear an interesting speaker. You should go sometime, if it’s convenient.

But for how many of you is your faith your reason for living?

Is your faith the reason you get up in the morning? Is it the major focus of your activities, your words, and your thoughts? Does it occupy the majority of your time when you’re not at work or taking care of living life? And even then, do your thoughts keep drifting back to issues of faith?

You know what? That’s how important your faith is supposed to be.

One other thing. God’s instructions make it clear that your faith is not something that you work out just between you and God. Your faith is meant to be carried out in the context of relationships with other believers. In other words, in a local church. That is the main context in which you pursue God’s purposes for your life: worship, fellowship, discipleship, and service. So for how many of you is your church a priority in your life? Does it occupy the majority of your discretionary attention, time, conversation, thoughts and resources?

Series: Finding Security in a Shaky Economy

Today we’re finishing a series about how to find security in a shaky economy. This is part of our study of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5-7, called the Sermon on the Mount.

We live in an unpredictable, unstable shaky economy. It’s always that way, though sometimes we’re aware of how unreliable it is and sometimes we’re not.

The Bible teaches that there is a way to find true financial security even in the midst of our shaky economy. And we’ve been examining four biblical principles about how to do that.

1. Choose the Right Bank.

First, it’s important to choose the right bank. Jesus says we can either keep our treasures here on earth, where they slowly disappear and eventually burn up in a great fire at the end of the world, or we can deposit our resources in heaven where they will last forever. We can use our earthly resources to invest in things that will last forever: loving people and helping them find and follow Jesus, developing the character of Christ in our lives, promoting and building God’s kingdom. Treasures on earth or treasures in heaven: we have a choice. One is secure forever. The other is not.

µ 2. Stick with long-term investments.

Second, stick with long-term investments. Jesus says, everyone has to make that choice between earth and heaven. Everyone needs to use money, but if you try to find your security in money, then it’s impossible to find your security in God. You must choose between them. Otherwise it will compromise your values, distort your spiritual perception and corrupt your behavior. You can be loyal to only one or the other.

3. Count on social security.

Third, count on social security. That doesn’t mean the social security of the federal government, but rather the security of God’s kingdom. Somehow God manages to take care of birds and flowers and you know what? He can also take care of the things we need like food and clothing. So instead of worrying about whether we’ll have enough to get by, we need to trust God to take care of us. When we worry, we’re really saying that we don’t think God is up to the task of taking care of us. It’s a lack of confidence in God’s abilities. We find true security by trusting God.

4. Make saving a priority.

Today we come to our fourth and final principle for finding financial security in a shaky economy. We need to make saving a priority. Of course, the kind of saving I’m talking about is not accomplished by putting your money in the local bank. It’s only what we invest in eternity that will last forever and will bring us true security. And Jesus says not only that we should invest in eternity (that’s what we studied the first week), but here in today’s verses,

First Things First

He says you need to make investments in God’s kingdom your number one priority. It’s vitally important to put first things first. And the only thing that belongs in first place is God’s Kingdom.

God knows your needs. (31-32)

We’re going to start with where we left off two weeks ago. Remember that Jesus has just reminded us of how well God takes care of birds and flowers. He’s reminded us of just how little we can accomplish by worrying about our needs. So he says,

Matthew 6:31-34 [31] So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'

[32] For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

When we recognize God’s abilities, we can be confident that God knows what we need and that he will take care of us.

Two weeks ago, we missed out on our clip from “Joe verse the Volcano”.

So today, I’d like to play it. Told he has only months to live, Joe’s been hired to jump into a volcano to appease the gods and rescue an island civilization from destruction.

[Clip from “Joe verses the Volcano”]

OK, this is a little farcical, but I think it makes the point. These two characters represent two basic approaches to life. Meg’s character is sure that, no matter what setbacks and disappointments they face, everything is going to work out all right. How? She’s not sure. But it will. Tom’s character is pretty sure that everything is going to be a disaster. So to him, the setbacks and disappointments are proof that they are headed for sure catastrophe. For him, it’s always going to be something.

Now of course, there’s a huge difference between this movie and the Christian faith. These people are putting their confidence in an unseen force and really good luggage. Some people trust in chance or in their intellect or in their own abilities or in their savings. But for the Christian, our confidence depends on what we know about God and his abilities.

To some, our confidence is going to look like wishful thinking, foolish and unrealistic. But confidence in God’s abilities based on faith is anything but foolish. In fact, it’s actually foolish to put our confidence in anything else.

Make his kingdom your priority (33)

That’s why Jesus concludes his teaching about security with these astounding words:

[33] But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Each of us needs to establish what will be the priority of our lives. And Jesus tells us here what that priority should be. It actually has two parts.

God’s Kingdom. And God’s Righteousness.

These two ideas have been central themes in the Sermon on the Mount that we’ve been studying since January. But in case you weren’t here when we started or you don’t remember, let’s talk about them.

