Confident Generosity

To watch the sermon Confident Generosity | Torah of the Kingdom Series

Download the Discussion Guide: Download

Download the 5 Day Devotional: Download

In this very room, we pulled out all these chairs and we set up tables and we taught somewhere between 100 and 150 people about the Passover. It was the first time since the inception of this church that I would say 80, 85% of the room had never done Passover before in any regard. And so it was amazing for us to have an eclectic group of individuals in this place to learn about the Last Supper, the Passover, the Jewishness of Jesus. And so, as a church, we traditionally do this feast in our homes. Ironically enough, this feast started in the homes of the ancient Israelites or the Hebrews in Egypt.

They slaughtered a lamb and they put blood on the doorpost of the house. And screams very similar to the ones we hear today were taking place that evening. Now, thankfully, pretty sure the child is alive. Those screams did not end with alive children in Egypt. It's okay, Max.

It's okay. It's going to be okay. Later tonight, you can have as much Pharaoh said as you want or dad allows you to have.

But tonight, families will gather and they will celebrate in their homes. I know some families in this place have multiple people over to their house. I know every year for us, when my family does it, we have people from all over the community who've never done Passover before in our home and invite them into the beauty of the Last Supper with Jesus. Over the 20 or so years we've been keeping Passover, memorializing Passover, celebrating Passover. Hi, Ezra.

How are you, Buddy? In the 20 years of doing that, sometimes we look very, very Jewish. I had a toled. I think John bought my tallit at the garage sale or something like that. I had a tallit back in the day.

You know, I was very Jewish in my approach. And honestly, we've done a Passover Seder where we had a taco bar and we watched the Passion of the Christ. It was the least Jewish Passover I've ever done. It will be the most memorable for my children, as my children were like, you're canceling Passover? Yes, we are.

You are not coming to the Lord's feast fighting like that. I'm talking to you, Eden. It's a warning for tonight. That's right.

The most important thing is not about what you do or how you do it, is that you come and you meet with the Lord. Is that you remember that in Egypt, if they did not put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost, they would have had their firstborn kill. If you do not come to know the Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ, you will be killed if you are not found to be covered by the blood of the Lamb and the word of the testimony that Jesus is your salvation. The revelation to John tells us, you're done. When you pass from this life, when you have the blood of the Lamb and the word of the testimony in your life, your eternal life starts that moment, that day.

This isn't some Mercy Me song where, like heaven is like this far off. It says, no, the. The kingdom is here. And so today, corporately, we're going to remember the words of Paul, Paul. After Jesus had sat in the upper room with his disciples, Paul comes later.

Jesus had taken the bread, he had taken the wine at that Passover Seder, at that Passover meal. And when they had thought about all the times and all the things that happened in Egypt and all the things that happened in Babylon, and all the Israel is cyclical. We do good, we get captured. We do good, we get captured. Let's have a feast.

And it's cyclical over and over and over again. That day, Jesus took the bread and he took the wine, and he instituted a monumental moment from what had happened in the past to what was happening in the present that would alter the future. And then three days later, everything changed. One of the things that's hit me the most this year is that we would go into the Passover season. We would go over and go into the Passover time together as a family.

And we would be so worried about, do we have the right elements on the plate? Is our heart posture right? Did we do it at the right time with the right date, with the right season and everything?

And we would overshadow the fact that the scripture tells us explicitly that he's risen. Now, there's prophecies that tell us these feasts that happen, some of them are feasts of mourning, some of them are feasts of deliverance. But there's prophecies that tell us there will be a shift that will happen where these days of mourning and remembrance will turn to great celebration and great joy. And while I believe that that's talking about the future kingdom, when we're with Christ, why start late? Why not start today?

Because tonight, when we go and we take and we break of the bread and we drink of the cup and we do these things and we're like, oh, Lord, thank you for giving your life. We already know that three days later, he came out of the tomb. We already know that he is the only one to conquer death. We already know that of all the Gods of Egypt and Mesopotamia and the United States of America and Britain and all of the other emperors that have been there. Our God chose to lay down his life versus asking for us to continually bring him and take the life of other things.

