Matthew 6:1 Take heed that ye do not alms before men to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Another serious warning from Jesus, Friends. Yesterday we dealt with His teaching on prayer, today it’s alms giving or charitable deeds. Again, just like with prayer, we should not be charitable to mainly gain recognition for ourselves, to be considered important, or generous, or wonderful philanthropists. It’s not about us, but about pleasing God. And if we do it simply to impress or please men, then God offers us no reward. What a loss! For we all know the great rewards the Father has in store for those obedient to His will. ‘Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward’ (vs.2) There it is again; that ominous note in Jesus’ voice about the rewards of the hypocrites. I doubt it will be a good reward. So to avoid that unpleasant return people, we should not be publicizing, making a big deal of our charitable efforts. No boasting and beating of our chests, informing the whole world of how charitable we are. ‘But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.’ (vs.3) We should give so freely, cheerfully and spontaneously, hopefully giving with both hands, keeping each too busy to notice the other. ‘That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.’ (vs.4) Yes Friends, that’s the way our Lord operates; do your deeds quietly, and He’ll reward you openly, and have the hypocrites stammering about injustice. ‘But..huh..how come they get all that eh, and doh seem to do no charitable work? While we, yes we,’ pointing to themselves, ‘who everybody knows, do so much and give so much, yet only get this little bit?’ Hn,hn! I think the Lord gets a kick out of the hypocrites incomprehension of their measly rewards for plenty work. But as we said yesterday people, and will keep on saying, it all comes right back to the state of our hearts; our motives and reasons for our actions. If our motives aren’t right, the Lord will ignore us. The hypocrites motives are completely wrong, they give to please, to impress, and receive recognition from men; ‘everybody knows’ that’s their trump card. But those who receive great rewards, do it quietly, without a lot of hoopla and fanfare; to please God, not to gain human recognition. That’s the whole crux of the matter people; pleasing God or pleasing man. Remember Friends, God despises pride more than most sins. He dislikes them all, but apparently the proud, arrogant, overconfident person, just seems to get His dander up rather fiercely. There’s nothing wrong with doing charitable deeds publicly, in fact, we’re commanded to give generously and cheerfully of our time, talents and resources, it’s just when we adopt the wrong attitude and wrong motive, that it becomes ugly and does us more harm than good. So Friends, let’s give generously in faith, and do good unceasingly to those in need. If others find out, fine, acknowledge it, but don’t keep score and beam it to the whole world. Our God doesn’t take kindly to that. And we want to displease Him as little as possible. And when we pray, ask Him to help us increase our giving, so that we may have more to unselfishly offer the needy. Much LOVE!…our giving…should be…to please God…not man…
Another serious warning from Jesus, Friends. Yesterday we dealt with His teaching on prayer, today it’s alms giving or charitable deeds. Again, just like with prayer, we should not be charitable to mainly gain recognition for ourselves, to be considered important, or generous, or wonderful philanthropists. It’s not about us, but about pleasing God. And if we do it simply to impress or please men, then God offers us no reward. What a loss! For we all know the great rewards the Father has in store for those obedient to His will. ‘Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward’ (vs.2) There it is again; that ominous note in Jesus’ voice about the rewards of the hypocrites. I doubt it will be a good reward. So to avoid that unpleasant return people, we should not be publicizing, making a big deal of our charitable efforts. No boasting and beating of our chests, informing the whole world of how charitable we are. ‘But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.’ (vs.3) We should give so freely, cheerfully and spontaneously, hopefully giving with both hands, keeping each too busy to notice the other. ‘That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.’ (vs.4) Yes Friends, that’s the way our Lord operates; do your deeds quietly, and He’ll reward you openly, and have the hypocrites stammering about injustice. ‘But..huh..how come they get all that eh, and doh seem to do no charitable work? While we, yes we,’ pointing to themselves, ‘who everybody knows, do so much and give so much, yet only get this little bit?’ Hn,hn! I think the Lord gets a kick out of the hypocrites incomprehension of their measly rewards for plenty work. But as we said yesterday people, and will keep on saying, it all comes right back to the state of our hearts; our motives and reasons for our actions. If our motives aren’t right, the Lord will ignore us. The hypocrites motives are completely wrong, they give to please, to impress, and receive recognition from men; ‘everybody knows’ that’s their trump card. But those who receive great rewards, do it quietly, without a lot of hoopla and fanfare; to please God, not to gain human recognition. That’s the whole crux of the matter people; pleasing God or pleasing man. Remember Friends, God despises pride more than most sins. He dislikes them all, but apparently the proud, arrogant, overconfident person, just seems to get His dander up rather fiercely. There’s nothing wrong with doing charitable deeds publicly, in fact, we’re commanded to give generously and cheerfully of our time, talents and resources, it’s just when we adopt the wrong attitude and wrong motive, that it becomes ugly and does us more harm than good. So Friends, let’s give generously in faith, and do good unceasingly to those in need. If others find out, fine, acknowledge it, but don’t keep score and beam it to the whole world. Our God doesn’t take kindly to that. And we want to displease Him as little as possible. And when we pray, ask Him to help us increase our giving, so that we may have more to unselfishly offer the needy. Much LOVE!…our giving…should be…to please God…not man…
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