God’s Kingdom is his invisible government over each of us and over the whole world. One day, it’s going to be a visible government and it will be completely established, but right now, it’s actually already begun in the lives of each of us who have become followers of Jesus. God’s Kingdom is God’s work here on earth—His work in our lives and in the lives of the people around us. Remember Jesus started this teaching with the words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Or, If you’re spiritually bankrupt, congratulations! You’re just the kind of person who belongs in God’s Kingdom.”

Righteousness means innocence, a right relationship with God undamaged by sin or disobedience. Remember that Jesus taught us that unless our righteousness is greater than the Pharisees then we could not enter the kingdom of heaven. And he talked about a higher standard of righteousness—not just being careful to follow God’s instructions in an external, outward conformity, but also in our innermost thoughts, feelings and attitudes. He also told us not to acts of righteousness to show off to people how spiritual we are, but to do them solely to honor God.

Here in 6:33, Jesus comes to a climax of sorts in his teaching. He says that this kingdom of God that he’s been talking about and this righteousness that he’s been talking about—they need to be the priority of our lives. Our pursuit of this kingdom and this righteousness must take first place.

Why does he mention that here in the middle of a discussion about finding financial security—having what we need to take care of ourselves and our families? I think the reason he does is because so often people allow the quest for financial security to become the priority of their lives. The reason they get up in the morning is not to pursue God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, but rather to go to work, to earn money, to pay the bills, to buy toys, and to set aside savings so that in the future they can pay more bills and buy more toys. For most people, financial security is the number one priority in their lives. But Jesus says, keep your eye on the ball. Instead of chasing after financial security, chase after God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness and let God take care of what you need.

When I was growing up, this verse had a profound impact on my life. Perhaps more than any other verse in the Bible, Matthew 6:33 set the course of my life. I was in my freshman year of premed at UCSD...

When you set your priority on God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, it changes the course of your life. For me, it made the difference of whether I went into medicine. That’s not necessarily the same for everyone. Nothing wrong with medicine. Holly. It may change how you do medicine, and it will certainly change why you do medicine.

Have you made God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness the priority of your life? How has that changed the course of your life?

Don’t worry about your future (34)

There’s one final thought that Jesus adds to this discourse. At the end of chapter 6, he applies this principle to the future. Don’t worry about what you’re going to eat or drink or wear. In fact, don’t worry about anything in your future.

[34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

The idea here is that we can face the challenges of tomorrow whenever tomorrow arrives.

To worry about it now, is inviting more than we can handle.

This follows logically from the previous verse. We need to keep our focus on the kingdom and on righteousness. We should not be distracted by our daily needs and we shouldn’t be distracted by what might happen tomorrow.

Corrie Ten Boom. How could I have the strength to face execution?

God will give you grace just before you need it.

When we deal with the future, we tend to fall off the cart on either one side or the other. Sometimes people’s worry about the future paralyzes them from taking steps of faith because they want to see how it’s going to work out before they’re willing to trust God to work it out. Unfortunately, God doesn’t usually work that way. He frequently calls us to step out without any assurances except that he has promised to provide. How will it work out? I don’t know. But that doesn’t mean that it’s foolish to do it.

The other side people fall off is sometimes they are completely dependent on God doing everything and so they don’t even do what they can do. I think the Bible is clear that as long as we’re doing what is right, that we should do whatever we can do to plan, to prepare, and to work.

God didn’t give us gifts so we’d sit on them. He gave them to us to use to their fullest. Using them means taking some risks and it means working hard. Working hard is not a lack of faith. It’s responding to the opportunities that God has placed before us. Now when we get to the point that something is beyond our control, beyond our foresight, or beyond our abilities, then we need to recognize that God has that part of the job covered. We can’t work. We don’t need to worry. We just have to trust.

Proverbs 16:9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

James 4:13-15 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." [14] Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life?

You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. [15] Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

Sometimes it can be difficult to navigate the difference between when we should be working and when we should be waiting on God. I think it’s kind of an art. It is a often a judgment call based on wisdom and experience. But as you practice following God, I think you begin to recognize that when you run up against things beyond your control, then it’s time to relax and wait for God to do His thing.

What’s Your Priority?

If God’s kingdom isn’t the priority in your life, then you’re not living out the Christian faith the way it was intended to be lived.

Feeling guilty? That’s not my intent. Some of you feel guilty way too easily. “It’s cold.” You feel guilty you didn’t get up and turn down AC.

Guilt can be a good warning from God that something needs to change.

So don’t let me make you feel guilty, but if you’re feeling guilty because God wants you to do something different, then listen to it.

What does it mean to seek God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness? It means to pursue them, to devote our priority time, energy, creativity, wisdom, experience, abilities, physical and financial resources to developing God’s Kingdom and demonstrating God’s righteousness.

This isn’t something you need to do in order to be saved and have a relationship with God. It’s something you need to do BECAUSE you’ve been saved and have a relationship with God.

Deposit Slip

To help us focus in on some specific applications of Matthew 6:33, I’ve got a little tool for you to use. The ushers are passing out some deposit slips for the imaginary institution called Spiritual Trust and Savings.