When you look at the Egyptian gods, they were constantly asking for sacrifices of humans and all these things. Icky stuff. You'll learn about it in homeschool science and homeschool history. Icky. Our God said, I'm gonna lay down my life for you so that you can have life.

That's pretty revolutionary. And then tomorrow, for those who are available, from 4 to 6pm we will join with Redeemer Church, Antioch, Norman and a whole lot of other churches, I believe Wildwood Baptist, whole lot of churches of Norman we're going to join with in Andrews Park. Andrews park is the place in Norman where we've been doing our PageCost outreach for two years. We're going to join from 4 to 6pm on a community prayer walk and we're going to pray for the city of Norman. We're going to pray for revival of the hearts and the spirits in this city, in this country, in this world.

And then next week we'll gather again for Sabbath and then some of you will see who the diehards are. Sunday morning we will gather in lions park at 8am for Resurrection Sunday and we will celebrate our risen king, the first fruits from the dead. Today I'd like to invite you corporately to come and join with us. So if you would. There's cup and there is unleavened bread.

I know the teaching elder. We're not into unleavened bread yet, but we have homemade unleavened bread. If it doesn't taste good, you can blame Eden. I think it tastes amazing. I ate like four of them.

So we're going to come together and we're going to have a time of what the Jews will call kiddush, but what the Christians call communion. To corporately remember the fact that the bread and the blood are the body and the blood of Jesus. And then tonight, as you do that around your home seder plates as your home table, remember this moment that we came together as a family and did it as well. So we're going to take just a brief pause, if you will. If you'll come and you'll come and get the elements up here in front and then we will do that together.

It's had come to that time.

It was time for Pesach in the first century, the time where the Israelites would have gone and they would have gathered their lamb. They would have brought it in to be inspected. They would have had it be with them for about four days. They would inspect to make sure that the lamb was spotless.

And they were preparing their hearts and their home for the Pesach, one of the most monumental days in all of Judaism, throughout all the Hebrew culture. If you're in Christ, Paul tells us that you're Abraham's seeds and heirs according to those same promises. It was the day that Yahweh Elohim had said at the base of the Red Sea, stand still and see your Yeshua, your salvation. And the seas parted, and they had come through. It was the passover season.

They had remembered.

And yet Jesus, as he rides into town on the donkey, they had no idea that he was the lamb being inspected.

He came. He stands before the religious leadership in Jerusalem. During the week, he had told his disciples, I like to think they're maybe a little bit like me. They didn't really understand exactly what was happening. They didn't really understand exactly what he was saying, Master, you're going to die for.

You're going to. You're going to leave us. You're going to give your life. It didn't stop them, even at the upper room, when Jesus said, in the midst of this, one of you will betray me. That's great.

But, Lord, who's the greatest? Come on. Is Tyson better than me? Come on, Lord, who's the greatest? Surely it's me.

It's not Tyson. I don't think they grasp the magnitude of what was happening in that space.

Paul tells us that whenever we take the cup, whenever we do the bread, whenever we come to the Pesach season, whenever we do these elements, we are to look inwardly into our hearts and into our minds, and we are to not partake of these in an unworthy manner.

Because there's a difference between us as 21st century apprentices of Jesus and those who were in the upper room. We know that he went to the cross. We know that he was put into the tomb, and we know that on three days later, he resurrected. They were wrestling with all of those things. At that point, it hadn't fully happened.

It hadn't fully taken place. We know that it has. We have the testimony in the Gospels that our king is alive, that our king passed over and is the first fruits of all who have fallen asleep. Yeshua.

So that when I stand face to face with the Lord, when you stand face to face and he starts going through the list of transgressions. And I promise they're going to be long.

I try, but they're going to be long.

And there's only one way that ledger gets wiped clean. It's not because trolling and I did some amazing business deal. It's not because I. I clothed somebody on the way out today. It's not because Brent and I found the Hebrew root word of this word in the scripture.

There's only one way that that ledger is going to be wiped clean, and that's Jesus. Because there's nothing that can wash away our sins but the blood of Jesus. And at that time, when he took the bread, he took it and he said, this is my body that is broken for you. Eat this in remembrance of me. Baruch ha yeshua eloheinu melek haolam.

