 So we're beginning in chapter 6 here at verse 1. We're going to be looking this morning at verses 1 through 4. And we'll be looking at what the King James version would call alms. But in more contemporary language, it speaks concerning charitable deeds. And so let's begin at verse 1, Matthew chapter 6. I'll read to verse 4. And we'll get into our study today concerning charitable deeds. So Jesus speaking here in Matthew 6 verse 1 says, take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory from men. Surely, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing that your charitable deed may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward, will himself reward you openly. Now as we've been going through the Sermon on the Mount, which is found in chapters 5, 6, and 7 of the Gospel of Matthew, as we've been going through the Sermon on the Mount, in verses 21 through 48 of chapter 5, Jesus gave a series of six teachings. Now each teaching was intended to illustrate that inner moral righteousness is being contrasted to man's self-righteousness. And so as we went through that, Jesus began to speak to them concerning murder and adultery. He spoke to them concerning divorce and taking oaths, retaliation, and ultimately was closing with the topic of love. And so he gave a series of six teachings related to those subjects. And then he closed it. Now I want you to see this with me in verse 48, by saying, therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. When he said that he actually was slamming the door on man's best efforts to reform himself, he was simply saying, even our greatest human efforts and greatest desire will always end up in frustration. In the end, we simply find ourselves falling short of our goal to be better. And so this is something that the apostle Paul could write on, and as a matter of fact, he did. We know that when we started the New Testament, we see that a good portion of it was written by one man, a man by the name of Paul, and Paul wrote a particular book, a letter to the Philippians. And when he was writing to the church of Philippi, Paul was making some statements related to his former life. You see, before he was saved, the apostle Paul did his best to obey God's laws in every way that he could possibly do so. But he discovered that all of his efforts ended up with frustration and he needed the Lord. And so when he was writing the Philippians in chapter three, verses six and seven, this is what he said. He said, I obeyed the Jewish law so carefully that I was never accused of any fault. I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. He said, according to the righteousness found in the law, I was blameless. But I see these things of having no value. I see them as being worthless, even as he used the word dung, refuse, compared to the excellency of the knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ as his Lord. And so he was simply making it clear that we cannot earn salvation because our efforts are never gonna be sufficient to meet the requirements of salvation, which is where a lot of people make their mistakes. They think that they can work hard and get saved. In some religious systems, even those that call themselves Christian religious systems, there is a works righteousness that is attached to salvation, meaning they say, if you try very hard, you might be able to make it into the kingdom of God. If you do what we tell you to do, if you keep the rituals that we prescribe, if you are able to follow the things that we say you need to follow, you may have a chance of entering into the kingdom of heaven. Paul said, no. He said, all of the things that I found that at one time were regarded as being assets of positives. He said, I've discovered them to be worthless because of what Jesus Christ has done. You cannot earn your salvation. Your efforts are not sufficient to meet the requirements of salvation, which is perfection. And there's only one who's been perfect. That's Jesus Christ. That's why we need a savior. In Psalm 49, verses seven through nine, the Psalmist said it like this. He said, no man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him. The ransom for a life is costly. No payment is ever enough that he should live on forever and not see decay. The life for a man, the cost for a man's life, the ransom of that man is very costly. Well, it's so costly that God gave his son Jesus Christ to die on a cross for us. We need his help. All of us would agree with that. Proverbs 20, verse nine asks the question, who can say, I have made my heart clean. I am pure from my sin. All of us know that we've sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so true righteousness actually results at springs from recognizing our own inadequacies. And it's the recognition of our inadequacy that causes us to come to trust in God's adequacy. By realizing that we can't save ourselves, we can come to trust in God's ability to save us. And that's why Jesus Christ came to planet Earth. In Luke chapter 19, verse 10, he said it like this. He said, the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost. In Luke 5, 31 and 32, Jesus answered and said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I haven't come to call righteous, but sinners to repentance. And that's why Paul in 1st Timothy 1.15 could say, this is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom he said, I am chief. And so he knew that he needed Jesus Christ, even though he could point to his righteousness and blamelessness that he had according to the law. And he could say, I am blameless. Nobody can lay a charge against me as violating these things yet. His own conscience would strike him because in reality he knew that he was a sinner, that he fell short of the glory of God. And so what we're looking at here is Jesus continuing his teaching us concerning what God would have for us