And I’d like you to take a minute to fill one out. We’re not going to collect this. No one’s going to see this except you and God. But I’d like you to think about the deposits you want to make in your eternal savings account this year. If God’s Kingdom and God’s Righteousness are your priority, then you need to be purposeful about storing up some treasures in heaven.

What kind of things can you deposit? The things that last forever can’t really be counted or even held. They’re invisible. But Paul says,

2 Corinthians 4:18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

So let’s take a few minutes and I’d like each of you to work through this with me and jot down a few words that represent your intentional deposits into your heavenly bank account. Remember, your deposits in heaven are the things that last forever. So first of all, let’s think about

People you wish to impact

• who are the people that you’re building into, serving?
• who are the people that you’re helping find a relationship with Jesus?
• Children, students, neighbors, a co-worker, your spouse?
• Take a minute to write down the people you want to impact this year.

Character traits you wish to build

• What does God want to change in your life? attitudes? traits? habits?
• patience, anger, lust, greed, gossip, integrity, gentleness, compassion
• Take a minute to write down the traits you want to develop this year.

Kingdom services you wish to perform

• time regularly dedicated to worship: is coming to church a priority?
• time in prayer, fasting, regular time to read your Bible
• deliberate steps to fellowship and grow spiritually: join a mini church
• our change in mini church
• outreach opportunities, ways you can serve. Take a minute to write down the steps you want to take this year to build God’s kingdom.

Currency Exchange
Earthly Resources you wish to convert to heavenly resources

• What are you converting from corruptible cash into eternal value?
• Sell something? (like the early church),
• if the kingdom is your priority, does your giving reflect that?
• don’t have to give here, but may I recommend it? This is a great place to give. If you love this church, you should be supporting it so that we can continue to serve people who need to find and follow Jesus.

See this bulletin? You see we’ve got a gap between our expenses and our income. We’re not getting enough each week to cover all our expenses like the mortgage, the utilities and the salaries. You know what? I’m not worried about that. Really. If we need to, we can adjust our staff or our programs. We could always sell off some assets. We can expand or contract as required. What I’m more concerned about is that each of us is supporting this church financially in a way that reflects the fact that God’s Kingdom is the priority of our lives. That’s what’s really important. Take a minute to write down what you want to do this year with your financial resources and God’s kingdom.

I know we didn’t give you much time and maybe you’d like to have some more time to think about these questions. So I encourage you to take these deposit slips home and spend some time this afternoon or this evening thinking through these four areas.

We don’t do usually do this at our church. But I think today it would be appropriate to give you an opportunity to put some legs on the commitments you’ve just made. So in just a minute we’re going to pray and then Jeremy’s going to lead us in a song. And if you’ve made a commitment this morning and you’d like to seal it with some action, I’d like to invite you to bring your deposit slip up to the front here. You can kneel or stand or sit, but bring your slip up here and present it to God. Remember, don’t leave it up here—it’s just between you and him. But sometimes it helps to demonstrate a commitment with a physical action. So if you’ve made a commitment either this morning or sometime before to pursue God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness as the number one priority of your life, and you’d like to express that by coming to the front of the room, then I invite you right now to come forward, find yourself a spot, and talk to the Lord.

Matthew 7:7-11¹

Introduction

Have you ever wanted something really, really bad, only to discover that someone else was standing in your way? When that happens, you just might find yourself living with difficult people.

[clip from “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”]

Series: Living With Difficult People

People can be difficult to live with. And that’s probably never more true that when there’s competition: two people, but only one donut.

Or like here, two people, but only one taxi. No matter what it is, when we have to compete with people for limited resources, they can become really difficult to live with, and so can we.

What is it you really, really want?

If anybody would know about living with difficult people, it would have to be Jesus. When you’re perfect, living with anyone else would be difficult. So, last week we began a look at what Jesus had to say about how to live with difficult people. His words are found in Matthew 7.

Living With Difficult People

We’re taking three weeks to examine three biblical principles—three secrets for successfully living with difficult people.

Last week, we saw the first thing Jesus told us about getting along with each other: we need to guard our thoughts.

1. Guarding my thoughts.

It’s easy to judge each other hastily, to assign motives, and to focus on everything we don’t like about the other person. But when we judge hastily like that, the Bible says that we create an environment of unfair criticism and that we’re very likely to experience unfair criticism directed back at us. Sometimes we judge each other before we’ve had a chance to examine our own hearts and to deal with any sin in our life that could be warping our perception of other people’s faults. There is a place for making judgments—for discernment and discretion. That requires evaluating other people. But those judgments must be made carefully, looking at our own sin, giving other people the benefit of the doubt, asking questions, focusing on their actions, and exercising grace. The judging that is condemning, hasty, that makes generalizations about a whole group, that is based on gossip, assumptions or appearances, and that tries to divine someone’s motives or read their mind—those kinds of condemning judgments have no place in our relationships. And Jesus tells us to stop it. To get along with other people—even difficult people—we need to guard our thoughts and not allow ourselves to make inappropriate judgments.