Hamotzi lekem min haaretz. You may eat.

And then he took the cup, just as millions of Jewish people have done on Friday night for centuries.

I mean, he said, this is my blood, the blood of the new covenant. As often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. Baruch atah yeshua alohenu melek haolam bore pre haggafen. Amen. You may take the cup tonight as your families gather together for Pesach, for Passover, retelling the ancient story of our ancestors in Israel, in Egypt and Babylon and Persia.

Please don't forget that all of those shadows led to one Jesus, the Messiah, who takes away the sins of the world. Thank you.

Children are dismissed.

Shabbat shalom, everybody. Good morning.

Let's dive right in. Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap him in what he said. And they sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians, saying, teacher, we know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in truth and defer to no one, for you are not partial to any. Tell us then, what do you think? Is it lawful to give the poll tax to Caesar or not?

But Jesus perceived their malice and said, why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the poll tax. And they brought him a denarius. And he said to them, whose likeness and whose inscription is this? And they said to him, caesar's.

And he said, then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar and to God the things that are his. And hearing this, they were amazed. And leaving him, they went away. In what was probably a case study, in one of the most audacious acts of narcissism, ever recorded in human history. The Pharisees had the audacity to think that they could put the righteousness of Christ to the test.

Let me just give you some examples of the narcissism that they manifest. First, they sent their disciples because they thought they would. That would seem like a more legitimate test. I mean, these were probably younger men. And so if these younger men came and they were kind of like Jesus disciples, then maybe he would fall prey to thinking that they were genuine.

This is amazing. They used and abused the reputations of their own disciples to protect themselves. They sent with them the Herodians, whom they themselves knew it would be damaging to their reputation to be seen with. But they threw their own disciples under the bus and sent them with the Herodians whom they despised. They arrogantly believe they had set a trap for Jesus from which he could not escape.

If he says yes to paying taxes to Caesar, it will be easy to stir up the crowd that he is a lawbreaker. If he says no to paying taxes to Caesar, the Herodians who were with the disciples of the Pharisees would then just turn to their overlords and report Jesus as a usurper. They vainly believe they could trap by flattery while acknowledging that he does not show deference to any person because of status. And verse 16 is just a pure on schmooze fest. They admit that he teaches the way of God, which is righteousness.

While attempting to trap him with righteousness, they attempt to use their arrogant identity doctrine that they are the experts in righteousness as a trap for a man who everything he did was an act of righteousness. And as he did those acts of righteousness, the wind and the waves obeyed him and demons and disease fled from him. Yet they thought they could use their righteousness to put him to the test. They got one thing right. Righteousness is indeed a test.

Not to earn your way into the kingdom of heaven, but to see if the kingdom of heaven can actually be found in you. Will you pray with me? Lord, we have come to a incredibly important part of your sermon on the mount. Honestly and arguably, Lord, the most important part, for it defines for us righteousness. Father, I pray in Yeshua's name that these moments in this season when we are considering the lamb that was slain, the gift that was given, would you speak to our hearts through the preaching of your word, through the testimony of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds about the righteousness that you desire to be found in us?

This is my prayer and my plea in Jesus Name. Amen. So today's message title is the Torah of the Kingdom. Confident, Generosity. Now, I've been telling you repeatedly that righteousness is not just a quest for moral perfection.

I think you've heard me say that once or twice. It is not just the pursuit of a sinless life, though. All of that can be an act of righteousness if we're giving our mind and our bodies and our behavior to God. But it's not just a quest for moral to get something out of my life. It's to let something come into my life that transforms the way I do life, that transforms me from selfish to selfless, from a taker to a giver.

Just the other day, I had a young teenage boy tell me that he had asked me just kind of jokingly, if I had made Jesus Lord of my life. And I said, yes, I had. I said, of you. And he kind of hemmed and hawed and whispered something. And as I went down and stood there beside him, asked, what did you say?

He goes, well, trying to stop cussing. I wanted to say, so am I.

I said, you know, even the preacher has to watch his mouth now and again. Jesus isn't looking for you to clean yourself up and be perfect. He's waiting for you to recognize that he is the one that can clean you and he is perfect. But this little moment with this young man just stressed this mentality that we have that righteousness is somehow revolves around me making myself clean. And the Bible definition is the doing of righteousness is the idea of giving graciously, giving generously, because that is the transformative thing God has done for us, man.