as believers. And so when we get into chapter six, he begins to speak concerning alms or charitable deeds here in Matthew six, verses one through four. Now, when you look at Matthew chapter six, verses one through 18, he gives three examples of what would be called works of righteousness, something you might wanna remember or note. During the time of Christ, there were three basic earmarts of a genuinely religious person, three things that if you did these things, the people would know that you were really religious. You would be charitable, you would give gifts. You would pray and you would fast. So you were generous, prayerful, and you fasted. And so the people of your day would see those as the three earmarks that you are a believer in God because you did these things. And so Jesus is actually speaking concerning the things that are considered righteous at his time and he's actually at this point critiquing the way people are putting forth their acts of righteousness. And so today we're gonna be looking at what he calls charitable deeds or alms. Now, as we look at this, I want you to notice something in chapter six, verse one. Notice how he begins here by saying, take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your father in heaven. Now, notice something, it's kind of subtle, you might not notice it at first. I do want you to notice that Jesus assumes that his disciples perform good works. There's an assumption here. He's not, notice it. He's not saying you need to do good works. He's assuming that you do. Because again, during his day, that was a mark of a righteous person. That's why he would say, take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men. Righteous people during his day were known for performing particular acts of charity. And so he's speaking concerning that. It's so basic, doing good is so basic that it really requires very little attention. You see, doing good to others reveals, very often will reveal the genuineness of your faith. Proverbs 20, verse 11 says it like this, even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right. Now obviously we all have lapses. An occasion can demonstrate questionable behavior. There's no one perfect again. We all sin in word or in thought or in deed. But what is revealing is the consistency of our life, the pattern of our life. So when someone says, I worship God, well their lives are gonna reveal this throughout the entirety of their life. There's an old saying that we used to use quite often. Talk is cheap. It's easy to talk, but it's more difficult to do the walk. So genuine faith in God is always revealed in behavior. And that kind of faith is displayed in various ways, including how we react to those who have done us great harm just this last week. If you watch the news at all or read the paper or pick it up on news source sites, we're all aware here in the nation the shootings that took place there in Charleston, South Carolina were some evil man filled with hate, entered into a prayer meeting and killed several people, leaving one alive so that they could be a witness to what he had done because he said, I'm gonna kill myself. I, with you if you were aware of this, my heart was broken and deeply saddened by that that somebody would walk into a prayer meeting in a church, be welcomed by the people who were there. As a matter of fact, the shooter allegedly made a statement, something like, they were so nice to me, I actually almost had second thoughts about doing it. They were welcoming to this young man. And yet he stood up and he shot several people, a five year old little, a little one was laying on the ground with the grandma saying, lay still, let him think that you're dead. I mean, what a horrible thing. And it sends pain through all of us. So I'm listening to the news and this is what is reported. The relatives of people slain inside the historic African American church in Charleston, South Carolina earlier this week, were able to speak directly to the accused gunman, Friday at his first court appearance. One by one, those who chose to speak at a bond hearing did not turn to anger. Instead, while he remained impassive, they offered him forgiveness and said they were praying for his soul, even as they described the pain of their losses. I forgive you, Nadine Collier, the daughter of 70 year old Ethel Lance, said at the hearing, her voice breaking with emotion. You took something very precious from me. I will never talk to her again. I will never ever hold her again. But I forgive you and have mercy on your soul. And as that was being broadcast, there were two commentators, news commentators who were speaking concerning it and one of the commentators was saying, what an amazing act of forgiveness and mercy was being shown by this woman, Nadine. But the man who was part of the conversation was saying, oh, that's just because the pain of what has happened is still keeping her numb and she hasn't gotten to the point where she's gonna be angry. And Marie and I happened to be listening to this as it was being broadcast and I turned to my wife and I said to her, the man doesn't understand Christianity. He doesn't understand Christian forgiveness. He doesn't understand what it means to be a Christian. He just doesn't, he doesn't understand that. And he's just revealing that he doesn't understand that. Listen, part of what makes us what we are is the knowledge that God forgives us and he does give us the ability to forgive those who have heard us and it demonstrates that through what are called works, through what this woman was saying and how she'll be later on. James in chapter two verse 18 said it like this, someone will say you have faith, I have works. But he goes on to say show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. In first John two verse four, John said the man who says, I know him but does not do what he commands, is