Sunday, October 18, 2020

PT-4 "The Practice and Reward of True Giving" (Matt. 6:3-4)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/18/2020 8:13 PM

 

My Worship Time                                  Focus:  PT-4 “The Practice and Reward of True Giving”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 6:3-4

 

            Message of the verses:  3 "But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing 4 that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”

 

            We want to finish up the last four principles from Scripture to guide us in nonhypocritical giving as we looked at the first three in our last SD.

 

            Number four is that material giving correlates to spiritual blessings.  That sounds good to me and hopefully to you also.  The Lord will not trust those who are not faithful with mundane things such as money if they cannot handle other possessions, so the Lord will not entrust things that are of greater value.  Luke 16:11-12 tells us “11 “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? 12 “And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?”

 

            MacArthur writes “Many young men have dropped out of seminary because they could not handle money, and the Lord did not want them in His ministry.  Others have begun in the ministry but later dropped out for the same reason.  Still others remain in the ministry but produce little fruit because God will not commit the care of eternal souls to them when they cannot even manage their own finances.  Spiritual influences and effectiveness have a lot to do with how well finances are handled.”

 

            Now we move to number five:  Giving is to be personally determined.  “Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7).  We cannot give from a legalistic percentages or quotas if we want to give righteously, for righteous giving is done from a righteous and generous heart.  If we were to look at 2 Cor. 8:1-2 we would see that the Macedonian Christians gave abundantly out of a deep financial poverty because spiritually they were rich in love.  Also the Philippians believers gave out of the spontaneous generosity of their hearts, and not because they felt compelled as seen in Philippians 4:15-18).

 

            Sixth, we are to give in response to need.  As we go through the NT letters, including Acts, we see a thread of giving that Paul talks about as he would collect money from some of the early churches that he began to help the struggling people in Jerusalem.  Paul was not even sure that the Jerusalem church would take the money because it came from Gentiles, but they did and this was an answer to his prayer.  There was a need and God used others in the church to meet the need.

 

            Lastly, giving demonstrates love, not law.  I we look through the NT we do not see how much we are to give as seen in the OT.  The percentage we give will be determined by the love of our hearts and the needs of others.  I have heard sermons stating that we ought to begin with a tithe, that is 10%, and that means before anything is taken out of our checks such as taxes.  I have also heard if the Jews could give 10% because it was their law we should do that because we are living under grace. 

 

10/18/2020 8:37 PM

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