Jesus blew their minds that day on the Sermon on the Mount when he said, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. In my prayer, I said, this may be the most important part of the entire Sermon on the Mount, because this morning we're going to see where Jesus uses the definition of righteousness that I've been trying to share with you is the ancient biblical definition of righteousness, the idea of giving. When we come To Matthew chapter 6, Jesus begins to give the greater interpretation, or what we are calling his Torah of the Kingdom, the application for what doing righteousness should look like. And here's the thing. Contextually, you have to understand that was one of the biggest things on the hearts and minds of the Jewish people who.

Those who really had a heart for God, they had the Torah, they had the instructions, and they wanted to know how to Walk that out. If it was the law of righteousness, it was the instruction of righteousness. How should we do that? It was a huge issue for them. And Jesus is now going to create a juxtaposition between what Jesus is going to teach us about how to live and do.

Righteousness versus the scribes and Pharisees. Please understand that these verses we are about to read changed the playing field. This was a nuclear bomb. This was a moment when the crowds began to realize what he is saying is a different definition and application. Not the definition of righteousness is different, but the application of how you do it.

When we come to this place, quite honestly, because we've come to this chapter so many times, those of us who have been raised in the church, to be honest, we come to this scripture and sometimes we yawn. But when Jesus spoke these words, the scribes and the Pharisees wanted to yell because they knew they were in the crosshairs of truth. Matthew, chapter 6, verses 1 through 4. Beware of practicing your righteousness or doing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. Otherwise you will have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues, in the streets, so they may be honored by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, did you see that? Did you see how Jesus just defined righteousness? But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret.

And your Father, who sees what is done in secret will. Will reward you. This morning I want to try to glean three main points that I want to share with you about this definition of righteousness and what Jesus is telling us to do. First one is this. The Torah of the kingdom is simply this.

Give in the confident assurance of your reward. Given the confident assurance of your reward. You know, the writer of Hebrews frames this confidence. We have to have quite well listen to what he says in Hebrews 11:6. And without faith it is impossible to please him.

For he who comes to God literally in the Greek, the one who is drawing near must believe that he is, that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. Whoever the writer of Hebrews was, he is echoing the words of Jesus that those who seek God in faith must have confidence, absolute assurance of two things. Number one, that he is. That he exists. Because that is the first motivating factor of why any of us would ever choose a life of giving.

Because if he doesn't live, if he doesn't exist and there's nothing, it's just me and whatever the allotted time is I have on this world, then I need to stop worrying about giving to others and just take care of me. Because, you know, I've got 80, 85, 90 years to life if I get that. But if he exists, then the equation changes. And if I know that he exists, I have to trust him. Secondly, I have to have the knowledge that God does reward those who intensely and intentionally seek him.

There are two men that come to mind in the New Testament who fall into that category. The first one is Cornelius in Acts, chapter 10. The first Gentile Roman citizen, a Roman centurion, upon whom the Holy Spirit. He's the first to have the ruach Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit poured out from heaven on him, just as he had. The Holy Spirit had been poured out in Jerusalem on the Jewish worshipers there for Pentecost.

But the Bible says why God chose him to be the first. Luke records in Acts 10 that he gave many alms to the people. Alms means charitable giving, and prayed to God continually. And these aren't just some alms. This is a man who is giving to the poor, he's giving to the Jewish people.

And he is a man who is described not only as a God seeker or a God fearer. He is a God seeker. This is a man who is probably a proselyte to Judaism. He's stepped away from the idolatry of the Roman religions and he now confesses the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But what really caught God's attention and the reason God chose him was because he was a man who gave.

God tells Peter, I saw this man. I took note of what he's doing in his life. And what was the reward? Wow. To be forever.

It's always fun to be the first, right? To be forever known as the first to receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit outside the context of the physical descendants of Abraham. That's pretty cool. A second man comes to mind, the earthly father of Jesus, a man named Joseph, whom the scriptures describe as a righteous man. That's actually a very formal Jewish accolade.