a liar, the truth is not in him. You see Jesus was known for good works, his followers are to be known for the same. That's because the Bible teaches us that the disciple is to be like his mentor. Jesus in Matthew 10, 25 said it like this, he said it's enough for the disciple that he be as his master, the servant, as his Lord. So again, he emphasized that disciples were to be known as those who perform good works. And throughout his teachings, as you study the scriptures, Jesus emphasizes this singular truth. There's an interesting parable, it's called the parable of the Good Samaritan, it's found in the Gospel of Luke. And in that parable, Jesus was illustrating what it meant to love one's neighbor as one's self. You see a law, an expert in the law of Moses, a scribe, a lawyer had approached Christ and was having a conversation with the Lord Jesus Christ and he asked him a question, he said what good work must I perform in order to inherit the kingdom of God? And so Jesus said, well you know the scriptures, which indeed he did, this is a man who had memorized dreams of scripture as well as explanations and things pertaining to the traditions at that day. So Jesus said, you know the scripture, what does the scripture say? And the scribe says to him, well, you're to love the Lord your God with everything that is within you and you're to love your neighbor as yourself. And so he gives the correct answer and Jesus says that to him, he said go and do this and you shall live. But the man, Luke tells us, wanting to justify himself said, and who is my neighbor? In other words, as a legal expert, he was looking for a loophole. And during that time, of course, I shared this with you before, there were rabbis teaching that your neighbor was really only a person who was of Jewish descent that you didn't have to help a Gentile, even if he fell in a lake and was drowning because he's a Gentile and I'm Jewish, I don't have to help him because the law really pertains to the lifestyle of a Jew and amongst other Jews. And so Jesus was speaking concerning what real love is and all and now he's got this Jewish expert, a legal expert, trying to find a loophole, how can I love everybody? Maybe I can just define what neighbor is and get out of this. And so Jesus at that point is moved to give to him that parable. The parable that we call the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10 verses 29 through 37. He tells the story of a Jewish man who was walking and as he was walking, he was mugged. After being mugged, he was robbed and left for dead. He was there on the side of the road when two religious men came and approached him and they saw him laying there in the state that he was in and rather than helping him, Jesus says they crossed over to the other side and passed them by. He said ultimately a Samaritan came in that direction. Now for us in the United States in the 21st century, we may not understand that the Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. They hated them. They hated the Samaritans. The Samaritans were to the Jew a hybrid race, a race that was actually a mixed race of Gentiles from a variety of countries that had been brought in and transplanted in seven centuries before Christ and had brought in a religious system that was in opposition to the true religion of Israel. And so John made it very clear that the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. They were a hated group of people. And yet here's Jesus giving as an example of what loving your neighbor is. He uses a Samaritan by first pointing out that this Jewish man was beaten, left for dead, robbed undoubtedly by other Jewish men. And then two religious Jews passed him by and the only person who stopped to help was a Samaritan. And even saying that it must have been very offensive to this Jewish legal expert when Jesus said that. And Jesus said it like this. He said this man came by, he had compassion, he cared for his wounds, he set him on his own animal, took him to an inn, he remained with him, he cared for him throughout the night, he left him in the care of an innkeeper after paying all of his bills and then asked the question, who was the neighbor? And what was Jesus doing there? Well, the man understood, the parable, he understood the story, in other words, that good is to be done, but he just didn't want to admit that loving your neighbor means just love people. Didn't understand that. And so Jesus is illustrating to us that we're to love others. It's interesting, in a theological seminary, the students of this particular seminary were given the assignment to go through the parable of the Good Samaritan and then to come to class and be prepared to share what it means, what does it actually mean? And so these students took their time and did their study and then they were on the way to class and as they were walking in up the steps that would lead them into the classroom that they were gonna attend and give an explanation of the story of the Good Samaritan, there was somebody there who was seated on the steps, dirty, disheveled, had on and just sitting there as every one of the students walked past this man, came into the class and sat down waiting to present what the parable of the Good Samaritan actually means. And to their surprise, the professor wasn't in the class at first, but finally he did come in and it turns out that the professor of that class was the man who was seated there on the steps. And he walked in and he was dirty and his hair looked dirty and his hat and everything. And he says it's interesting to me to note that you spent all this time to try to determine what the meaning of the parable and the story of the Good Samaritan is and you did not enact a single thing that you learned when you passed me by sitting there on those steps. Because it's easy for me to know what to do, it's more difficult for me to