2. Fulfilling my desires.

This week we come to the second biblical principle for living with difficult people. Jesus says we need to be careful about how we fulfill our desires. The things we want can be a major source of conflict with the people around us. It may be a competition over scarce resources. It might be because we want something that someone else has or they want something we have. It could be that we want something from someone or we want them to do something for us, and they’re not giving us what we want. It could be that we want someone to behave in a certain way and they’re just not cooperating. Those kinds of unfulfilled desires can lead to intense personal conflict. So, when we find that someone is a difficult person to live with, it might be worth asking ourselves if our conflict stems from some unfulfilled desire.

May I Take Your Order?

Today we’re going to look at two passages, one in Matthew 7 and one in James 4. Together they tell us that unfulfilled desires can tear apart our relationships. But the good news is that there is something we can do about it. There is a way to fulfill our desires that doesn’t require fighting with each other. These verses tell us the secret of not allowing our desires to make it difficult to get along with other people.

Our desires can be a source of conflict.

Let’s begin in the book of James. James was Jesus’ brother, a leader of the first church in Jerusalem. His letter was the first book of the New Testament to be written. Here’s what he says,

James 4:1-2 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?

“Desires” is the word for “pleasure”, the word from which we get our English “hedonism”. The Bible says that our desire for pleasure fights a battle within us—a relentless campaign for satisfaction. And when someone gets in the way, look out! We’re willing to fight anyone who stands in the way.

[2] You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight.

The phrase “you want something” is actually much stronger in Greek. It’s the same word as the word for “lust”. It means a strong, powerful desire, a longing. That kind of longing drives us to treat each other poorly. Now maybe in your life this strong desire doesn’t lead you to commit murder. But there are lots of conflicts short of murder. You know what I’m talking about. You don’t get along with someone and the reason is because you want something and you’re not getting what you want. So the fighting might be as simple as angry words or dirty looks. It might be as subtle as who you choose not to speak to. Our desires can make it difficult to live with anyone who gets in the way.

But James has a very simple alternative. It’s so simple that it makes you wonder why you didn’t think about it before you started fighting.

You do not have, because you do not ask God.

Whoa! I could ‘a had a V-8!

You don’t have, because you didn’t ask! I think what James is saying here is that often we convince ourselves that the reason we don’t have something we want has to do with some person who’s keeping us from fulfilling our desires—a parent, a spouse, a friend, a pastor, a co-worker, a neighbor. If they’d just get their act together, then my desires would be fulfilled.

We should fulfill our desires by asking God.

But, says James, why not try going to the source. If you want something, instead of waiting on fickle, selfish, forgetful people, why not just ask God for it? Duh! And that brings us to our verses in Matthew 7. Jesus has just been talking about judging others, now he suddenly starts talking about asking God for what you want.

Matthew 7:7-8 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Jesus doesn’t spell out the connection between these verses on prayer and the surrounding context. The verses immediately before and after are talking about getting along in our relationships with each other. Here in the middle of that, Jesus starts talking about prayer. Why? I think that the verses we looked at in James 4 are the answer. Our desires can be something that creates conflict with other people. And Jesus, like James, says that we should take our desires and ask God to fulfill them.

What we have here in Matthew 7:7 are three commands and three promises. Ask, seek and knock. These three commands are all in the present tense which implies that we should keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking. The words grow in intensity: asking is basic, easy. Seeking implies even more effort. Knocking implies persistence. Each of them is followed by a promise: God will give. You will find. The door will be opened.

Just in case someone missed it the first three times, Jesus repeats the whole thing in verse 8:

[8] For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Ask, seek, knock, and you will receive, find and walk in an open door. Basically, Jesus is saying SIX times that God will fulfill your desires. He will give you what you ask for. He will allow you to find that which you’re seeking. You knock and he’ll open the doors.

God will give us good gifts.

There’s a certain confidence in these verses, a confidence that God will answer our prayers, a confidence that he exists, that he’s listening, that he is able to act and that he will act to fulfill our requests. There couldn’t be a clearer statement that God will answer our prayers.

How can we be so confident? The reason is in verse 9:

Matthew 7:9-11 [9] Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? [10] Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

God is our father and he acts like a father would.

If your son asked you for something good would you try to trick him? Would you give him something worthless to eat instead of something nutritious and delicious? Of course not. Neither does God.

[11] If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

God knows how to give good gifts to his children. Notice that the point is not just a certainty that God will answer our prayers. It’s a certainty that God will give us good stuff. If you desire something, don’t let that draw you into a conflict with other people. Instead, simply ask God to fulfill your desire, and he will. He will answer you and he will give you good stuff.