He is a sadiq. He's a righteous one. Which means Joseph was known as a man who was of charity, of graciousness and giving. And where do we see the righteousness of Joseph? We see it in how he was going to Treat Mary when it became obvious that she was with child.

What does the Bible tell us? That he purposed in his heart to send her away quietly, to not shame her, to not demean, to give grace. He was a sadiq and God chose him because of it. These men were chosen by God and they were rewarded. I cannot overstress the importance God's Word places on this topic.

Do you know and want to stop cussing?

I guess you guys all mastered it. Then give the Lord your mouth.

Do you know and want to draw near to God? Then start giving to others in confidence that he is and he knows and it matters to Him. Confident generosity. And it's possible to draw near to him in confident generosity when we know who he is. But this topic is so important that it doesn't start with a blessed are those who.

It starts with not a blessing, but a beware. Beware of doing righteousness, giving charity before men to be noticed by them. If you do, you will have no reward in heaven. The new American standard says of practicing your righteousness, literally doing righteousness. I promise you that everyone in the crowd knew exactly who he was talking about because there was no one in that crowd that liked to be known and acknowledged for their giving more than the scribes and Pharisees.

Now, I don't want to throw all Pharisees under the bus. We're talking about that generation, the Pharisee and scribe leadership of that generation. They not only recognize themselves as righteous, but they wanted everybody else to be impressed with it. But doing righteousness isn't just about giving to others. It's about the motive for how we draw near to God and why we're giving to others.

This topic is so important that Jesus begins to address it first with a warning. Lest we give for all the wrong reasons. When we give our offerings and tithes and charitable gifts to help people, we must do it with full confidence and assurance that he knows and he cares and he rewards those who give generously. How many of you want to be chosen by God? I mean, how many of you would like to go from this place, this day and know that sometime this week the Lord is going to meet you?

You are going to find yourself probably in an awkward position, an awkward situation. And God has chosen to you in that moment because you have chosen to trust that he is and that he will reward you and that you can give generously.

That's the kingdom of heaven. I want the kingdom of heaven to manifest in my life, but I've said it over and over again. It will not manifest for selfishness. But when you get selfless, you watch how fast the Holy Spirit shows up.

It's so critically important, it guards our heart from turning the one thing God wants to see as the evidence of our relationship with him into just another self serving act of narcissism. And that's what makes this moment in the final week of Jesus with the Pharisees so outrageous. The Pharisees are absolutely correct in their understanding of the significance of of righteousness. And yet the ones who claim to know the most about it know nothing.

You see how corrupting selfishness can really be.

They literally use righteousness to try to trap the righteousness of God.

So Jesus has to begin with a warning.

Remember the value he puts on our righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees. He says, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now he says, if you're given giving is actually done, is driven by selfishness and not righteousness. You will have no reward in heaven. Again, it's not about you earning your way into the kingdom of heaven, it's whether or not you have actually allowed the kingdom of heaven to enter you.

Because when it does, it will transform you to fully from selfishness to selflessness. And you will begin giving in ways you never thought you could. I read a book one time by a preacher who apparently had the gift of giving away cars. And the book wasn't about him patting himself on the back. It's just he never believed he'd ever be in a position to do that.

And it happened once and God provided the way for it to happen. And then it just kept happening. I mean, how many of you would like to be in a position to be able to give somebody a car? See me over here. Mine's getting a little, you know.

So here's the hard truth many of us don't want to face. Sometimes our lack of giving is not the lack of resources to give. It's the lack of confident assurance that God is actually paying attention to our giving. And a lack of true faith that he will reward those who place drawing near to him over clinging to our stuff that hurts. Let's call it what it is.

It's idolatry. Our God is the image we see in the mirror because we make our lives all about how people see us. This is Phariseeism. We literally want people to idolize us. We want to be the idol in somebody else's eyes.

You know, we're all asking ourselves, what's happened to America? The American dream? Has turned into the American nightmare. I can explain it in one word. Selfishness and a self centered church and self centered disciples have no message to save a self indulgent nation.

This is the importance of righteousness.