actually do what I'm supposed to do. So this legal expert is saying to Jesus, who is my neighbor in an attempt to get out from underneath having to love somebody that's not really lovable. Good works. Jesus didn't teach us that good works would save us. He did teach us that we would be known by them. The Bible says that we're saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the one who obtained and provides salvation for us. Like it says in Ephesians two, eight and nine where it says for by grace you have been saved through faith in that out of yourselves it's the gift of God not of workless anyone should boast. So we're not saved by works but we do works demonstrating that we are saved. Now, if you've been born again, if I've been born again we need to understand we've been born again to perform good works. Like it says in Ephesians two, 10 we are God's masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things that we planned for us long ago. And please, and this is so practical I don't know if I can make it make any more sense and it actually on it by itself will make sense but it's just the way you live. It's the way I live. You know, it's how my dad got saved. My dad said to me, David do you know why I gave my heart to Christ? And I said yes, of course because of how anointed I am and I brought you to Christ. Now, I didn't say that. I said, why'd you get saved dad? The change in your life. The change in your life. My mom said the same kind of thing the change in your life. There was something different about you. Your works are speaking so loudly and people are hearing them. Sometimes your works are heard over your words. And listen carefully because it's so basic but it's the simple things you do. It's the simple things you do. I was on my way to church this morning and as I was driving off to my right was a an intersection. Someone was gonna be driving into the lane that I was in, it's a two lane and they were pulling out from their neighborhood and they were pulling into the street. The street's a 45 mile an hour street and I was approaching as I approached where there was a stop sign I see the person coming off to my right and I now, I always take my foot off the gas. I always do because they don't stop, right? And so as I was driving, there comes this car and we used to call it touch and go. They kind of just touch and kept going. So pulled right in front of me and I'm going 45 and so I hit my brakes, slowing down as I'm slowing down they must have awakened for a moment and notice that because they rolled over to the side like they thought I was gonna go around which I didn't, I just, I hit my brakes and slowed down and now they're going like 30 miles an hour and a 45 and it was just kind of one of those, okay, Lord, I'm gonna go preach today, help me not to get mad. And we come up to a stop sign and they did a stop and go and a touch and go and kept going. And I thought, how interesting, blown through two stop signs, but here's the thing that really was interesting to me. We got to the red light. Now my dad always said this, they can pass you up there, you'll catch them at the red light. And it's true, you catch them at the red light. And so I roll up to the red light and there they are. And as I'm rolling next to them, I'm curious about this person. Did you get your license from a box of Wheaties? I mean, but as we rolled up, right on the back of the car, it said go to the Harvest Crusade. It was Greg. No, it wasn't, but, but I thought, you know, that's a simple thing and somebody here, oh, you're judging. Yeah, I guess I am. I mean, if you're gonna tell me to go to heaven, you ought to teach me how to drive at the same time. I mean, the kid is telling mom and dad, oh, I've been changed, I've been changed. You know, Jesus saved me and I've been changed. And mama says, well, I'm glad that you're changed. Why don't you go and clean your room? I'm glad you've been changed, dad says. Why don't you help me mow the lawn? It's the basic things, guys. It's not the fact that we run up and say, oh, I'm gonna do this or I would do that or I'll travel here, I'll do that. No, it's just the simple things we have been created by God for good works. In Titus 2.14, Jesus gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself. His own special people, zealous for good works. Titus 3.8, this is a faithful saying, these things I will that you affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. Maintain good works. The purpose of Bible studies. You might find this interesting. The purpose of church services, Bible studies, reading your devotions is to equip you for works of service. How do we know that? Well, Paul in 2 Timothy 3.16 and 17 said it like this, all scriptures given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So we have been created by God for good works. It demonstrates that we have a relationship with him. That's your introduction. We ought to get into the study. Verse one, take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them, otherwise you have no reward from your father in heaven. Now notice how he says, take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. The words take heed. When you look at those words, originally it means beware, pay close attention to, be on guard. Be on guard that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, secondly, to be seen by them. To be seen speaks of being noticed. It actually speaks of a spectacle that is to be gazed at and it's in reference to what is called theatrical righteousness. You're just putting it on. So what Jesus is actually warning us about is the sin of hypocrisy. Now he's speaking specifically concerning the righteousness revealed by concern for other people and he's making it clear that a person who has a genuine relationship with God is generous. Now why would he be teaching us that? Well, the God that we worship is a generous God and our generous God has been generous to us and so Christians are generous because giving for the sake of others reflects what our God is like. God has revealed his concern for others because he gave his son. