Giving is a spiritual discipline...Matthew 6:1-4...The 2 ways to give

 

I got my feet wet in the alpine lake of Lake Parika after hiking 9 miles to get there.  A rise of about 2800 feet in elevation and 6 hours of breath taking scenery.  Parika Peak is behind me and someday I hope to summit it.  It takes some discipline to make these hikes.  It was another 3 hours to get back to the trailhead before heading home.

We ventured into Matthew 6 this week and what I call the trilogy of spiritual disciplines, giving, praying and fasting.  The similar language that Jesus uses in each of these shows us that each is important to the life of the believer.  It is interesting that He starts with the one that we might think less of as a spiritual discipline.  Maybe it is also the one that we as less to be diligent at even though it is probably the one most easily to keep these days.  We can now schedule our giving to be done and forget about it.  Pretty hard to do that with prayer and fasting.

The Bible gives us 2 ways to give.  This passage deals with one of them but it is good to know both.  We are to give corporately, the storehouse principle of Malachi 3:10, and we are to give privately, the consider the poor principle of Psalm 41:1.  It is good to note that it isn't just that we give but how we give that matters with different Biblical instructions for corporately and privately.  

I like to think of giving as investing in God with what God has provided.  The key is that we treat what we have as ultimately from Him.  It is the key to keeping Deuteronomy 16:17 (LSB) punctuated by its last phrase.  "Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which He has given you."  And after being told that we need to be cheerful givers in 2 Corinthians 9:7 (LSB) it is followed with these words in verse 8, "And God is able to make every grace abound to you, so that in everything at every time having every sufficiency, you may have an abundance for every good deed;" When I give God's way, I will have everything that I need and that will be more than enough to keep serving Him by serving others.

Lastly, the instruction to the rich churches in Corinth with the example of the poor churches in Macedonia who were generous givers beyond their means, Paul gives them these words that show us how much this giving practice is a spiritual discipline.  2 Corinthians 8:7 (LSB) says, "But just as you abound in everything, in faith and word and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also." What is this gracious work that we are to abound in also?  It is the spiritual discipline of giving.  We abound in a growing faith; we abound in a growing witness of Him; we abound in our knowledge and application of His word; we abound in our using of our spiritual gifts for His glory; we abound in our love of Him and others; and we are to abound in our generosity, corporately and individually.  

It was a good morning to preach this because we had visitors in the gathering and it showed our congregation that the chapter by chapter and verse by verse method of going through the Bible together helps us to grow in all that Jesus has said.

Adam