These verses that we’ve looked at are pretty straight forward. Our problem is not figuring out what these verses mean. Our problem is that our experience doesn’t live up to the promise. We have all prayed for something and found that God does not simply give us what we want. We have all taken our desires to God and still found them unfulfilled. And that leads us to a crisis. Did I do something wrong? Is sin keeping God from answering my prayers? Is it a lack of faith? When I prayed I believed, but maybe I didn’t believe hard enough. Our experience of unanswered prayers seems to be exactly the opposite of what we read here in Matthew 7. So what’s the deal? We grow more and more disappointed and disillusioned. And ultimately the crisis leads to the big questions: Doesn’t God love me? Is this really true? Does God really answer prayer? And if we struggle too long with that one, then we begin to ask: Is God even there?

I don’t know how many of you have hit a point in your life where you began to doubt if this whole God thing was just a fable because you tried the prayer thing and it didn’t get you anywhere. I suspect that many of you have been there.

Many of the people who survived the Holocaust in Nazi Germany came away with their lives but not their faith. They grew tired of calling out to God for justice and deliverance—but all they got back was silence.

I know a couple people who have recently struggled over the same issues because several years ago they lost their jobs. And after years of praying for a new job—asking, seeking, knocking—they haven’t received, they haven’t found, and the door hasn’t been opened.

There are probably some people here who have been praying for health, for recovery, or praying that one of their relatives would come to Christ, and you’re tired of praying because nothing has changed—your strongest desires remain unfulfilled.

Have you ever been to a restaurant where you didn’t get what you ordered? Hungary, cevapcici

[clip: “When Harry Met Sally”]

God will give us good things.

What kind of food does mommy make?

James 4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

May I Take Your Order?

1.House

2.Guidance

3.Girlfriend

4.Sanctification

5.Health

6.Patience

7.Success

8.Maturity

9.Fun

10.Character

11.Car

12.Truth

13.Wealth

14.Trust

15.Husband

16.Life

17.Safety

18.Salvation

19.Longevity

20.Glory

But instead of fighting, we should simply ask God for what we want and then trust that He will do what is good. Other people, even difficult people, can’t stand in the way of God giving us what we should have and what He wants to give us. In fact, those difficult people may even be God’s answer to your prayers. They may be the “good” thing that He has provided and we’re just having trouble understanding why it’s a good thing that they’re in our lives.

¹ Copyright © 2004 by Lewis B. Bell III. This is the edited manuscript of Lesson 2 in the Kingdom Relationships series delivered by Chip Bell at Fellowship Bible Church Arapaho in Dallas, TX on October 24, 2004. Anyone is at liberty to use this lesson for educational purposes only, with credit.

Matthew 6:1-4¹

August 8, 2004

Introduction

A hush falls over the crowd as the offering basket approaches. Bob, you can sense the tension of this crowd as they await the outcome. No one knows for sure just what he’s going to do. Wait a minute, Bob. He’s reaching for his checkbook. Whoa! It looks like he’s already written his check ahead of time. Boy, that is strategy! And here it is. It looks like…Yes, it is! It’s $200! What an upset! That was far more than anybody expected from this Cinderella player. I wish you could be here to see the reaction of this crowd. At first there was just this stunned silence. No one could believe it. And then a collective “ah” followed by whispers. Then as people realized just what this man had done, the crowd began to roar. Right now they’re just going wild with applause. Ushers are screaming. It’s a mad house, Bob. It’s simply unbelievable!

Clink. Clink. Ta Da!

Fortunately, we don’t have announcers for our Sunday morning offering. In fact, if you’re visiting with us today, I want to explain that our offering this morning was not what we usually do here at Fellowship Arapaho. You saw some unusual things this morning because today we’re going to talk about something that Jesus had to say about people who give money just to impress others. I hope you’ll forgive the silliness, but I wanted to make the point that it’s not just what we do to worship God. It’s very important why we do it.

The Kingdom Handbook

This year we’ve been studying Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. I call it “The Kingdom Handbook”, because Jesus is telling us, his followers, about his kingdom, the kingdom of God.

Jesus began by describing the character of the kingdom.

Kingdom Character

What’s the kingdom like? It’s a kingdom that welcomes the spiritually bankrupt, those who are deeply disappointed with life and those who just can’t do it on their own. It’s a kingdom of justice and mercy at the same time. Those who belong to the kingdom are ambassadors of peace even though they are persecuted in this life. They let people see the good in their lives so that others, too, will come to know God.

Kingdom Code

Next Jesus explained the code of the kingdom. He said that it wasn’t enough to just conform to God’s rules in our external behavior. He also wants us to change on the inside. He wants us to resolve our anger, to restrain any sexual desire that’s out-of-bounds, to refuse to divorce just because we’re tired of being married, to be truthful inside and out, to forgive those who wrong us, and finally to love even those who are not on our side.

That’s a brief summary of what we’ve studied in Matthew, chapter 5.

Kingdom Worship

Today we come to chapter 6 and to the next series in the handbook as Jesus begins to discuss our motives for worship.

People perform acts of worship for many reasons, but those who belong to the kingdom need to watch their motives. It’s not just an issue of what you do to worship God; the reason why you do it is crucially important. Jesus introduces this new subject in Matthew 6:1.

