How does God want us to give? What kind of spirit should we cultivate as we give with our financial resources?

Welcome to the line of fire, Michael Brown. We're continuing to study the words of Jesus.

We're in the sermon on the Mount. Now Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse 1.

And Jesus is going to talk to us about giving,

about praying, about fasting, how to do it in a way that honors the Lord, how to do it in a way

that gets us a heavenly reward, how to do it in a way that is not for human eyes, but for the eyes of the Lord. And look, let's be honest,

our flesh often wants to be recognized. Our flesh often wants the praise of people.

Jesus said, go ahead, get it, but that's all you get. That's your reward. And it reminds me of a story in a particular town in Eastern Europe decades ago when the Jewish population was larger there.

And there was a miserly Jewish man, very rich, but incredibly miserly, that when the people would go around the town

making collections for the Jewish community and to help the poor and urgent needs in the

community, he'd always send the people away, no, no, go away, go away.

And everyone thought, what a greedy man, what a selfish man. He's so rich that he of all people

should be giving and helping. And all he does is send the people away. Go away. Go away.

Well, when he died, suddenly they realized there was a massive gap in meeting the needs of the poor and other emergencies in the community that their funds were way, way, way down.

And they learned that this man was giving all the money, but he wanted to be so sure that he got no credit for it from human beings that he acted the opposite.

It's extreme. Yes, I get it. I get it. But that's a lesson there.

That's a lesson. And we have to ask ourselves, if nobody on the planet ever found out what we were

doing, would we do it just the same? Hopefully the answer is yes. Many times there's a dual motive.

Yes, I want to do good, but I want to be known too. Yes, I want heavenly reward, but I like my earthly reward too.

Jesus said it's one or the other.

So, Rabbi Yeshua teaches us, be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others

to be seen by them. These are literally your acts of righteousness. And in Jewish thought

...