A selfish Christian is not going to stand out in a crowd of selfish people. But a selfless God seeking, confident, generous giver will not only be noticed by men but will be chosen by God to be a vehicle of the kingdom of heaven.

Pick me God.

That's what I want.

I don't want to live my life knowing that God had to look to somebody else because I was so busy looking at myself. This is. This is the righteousness that changes the world. And it stood in such contrast to the behavior of the scribes and Pharisees. Second main point, given confident anonymity as a requisite or a requirement.

What's a requisite? It just means a requirement. We must give in confident anonymity, meaning we don't need others to know it was us. Matthew 6:2 3. Jesus says, so when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and streets so that they may be honored by men.

Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Jesus tells us we must do our acts of righteousness in confident anonymity, meaning not only do we get do we not give to be seen, but we give in such a way so as not to be seen or draw attention to ourselves. Why would Jesus teach us to give anonymously? Well, let's be honest.

We kind of like that feeling of when we've given to somebody, how they react to us. I mean, it's fun to give and he's not trying to take that away from you. But the minute we fall in the trap of we're going to give just so that they know that we gave. Now I have to be. I have to insert a qualification here.

Everybody repeat after me. Don't be dumb. Write that down in your notes. You heard it here first. Don't be dumb.

What do I mean by that? Don't do what the Pharisees did to the righteous instructions of God and add rules upon rules. When Jesus says, you know, give anonymously. Excuse me. When Jesus fed the 5000, guess how many people knew he did it?

Well, at least 5,000. When he fed the 4,000, how many people knew Jesus did it? Well, at least 4,000. When Jesus healed the blind When Jesus healed the 10 lepers, how many people knew? Don't be dumb.

And what I mean by that is this. Don't turn this into a thing where, well, I can only give cash offerings because if I sign my check, someone will know I gave and then I'll lose my blessing. Don't be dumb. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about the motive of the heart.

If God knows why you are giving, then he knows the circumstance of the need you are giving to meet. But he also knows the motive of your heart. If I roll down my window from my car and I hand a few bucks out the window to someone who's hungry, guess what? That man or woman knows I'm the one that gave it. Well, I'd love to.

I'd love to help you, sir. I'm sorry you're starving. But if I give you money, you'll know I'm the one that gave it.

So you're just gonna have to sit there and be hungry while I sit here and be self. Right. This is what I mean. Don't be dumb. Don't create ludicrous.

Listen, sometimes trying to be anonymous in your giving becomes an impediment to meeting an urgent need. Jesus isn't trying to shackle your hands and say, oh, you can't. Sometimes you gotta. You gotta dig in. You gotta give right now.

And they may know who it is. That's not what he's talking about. The anonymousness that he's talking about is a heart that doesn't need to be noticed. That's what he's talking about. Remember we talked about an eye for an eye is not a standard or law of vengeance.

It's. It's a. It's a. It's a standard by which the courts would give justice to those who had been wronged. If there's a right way to do justice, then there's a right way to do generosity and charitable giving.

And Jesus says that standard is not to have the motive to be seen or noticed by men. Now, Jesus uses a Hebrew wordplay that comes right out of the temple. He says, do not sound a trumpet before you when you give. In Hebrew, the word for trumpet is. Or sounding a trumpet is teruah.

In Exodus, God calls Moses to collect an offering only from the hearts of those who wish to give. Please remember that he didn't want anybody's money that didn't want to give. And that word for offering is teruma. So Jesus used a little Hebrew rhyme. He was Throwing down, you know some rhythm.

Don't announce your teruma with a teruah. Now you may have noticed that my sermon points this morning are all alliterated. Jesus did it to back off me. It's a way to help you remember. Don't announce your teruma with your teruah.

He did it. I can do it.

Jesus tells us to give in confidence. Assurance Four real quick things. First he says do it not for the motive to be known. Again we're talking about motive. Do I want to be known as a righteous man?

Absolutely. But the motive of my heart is to be known by God. Jesus said in John 13 a new commandment I give to you that you love one another. As I have loved you. You also love one another.

By this all men will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another. I don't want to be known by men. I want to be known as a man who loves God. Number two, not to be seen.