A General Principle

He begins with a general principle and then follows it with three examples. First, let’s look at the general principle:

“Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

If you think back about what we’ve already studied in Matthew 5, Jesus was talking there about righteousness—that is the good behavior of those who want to follow him—those who belong to the kingdom. In chapter 5 he said that if you want to be in the kingdom, your righteousness needs to be better than the performance of those people who do the right thing on the outside but don’t do the right thing on the inside. God wants you to follow him, not only with your behavior, but also with your heart.

Now he says there’s something else you need to watch: your motive. When you do good things—“acts of righteousness”—make sure that you’re doing it for God and not just to put on a show for the people around you. (We get our word “theatre” from the word used here for “seen”.)² In our day, just like in Jesus’ day, there are people who do good religious things, not because they are devoted to God, but because they are interested in looking good in front of their fellow human beings.

How can I look like a good guy to my neighbors or friends? Some people go to church. Some give to the poor. Some say their prayers. Some give up a bad habit for lent. Sometimes people are motivated to do these things because they want to impress God. Sometimes they do them also hoping that someone else—someone human—will notice what a great person they are. Maybe they’re trying to impress their pastor, or their fiancé, or their friends, or their parents, or their children. Religious stuff looks good on a resume. Everybody ought to have some.

But Jesus says that if you’re involved in a lot of religious activity just to show people how devoted you are to God, then it doesn’t mean anything to God. That’s not what it’s about. Don’t do good things so that people will see you doing good and think that you’re a great person.

Now we have a problem in this verse because there’s an apparent contradiction in what Jesus is saying here. Some of you might remember this from a few Sundays back. Matthew 5:16, in the last chapter, says, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Remember when we talked about that, I said that we should be good people doing good things and we should let people see us doing good, so that they will also be drawn to a relationship with Jesus.

But here, it sounds like the opposite. Be careful not to do good things for people to see. But that is not a contradiction. Actually, the Bible is saying both. These two verses are really talking about two different ideas and the difference is very important. We should do good things so that³ people will see them and give praise to God. But we should not do good things in order to⁴ show off to other people so they will praise us. It’s really a question of motive. The first brings praise to God. The second seeks praise to myself. That’s a huge difference.

So the general principle that Jesus is trying to teach us is this:

If you perform religious acts

to impress other people
then you’ll miss God’s reward.

If your motive for going to church, or doing some good deed, or helping the poor, or praying to God or performing some religious duty—if you’re doing those things to impress the people around you—then it doesn’t mean anything to God.

It’s always easier to understand a general principle when you have a good example.

Three Examples:

And in the next few verses, Jesus gives us three examples to illustrate what he’s talking about. They are giving, praying, and fasting. In Jesus’ day, these three were seen as the three great things a person could do to demonstrate their devotion to God. If you really loved God, then you showed it by giving to the poor, by praying and by fasting. So Jesus says, let’s not just talk about what you do to show your devotion to God. Let’s talk about why you do it. Let’s talk about your motives.

Today, we’re going to take the first example and talk about giving. Then, over the next few weeks, we’ll look at the other two examples, praying and fasting. So, first, how does this general principle apply to giving?

Ostentatious Giving

[2] "So when you give to the needy,

What “giving”?

Jesus is not talking about giving in general. He’s specifically talking about giving to people in need. The word he uses here can mean “doing something kind for someone else”, but most often in the Bible, it is the word for money given to people in need. Usually, that meant poor people who didn’t have enough money. It included beggars looking for a hand out. It included the handicapped, who, because of their injuries, were not able to earn a living. Even today in the Middle East, you see crippled people begging on the streets.

For us, today, I think these verses are referring to what we give to people in need. So, for example, that would include giving to our church’s Love Fund that we distribute to help people in need, to help families who are out of work, or people with a financial crisis in their lives. Some of you have brought food to stock the pantry in the church office so we have something to give people off the street looking for assistance. It also includes what you do and what you spend as individuals to help each other in need. It includes things like sponsoring a child through Compassion International or sending a contribution to feed people through World Vision. It includes whatever you hand out the window
to a homeless person. It includes your donations to the Salvation Army. It includes at least a portion of your taxes that goes to help the poor or assist the retired. It includes supporting the kids who went to Mexico to build houses for people that could not afford them. All these things would be the giving that Jesus is talking about: giving to those in need.

Although often this word is used for financial needs, I think it is broad enough that it can also include other needs as well. So, for example, think about the money that you give to our church that we use to hire staff and open the buildings. Those gifts provide counseling, teaching and training for people with spiritual needs—including people in other countries. They provide childcare so parents can grow spiritually. They provide great programs for kids and students. They provide scholarships for retreats. If we charged people for all the services they received from our church, it could be pretty expensive—more than many people could afford. But your support for our church allows us to offer our ministry to everyone for free. That is giving that meets the needs of people in need. That is what Jesus is talking about here.

But I don’t think this is talking about everything you give the church. You know, everyone of us gets something out of this church. We all grow spiritually and get encouragement. We learn. We get a cup of coffee. We breathe the air conditioning. We make some trash and dirty some carpet. In other words, some of what we all give to the church is money that gets spent on ourselves. We’re really giving money to pay for some benefit that we’re getting out of the church.