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So Christians are to reveal the depth of their understanding of God's love by caring about other people and as Christians, we need to be aware of needs that exist all around us and open to meet them. Fellowship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism, worship, all of these are elements of spiritual priorities but the rabbis taught that he who does alms does that which is more excellent than all offerings. Now we all know that our society has an unending message of materialism. We are constantly encouraged to spend our money on a variety of things that promise happiness. This satisfaction has been successfully marketed to our entire nation and the dissatisfaction is actually rooted in a belief that satisfaction is mainly derived from the things that we possess. You see, Jesus was making it very clear that we have things but we can make use of those things or those things will make use of us. What happens is many people today believe that they are financially barely making it and you and I have heard that, I have heard people being interviewed where they have asked them, are you poor and the person has said to the interviewer, oh yes, I'm very poor because there are a lot of people today who think themselves to be very poor but that's because we have a tendency of comparing the material goods that we have with those in the United States who have more. Many of those who have claimed to have real poverty have never really been able to, had the experience of being around somebody who actually genuinely does have poverty and so they don't have a good measurement as to why they feel poor and don't realize the reason they feel poor is because they don't have as much as somebody else. When I was in India for the first time years ago now we came driving, we were in a van and we were driving through a particular portion of one of the major cities in India and as we were driving into the outskirts there was a woman on the side of the road, I'll never forget her, she had shade, she was sitting under some shade, some tarp that she had erected with four bamboo kinds of poles and it was just a cheap covering but she was underneath it and she had a hammer and there was some large rocks and then a pile of gravel and as we went by a friend of mine who's an Indian man said do you know what she's doing and so we said no, well that's her job, she takes large rocks and with that hammer breaks it into gravel and then sells it for those who use it in construction and he said this, I'll never forget, he said she will be there for 10 hours, she will work breaking those large rocks into small rocks for 10 hours and she will be paid, listen, she will be paid 50 cents for her entire day, 50 cents, 10 hours, over 100 degrees weather, tremendous humidity and with that 50 cents he said she will go and buy enough supplies for her family for the day and Americans we think a lot differently, we don't have an understanding of what real poverty actually is so you ask somebody are you poor and they will say oh yes I'm barely making it yet the same people who say they're barely making it will spend money on fast food, clothing, personal entertainment, they have cell phones, cable TV, computers, auto payments, vacations, hair products, video games and they purchase those things, some Christians this is something that maybe somebody may get a bit offended by so here we go, some Christians spend more on coffee than they give to the Lord without a second thought, the amount we freely spend on clothing and toys amounts to incredible sums of money yet the average Christian gives less than 3% of their income to Jesus and the average church 15% of the church provides 85% of the finances used for all ministry. Today many young people are completely over their head in expenses because they don't manage their money well, they have student loans, credit card debt, cell phone bills, cars, insurance payments, sometimes they have a cable subscription, expensive sound system, television, entertainment bills that locks them into high payments for personal pleasure. What we as Christians need to learn to do is to be dependent on God to provide our daily need. There's a temptation to not trust God but rather to hoard more and keep more for ourselves so Jesus taught us to depend on God and intentionally live on less than we could actually consume. When you give to the Lord in your acts of charity and you're giving to others and you're giving to the Lord and when you're giving to the Lord in your gifts one of the things that may amaze you is that you can actually really live on 90 pennies instead of the 100 and enjoy it. When my children were very small I wanted to teach them that they were to give to the Lord and so when they were very small we still had baby food jars and I would give them the kids and we're talking about five and six year old, the oldest going on down and I did this until they were nine or 10 years old. I did it this way. I would take a dollar, I gave them a dollar and I would make it in dimes so there'd be 10 dimes. I would get two baby food jars and I put it before them, one had their name and the other had the name Jesus on it. I would put the dimes in front of them individually and the stack of dimes and I would say this stack of dimes is your allowance. Some of it is to be given to Jesus and some you can keep for yourself and so I'd say what do you wanna give to the Lord? And I'd say and I took one dime and I would drop it in where it said Jesus and I'd say let's give him this dime. They always said the same thing and I did this for years with them. They'd say