How we choose to give will expose whether or not we are giving to be known. If we give in a manner to be seen, then it's pretty good bet we are giving so that we will be seen. Now I want you to know something about this very high tech room that we're in. There are cameras everywhere. There are no cameras pointed at the buckets by the door for your giving.

We have a person to watch. He takes names. No, I'm just kidding.

You can give in confidence that the Lord sees. Number three, give to meet genuine needs. Don't be dumb and don't be numb. Remember what he talked. We talked about what he said about, you know when someone comes and needs to borrow some money.

Not every single time is it going to be the wise thing to do to loan them money. And sometimes you may not have it to give. Peter and John looked at a man and said, I mean he's begging for money. And what did Peter say? Silver and gold have I none.

But such as I have, I give you. Sometimes what they really need is not money. They need a friend.

Fourthly, give for the sake of love, not leverage. As a young minister I was told by a man, the more you preach on giving, the less I'm going to give. I wished I had been smart enough to say I'm going to save you a lot of money. But I didn't. I know of an elder who sent a letter to a church telling them to withhold their offering to leverage the leadership.

So those of you who are gathered here, members and visitors alike, let me tell Explain something to you about the offerings you do give here. It gets you nothing. It buys you no leverage in this assembly. You don't buy influence. It's not a membership fee.

Your offerings are given as offerings of praise to God. And if that's not what they are, please keep your cursed blessings in your pocket. That's just so harsh, Brent. How dare you? God said, only take from those who have a heart to give.

You want to walk? Well, he's just berating me, trying to force me to give. Don't give.

Our God knows and will supply.

Had a man accused me one time of favoring the big givers in the church, my response was less than pleasant.

Because in the history of my ministry, I have never once asked to see or know who gives what in the church, and I never will. I saw a preacher online say that he used to believe the way I believe, but changed his mind because why should he let naysayers who give nothing drive the direction of the church? He has a point, but it's too risky for me. The Torah teaches us not to let our judgment be swayed either by someone's poverty or by their wealth. I don't want to know.

Your gifts are between you and God. Give because of love, not leverage. Give because freely you have received. Freely give. And if you forget about the danger of trying to leverage the church or leverage your giving for your own reputation, I would have you turn to Acts 5 and remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira.

Early believers who sold a piece of land and tried to represent that they were giving the whole price of the land to the church, when in fact they were only giving half. And both of them were carried out in body bags. Why? Because they were lying to the Holy Spirit. And it was a cautionary tale for us.

Given confident assurance that God will reward you, give in confident anonymity that he knows and that's enough. Number three. Give in confident affection because your relationship with Jesus. This third kind of confidence is the kind we use to describe a relationship of trust with someone. The affection I have received from Jesus becomes the driving force of what causes me to want to love as he loved and give as he gave.

Because I have freely received from him. I freely give, have the affection of the Father in Jesus words. Hear the affection of the Father in Jesus words, he said, and your Father, who sees what is done in heaven in secret, will reward you. Parents, how many times have you plotted to surprise your children with something great? That's the heart of a parent and the heart of Our Heavenly Father is that when he looks down and he sees someone who doesn't need to be seen and doesn't need to be known and isn't giving to leverage, but they're giving out of love.

The heart of the Father is stirred to reward his children. Our giving needs to be an expression of our affection for Jesus. And while you may think that's the easiest of the points that I've made today, it actually holds the most difficult thing I need to say about giving.

If we are known by Jesus and we claim to be in covenant with him, but we do not love as he loved, and we do not share as he shared, and we do not give as he gave, how well do we really know Him?

Do you have someone in your life that, when you met them, really got to know them, they started to change you husbands, we're talking about your wives.

My wife told me, don't eat that piece of pizza that's been laying out there all night. Oh, I do that all the time when I'm a bachelor.

While hovering over the I had a revelation. Hearken to the voice of your wife. She changed me. Now I ask how long has that been out? Because when you're in relationship with somebody, it changes you be in relationship with Jesus, but if you claim to be in relationship with Jesus, don't think that he will not change the way you love, change the way you share and change the way you give.

Because if those things aren't changing in your life, righteousness is a test.

Not to see if you merit the kingdom of heaven, but to see if the kingdom of heaven has actually begun manifesting in you.