I don’t think this happened at our church, but I heard a story about a little seven-year-old girl that came to church with her parents one Sunday morning. She watched her parents singing songs. She sat and listened through the sermon and the pastor’s prayer. She saw the offering go by, and watched her parents put something in the basket. And then after church, as the family was driving home, the mother commented, "I thought the music this morning was just awful." And the father added, "And the sermon was not only too long. It was boring." Their little daughter in the back seat heard all this and it really made her think. Finally, after a few moments of silence, she said, "Well, Mom and Dad, you've got to admit it was a pretty good show for a dollar."

Some of what you put in the offering today is just paying for whatever you get out of this experience. But I hope that that’s not all you’re giving. I hope that you’re giving more to this church than what you’re getting out of it—more than what it costs us for you to be here. Because whatever you give beyond that is money that is given not to meet your needs, but to meet the needs of others. That’s the kind of giving Jesus is talking about here in this verse and that’s the kind of giving that brings God’s reward.

I know some of you cannot afford to do that. Maybe our church’s ministry to you costs more than you can possibly give in return. You know what? That’s fine. Don’t worry about it. You have many other things that you can offer the people around you and God has put you here both to benefit from this church and to benefit others—even if you can’t afford to give.

If you’re visiting our church this morning, then what I just said is not really for you, either. It is our great privilege to offer our ministry to you without charge, and without any expectation that you will give us money.

What I’m saying is for those of us who have made this church our spiritual home and for the many of us, including me, who can afford to give more to the church than we receive from the church. If you can give like that, then I hope you are giving like that. I’m being very frank with you. But I’m not saying this because I’d like a bigger salary or more staff or more stuff. It’s because God honors that kind of unselfish giving that goes beyond just paying for what you consume and meets the needs of other people.

The kind of giving that Jesus is talking about here includes a lot of different things. It doesn’t include what we give to meet our own needs. But it includes everything that we give to meet the needs of others.

So, let’s look again at Matthew 6:2 and see what Jesus says about giving to meet the needs of others.

[2] "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men.

There’s really no evidence that people in Jesus’ day actually blew trumpets to announce their gifts. Jesus is using a metaphor here to colorfully describe the people who made sure that everyone knew they were giving to the needy. Basically, he’s saying, “When you give, don’t make a big deal out of it.” Don’t attract attention to it. Don’t advertise how much you’re giving. Don’t show off your generosity.

Jesus refers to “hypocrites”. Once again, this is the word for an actor, someone who plays a role. Here, the idea is someone who is pretending to give because they care about the needs of people or because they want to give as an act of worshipping God, but their real motive⁵ is to be honored by their peers. They want people to see how generous they are. They want people to be impressed with their spirituality or their devotion to God or their kind heart. But Jesus warns us not to follow their example because God does not recognize their generosity and will not reward it.

I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

The word Jesus uses here is a business term. It means to be paid in full and issue a receipt. Those who give to impress other people get what they want—in fact, they get precisely what they want and no more. If the reason you give is to get human recognition, then that’s all you get: human recognition. If that is your motive, then your generosity means nothing to God. You have earned only human praise and God owes you nothing in return.

This is ostentatious giving, religious acts of worship designed to impress people instead of serving God. Notice the key elements in this type of giving:

Ostentatious Giving

• Action: It is publicized giving (tooting your own horn).
• Motive: It is done for man’s praise.
• Result: The reward is paid in full. You receive human praise.

By contrast, Jesus tells us in verse 3 how we should give to people in need:

Secret Giving

[3] But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, [4] so that your giving may be in secret.

This phrase “don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” essentially means “Don’t even tell your best friend.” Jesus says that the cure for ostentatious giving is to keep it a secret. The word “secret” refers to “a secret place” and is drawing a specific contrast with the hypocrites, mentioned before, who distributed their gifts in the public synagogues and streets where everyone would be sure to know what they were doing and even perhaps how much they were giving. Jesus tells us to do our giving in private. Keep it confidential.

This is one of the reasons why we handle contributions the way we do here at Fellowship Arapaho. None of the elders or pastors knows who gives to the church and who doesn’t. None of us knows how much anyone gives.

Part of the reason for that practice is for us as elders and pastors. We don’t want to be tempted to treat anybody with favoritism because they give a lot of money to the church. And we don’t want to be tempted to treat anybody dismissively because they don’t give the church a lot of money.⁶ And so we simply don’t know how much anybody gives. Only the accounting people know and they don’t tell anybody else.

Many of you know that my wife Julie is a CPA and that Julie does the church books. It’s probably hard for some people to believe that Julie doesn’t come home and tell me who gives money and how much everyone gives. But she doesn’t. It wouldn’t be illegal for me or any of the elders to know. And it would be easy information for me to discover even if Julie wasn’t our accountant. But the reason I don’t know is because I don’t want to know. It’s a practice based on a personal decision, not on policy.