no that's not enough we need to give them more. I have these nine and he has that one and that's how I was teaching them that they could live on 90 rather than 100 make sure that you give to the Lord. Now as they got older they started saying you know, aren't you giving to him a little too much? But when they were small they didn't understand the value of a dime. But I wanted to teach them. I wanted to teach them that you can live just as well on less if you make sure that he is given to you. I said and one of the things that they were learning is this is that I was their father and even though I was handing them jars of dimes should there be a need daddy could provide the need that was above and beyond their allowance. As a matter of fact they grew to know that so well I can still remember one of them walking in and speaking to me and saying dad I want you to get me this they were old enough to know better they were less than 10 but not much more than that. Dad I want you to get me this and I get you what? I want you to get me this and I know you have the money I know you, they said it like that I know you have the money for it I said yeah, yeah I've got the money for it but what makes you think that it's your money? I mean come on, they would walk up to me and they would say my friends are rich we have friends who are rich and say your friends aren't rich your friends' parents are rich your friends are sponges. That's not their money that's their daddy's money and their mama's money. But we have this entitlement we have it from the time we're small and we have to break it. When we give in a charitable way it isn't because God needs to raise money it's because God is raising his children and he wants to teach us that we're like him and Jesus is simply saying that he's saying that listen do your good deeds you ought to be doing it as a matter of fact when you do it just be careful about your heart that you don't do it so that you may be seen by men. You have to be aware of that notice how it says in verse two therefore when you do a charitable deed do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrite do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory from men assuredly I say to you they have their reward. And so some have noted that synagogues and the temple had what would be called a poor box the box was a chest that would have a hole on the top where money would be dropped in and the opening was wide at one end and it grew narrower at the other end and when money was deposited it would begin to clatter and some would toss their money in to sound the trumpet in order that they might get noticed. So he says no when you do something like that you have your reward such outward show receives its own reward and what is that reward the notice of men? And he's saying they have their reward now it's paid in full God owes them nothing later on. That's something we have to be real careful about even in our day. You see the church around the world is contributed to fostering that kind of giving hypocrisy. Some pastors have what they call words of knowledge and command us to bring our money to the altar. I've been in church services where the pastor would stand up there and he'd say there's somebody here right now who's got a thousand dollars and God wants you to give that money right now for this ministry and he would snap his finger like that I'll never forget that he would snap his finger like that bring your money now, bring it now and they would come people would actually come and drop the money I can still remember where they would throw money on the platform I was only at this church for a while when they began doing that I was out of there it wasn't a Calvary Chapel I should say and I often wonder how is it that God knows how much money they have in that bank account and tells that pastor that? I mean you have that today I mean giving becomes a way for me to get when you have somebody saying God wants you to give this ministry $65 million for a jet airplane so I can travel around the world I bring such dishonor to the name of Christ and it undermines the faith of the innocent some pastors have these words of knowledge they command us to bring the money some givers have their names etched on window panes or pews sometimes they will buy a brick on a sidewalk there are plaques and certificates there are published names of generous contributors that are in the church special attention from the pastor from the pulpit that all contributes to this form of abuse Jesus said you give in that way you got your reward you get to walk over your name on that brick every time you walk into the church but that's as much as you got for that you see he says in verse three when you do a charitable deed do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing that your charitable deed may be in secret in your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly now he's not saying that open generosity is wrong he's speaking about the motives of your generosity your charitable deed he says in verse four is to be done in secret why because your father who sees in secret rewards it so give with humility and give to God and not before man to get their attention somebody said if we remember God will forget but if we forget God will remember you see ultimately we say to God according to Luke 1710 we are unprofitable servants we've done that which was our duty to do so we're not doing it to be seen by men we do what we do because it's an act of worship to God I was taught by my pastor something that I've taken into my ministry and it was this it's very simple principle and then we'll close with prayer anything that you do in church that draws attention to yourself takes attention from God make sure you don't take attention from God make sure all attention and glory goes to him and that is included in our giving it all is for him