How do I know if my heart is beating with his? On the topic of righteousness, well, let me share a few kind of negative things and we'll jump to a positive. If your first response to the topic of giving is, well, how much do I have to give?

The Kingdom disciple does not view giving as the source of burden, but a source of blessing because it connects to his heart. And if that's the first thing that you want to talk about is your obligation, conversation's over.

If your first response is, well, the tithe was Old Testament and I don't have to do that anymore. I saw that this week on the Internet. There is no temple and a preacher, he is sure not a Levite. So I don't have to listen. If you think if your position is, well, I don't have to tithe, you're absolutely right because the tithe is no longer the standard of your Giving the cross is the standard of your giving.

Remember that little thing I said about putting the cross like a dollar sign in front of something? Putting the cross in front of your name, that's how much you cost and that's what you ought to give. That's what we all ought to give. I mean, do you understand how Pharisaic that question, that whole thing is? Well, Jesus, listen, okay, I know what the law says, but here we have these Romans.

Are we really supposed to pay taxes? Do you realize you're taking a page right out of the playbook of the Pharisees? I'm going to pretend that I'm really just. I really just want to know what God wants. I'll tell you what he wants.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Freely you have given. Freely give. Don't turn away the brother or the sister who has any. Don't be dumb and don't be numb.

If you're sitting here dismissing this topic because you think it's a self serving preacher thing, know this. We are not ever going to lock the doors until you give more. Have you seen that on the Internet?

In fact, if you think your giving makes you more important in this congregation or you think your giving is going to be used to leverage the leadership, not only will we not lock the door, we will kindly escort you to an open one.

We don't want your curse blessings. We don't want you leveraging the church or God worship team. You can come back. What we want is to be a congregation that after generations and generations and generations of wrestling with the instructions in righteousness, the laws of righteousness, that we find ourselves so focused on this subject because it was honestly, I mean, look at the Pharisees. The last ditch thing they try to do with Jesus is on the topic he starts with from the beginning, exposing them.

I mean, how important is this subject? You realize that one in every six verses in the New Testament is about giving. This is the heart of God. This is the affection of Christ that changes us. And as a leadership of this church, we want to be engaged in doing righteousness and we want to do it selflessly.

We don't want to just do acts of righteousness. We don't want to just go feed people so they'll come become a member of our church.

We're not trying to grow our kingdom by doing acts of righteousness. We're trying to show somebody the love of Christ. Now that doesn't mean those acts of righteousness can't present some very powerful moments to meet. Not only Their physical need, but their spiritual need, their greater need. But the goal is not us, it's them.

It's meeting their needs. A self centered church just has no hope of challenging or changing the course of a self indulgent nation. And that's why I preach with this with such passion. Because quite honestly, I didn't understand what righteousness really was. I'm standing here telling you this changed my life.

Doing righteousness is fun.

And any believer that truly wants to have those Kingdom moments, those divine appointments, anybody here want those.

Anybody that doesn't want to be least in the Kingdom, but wants to be great in the Kingdom, that doesn't just mean having a bigger mansion in glory. It means having a greater opportunity and manifestation of his presence in our life. That we want to be chosen to be used by him and for him as he moves through us. I want that. We want to be a church that believes in divine appointments and kingdom manifestations.

And that begins with some very simple words. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these other things will be added to you as well. This is the Torah of the Kingdom. Confident generosity.

As Jesus entered the city, they shouted hosanna to the Son of David. They were shouting, praise the Lord for the one that God has sent, the One that heaven has given. What a moment for those who were true believers, who truly recognize that the giving of Yeshua changes everything. Tonight or whenever you celebrate the Passover, as you partake of that un unleavened bread, it's the body he gave for you. As you participate in the four cups of wine and deliverance, it is the blood that he shed for you.

If there's ever a season to commit our hearts to righteousness, it is this season. And tomorrow, when around the world people will be celebrating Jesus as the first fruits of the empty tomb, we will be remembering that he is the One who gave his life for us, but also took his life up for us so he could give us life, the resurrection. That's our identity. I say again, this is the Torah of the Kingdom. Do righteousness love passionately.

Do generosity as Jesus has done so for.