So partly, we have that practice for our own sake. But there’s another reason we keep giving information confidential and that’s for you. We don’t want you to be tempted to give to the church so that people will think more highly of you. It’s exactly what Jesus is talking about here.

What would happen if I stood up every Sunday and thanked our major donors by name? Or what if we engraved bricks with the names of the people who pledged to build this building, along with the amounts they pledged? There’s nothing illegal about that. In fact, I don’t think there’s anything particularly immoral about it either. But there is no doubt that it would make it much more tempting to make a contribution only for the public recognition that it would bring. But if no one knows what you give, or how much you give, then there’s not much temptation to give in order to get the praise of men.

So, in case you’ve made a sizable donation to the church, and you were surprised that neither I nor anyone else called you to thank you personally, now you know why we didn’t call. 1) We didn’t know you did it. and 2) We wanted to protect the reward that you’re going to get from God. We wouldn’t dare spoil that by offering you mere human praise.

Always “in secret”?

I don’t think this verse means that all giving MUST remain confidential.

One day Jesus sat at the temple with his students,⁷ and together they watched how much people were putting into the collection. And when this widow came by and put in two small coins, Jesus drew everyone’s attention to her gift and praised her for her generosity.

Likewise, Paul praises the Macedonian churches for their generous gift for the poor people of Jerusalem.⁸ And he boasts about the pledges that the church in Corinth made to the same relief project.

Jesus is not laying down a rule here. He’s not saying that only secret giving honors God. He’s saying that if you’re tempted to give for the wrong motives, if you might be tempted to give so you’ll look good in front of other people, then you can remove that temptation by doing all your giving in secret. Keep it confidential and your motives won’t be in question.

I think it’s really important to be precise here in our understanding. Jesus is not saying that you have done wrong if people know about your gift. He’s not saying it’s wrong if people are impressed by your gift. What he’s saying is that it is wrong to give for the purpose of impressing people. It’s not an issue of who knows about it or what they think about it. It’s all about your motive. Why did you do it? For people? Or for God?

The reason it’s so important to guard our motives in giving is because the reason WHY we give will determine how it effects our lives. Jesus urges us to give in secret, so that our motives will be completely pure. And

Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Those who give from pure motives will be rewarded by God.

What “reward”?

Just what is this reward? (If you have a King James Bible, you’ll notice that it says God will reward you “openly”. However, the word “openly” is not in the original text.) God’s reward could be open or it could be secret. His reward could come now is this life or it may not come until later when we arrive in heaven. Or, he could reward us both in this life and in the next. Jesus doesn’t promise a specific reward or mention a specific time, but he does say that we will be rewarded. The word he uses for “reward” literally means, “to pay back a debt.” That’s the way the Bible describes it. If you give to people in need with a pure motive, not for how it will look, but because you love God and want to honor him and obey him, then God will pay you back. God owes you. Does that sound too crass? Listen to

Proverbs 19:17 He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done.

Giving to the poor is compared to loaning money to God. Paul also says in 2 Corinthians 9:6, 11 that God will meet generosity with generosity.

Whoever sows generously will also reap generously. … [11] You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.

And he gives this promise in Philippians 4:18-19

I have received the gifts you sent. … [19] And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

There is a reward for those who give to people in need. It may be more money. It may not. It may be repayment. It may be recognition. It may be now. It may be later. The one who gives to the needy will be rewarded. But that reward is only for those who give with a pure motive.

Now we can see the complete contrast between ostentatious giving and secret giving:

Secret Giving

• Action: It is not public, but private. It’s confidential giving.
• Motive: The reason for giving is not to get recognition from men,
  but rather to honor and obey God.
• Result: The result is not praise from men, but rather
  a reward from God.

Conclusion

Kingdom Worship

God wants you to give to meet the needs of other people. It’s not because he needs your money. It’s because giving to people in need is an act of worship. And that’s why it’s so important that you give with the right motive. If you make a huge contribution to the poor so that people will praise you, then all you get is people’s praise. But if you unselfishly take care of people in need because you want to honor and obey God, then God will reward you. The question is not just, “Are you giving? The question is, “Why are you giving?”

¹ Copyright © 2004 by Lewis B. Bell III. This is the edited manuscript of Lesson 1 in the Kingdom Worship series delivered by Chip Bell at Fellowship Bible Church Arapaho in Dallas, TX on August 8, 2004. Anyone is at liberty to use this lesson for educational purposes only, with credit.

² Robertson’s Word Pictures, vol. I, p. 50.

³ BAGD: ὅπως 2. as a conjunction, w. the subjunctive

a. to indicate purpose (in order) that

⁴ BAGD: πρός III. with accusative

3. of the goal aimed at or striven toward

—a. with conscious purpose for, for the purpose of, on behalf of

⁵ ὅπως same as 1 above.

⁶ James 2:1-4

⁷ Mark 12:41-44; Luke 21:1-4

⁸ 2 Corinthians 8:1-5; 9:2