It's good to be back again this week for another sermon. I hope that everyone had a good week. Just as I was starting to lose all faith in humanity, something happened this week that gave me a flicker of hope. I was parked outside the library on Sunday when someone struck my car. When I came out of the building, I found a note on my car. The woman who hit my car apologized and gave me all of her insurance information. When the insurance adjuster came on Wednesday, he said that I'd met one of the few honest people. He said that 90% of the time that people did not leave a note. I thank this honest person. May God bless her.
Last week's message was a little controversial. I trust that I explained my understanding of Jesus' teaching in such a way that everyone had a firm grasp of why I interpreted Jesus' teaching the way that I did.
I believe that it is important for Christians to be people of peace and peacemakers in this world. One thing that we can all do is pray each day for peace in this world. The world is filled with war and violence. Let us pray for peace, and work for peace with justice.
I know that the only true peace among nations will come when Jesus comes again. At that time, He will rule and reign in righteousness. All will be at peace and all war will cease.
The only way that people can know true peace in their lives is through a personal relationship with Jesus. He brings forgiveness and freedom from sin and guilt. He brings peace to the troubled soul.
Starting today, we move into Matthew chapter 6. This begins an entirely different aspect of Jesus' teaching. Verses 1 through 14 in the chapter deal with Jesus' teaching about hypocrisy and His teaching concerning alms, prayer and fasting.
In this section, Jesus begins by saying in verse 1, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them: otherwise you have no reward with your Father in Heaven." This idea carries out through much of chapter 6. As followers of Jesus, we are not to do what is good in order to receive the praise of other people. We are not to act in such a way as to draw attention to ourselves so that others may see and say, "Look what a wonderful and spiritual person that is." Jesus speaks about practicing what is good to be seen by God. We should seek the approval of God and not people.
Before I go on to talk about this in the context of giving alms, let's focus for a moment on the three classifications of righteous acts that Jesus mentions. If Jesus focused so much attention on these three specific acts, we should pay special attention.
The acts of giving alms, prayer and fasting should be practiced by all committed followers of Jesus Christ. Almost everyone I know prays on a regular basis. This aspect of the Christian life is the focus of much teaching. Fasting has been less emphasized in many Christian circles. However, it is mentioned throughout the Bible as an important spiritual discipline. Giving alms to those in need is another element of the Christian life that needs more attention.
Today, we will focus on giving alms to those in need. There can be little doubt that there is much need in this world. Millions in this world live on less than one dollar a day. Millions of children do not have enough to eat. Here, in my country, over 15% of the people are below the poverty level. There are large numbers of homeless people, including children.
Christians should give to those in need. Jesus speaks as if it is a settled point that His followers will be people who give to help others in need.
I've said this before, but I say it again. I believe that every church should have some type of ministry set up for those in need. People are hurting and need more help.
The important point about giving is that we don't draw attention to ourselves. We are to give and do our charitable acts with as much anonymity as possible. It's not possible to remain anonymous many times, but we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves for our charitable acts.
For instance, many philanthropic people accept awards of have things named in their honor. Others require that a building be named for them as condition of a gift. According to Jesus, this should not be. When we receive the accolades of people, we won't receive them from the Lord. If we give in secret, the Lord will reward us abundantly in the life to come.
I'll give another example of what I think Jesus had in mind. When I was a boy in church, our church took pledges for the budget once a year. Instead of writing your pledge on a card and turning it in, the people were supposed to stand and state in public how much they would give to the church in the upcoming year. I don't think that Jesus would approve of this type of thing.
I hope that everyone can find some way to give to those in need. It might not be monetarily. You might be able to give your time to help people who could really use a friend.
Whatever we do to help others, we should do and give our best because we are doing it as unto the Lord.
Next week, I will just focus briefly on prayer. I went through a series of messages on Jesus' teachings on prayer a few months ago, so I invite you to review these messages if you would like. On Wednesday, I will post another chapter of the book about Toby. Amen.
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