Sermon presented by Gary Antion on May 17, 2014 in the Cincinnati East, Ohio congregation.

How charitable are you?  There are lots of charities out there. Wounded Warrior Project for soldiers, coming back wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan and other areas; Feed the Children program – helping to look after children who are starving in various parts of our country and around the world. There is the Red Cross, United Way, Cancer Funds, LifeNets, Make a Wish Foundation, the Fire Fighters and the Police and your Church.  Now you could probably add a lot of others.

It usually happens - I sit down after a busy week after dinner, sitting in my chair and the phone rings. I don’t recognize the number but I listen to it anyway and the fellow says:  “Hi, Gary.  You gave ex-number of $ to the Fire Fighters or the National Police Association”, and I did. “You gave it last year and we want to sign you up for the same amount or more.  What would you like us to put down again?”  So you know what?  I got conned.  I don’t mean conned. I was asked to do that a couple of times and what I say now, because believe me, a couple of times I gave double.  I forgot what I gave the first time and thought that I might be helping them. So first I say, Sir, I just have a question.  Are you the National Police?  So you don’t really take care of Arcadia or, not Arcadia, Batavia, you don’t really take care of Milford. That is where I usually am.  I would rather give to them.  They are the one’s that are looking after us.  Why are you asking me?

So, if you are not careful, and there was a whole alert when I looked up on charitable organizations, there was a whole alert about being scammed particularly with these wild fires that are out in California now.  People are getting after, setting up a website and saying, contribute to help these poor people and people are giving in to them and the FBI is looking into it.  They are scamming them.

So, you have to be careful in this day and age about charitable giving. One man tried to teach his son something about giving and I want to share that with you to start with.  It is from Fifteen Thousand Quotations.  This is number 4174 if you want to check me out.

“Hoping to develop his son’s character, a father once gave him a penny and a quarter as he was leaving for Sunday School.  ‘Now Peter’, the Father said to his son, ‘you put whichever one you want in the offering plate’ (he said).  When the boy returned his father asked what coin he had given.  Peter answered:  ‘Well, just as they sent the plate around the preacher said the Lord loves a cheerful giver and I knew I could give the penny a lot more cheerfully than I could give the quarter.’”  So, I guess the preacher shot himself in the foot with that. 

Charity means voluntary giving of help to those in need.  That’s according to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia.  The word “charity” came from the French word charité, excuse my pronunciation, which was a translation of a Latin word, caritas, which was the Latin for the Greek word agape. There is a reason why it was called charity.

Now in the Old Testament you find no mention of the word charity and in fact I checked, at least my Concordance that I checked, it is the Exhaustive, there is no mention of alms in the Old Testament.  The Jewish peoples, the Hebrew peoples, took it upon themselves to give charity to take care of the poor and in fact the word they used is tsedaqah. Let me make sure I give you the right pronunciation of that.  I have it here. Yeah, it is tze|da¦kah. It is the same word, Tsidkenu which speaks of God our righteousness, and the word there means righteousness.

So they are saying:  You give that person righteousness; you are caring for them and they took it as their duty and their responsibility. Many times it talks about making sure you give them justice, making sure you treat them fairly and making sure you look after them. So giving is something that we find is important and in fact the word alms, the word alms, the Greek word for that is eleémosuné; Eleémosuné, and that means: mercy. The word comes from the word eleos in the Greek, which means mercy.

So alms means mercy but you have to be charitable to give it.  So the word charity came to be saying, well, you need to show love to these people. You’re giving. You’re giving.  You show love to them. So again, let me read to you from Wikipedia and also a couple of comments I have from three different Greek, not Greek, but three different Bible Dictionaries. 

Here’s one.  This is Wikipedia on charity. He says:  “Originally a Latin word” I talked about that already. “St Paul’s agapē was not primarily about good works and giving to the poor” He said this “And though I feed the poor with all my goods, and though I give my body, that I be burned, and have not love [agapē], it profiteth me nothing.”  So Paul saw agape or charity as more than just giving somebody something. It was the heart and attitude behind it that was charitable, the love that one need to have.

Going on to quote this, he says – this is from Wikipedia again under charity: “While the methods of giving may vary (food, money, clothing, health care),” and he talks about three main ways of doing it.  One is pure giving, another one is public and another one is foreign giving.

“Charitable giving is the act of giving money, goods or time to the unfortunate, either directly or by means of a charitable trust or some other worthy cause. Charitable giving as a religious act or duty is referred to as almsgiving or alms.” He comments about the Jews and he says: “Instead of charity, Jews give tzedakah, which means 'righteousness' and 'justice.’ When the Jew contributes his money, time and resources to the needy, he is not being benevolent, generous or charitable. He is doing what is commanded in the Law. He is taking care of his brothers.” 

Interestingly enough while alms is not mentioned or charity is not mentioned neither did they have beggars.  Beggars are mention in the New Testament.  In Jesus’ days you had a lot of beggars and what were the beggars doing?  Going around asking for money because nobody was directly taking care of them. 

I will read this from Easton’s Bible Dictionary. “In the time of our Lord, begging was common.”  “The Pharisees were very ostentatious in their alms giving” which prompted Matthew 6:2 where He says when you give alms don’t blow the trumpet (makes a trumpet sound) when you are putting money in a persons coffer. “The spirit by which the Christian ought to be actuated in this duty is set forth in 1 John 3:17”.  You’ve got to be motivated by love.

He said: “A regard to the state of the poor and needy is enjoined as a Christian duty.” He goes on to say:  “They cared not only for the poor among themselves, but contributed also to the necessities of those at a distance.”

So Christians didn’t just take care of themselves, they also helped with other worthy causes.  Let’s see if there is anything that I can pull out of this other one on the eleémosuné.  I think not.  I think that is enough. Oh yes, here is another one.

This one comes from Nelson’s Bible Dictionary.  He says: “What is alms? Money given out of mercy for the poor.  The Israelite was commanded to be generous, opening his hand” – we will see that scripture in a minute. He says:  “Blessings were promised to those who were generous in aiding the poor.” So the book of Acts speaks very complimentary about individuals who do the things – give generously to others. So, in other words:  Those who have agape (love), or eleos (mercy), will give eleémosuné (alms), to others. 

Again, I asked you:  How charitable are you?  How charitable are you, which is the title of this sermon.  Take a look at some history from the word of God.

Deuteronomy 15 – Sometimes I get a person that will knock at my door and they will say - maybe a little child or whatever, maybe 10 or 12 years old, maybe 15 or 16. Can you help me?  What do you want?  I need it – I’m getting money for a trip to Rome.  Well, I would like to go to Rome too you know, so should I go around as a way of raising money? Can you help me go to Rome?  So that is not a good cause.  I back off.  What I usually tell people when they are calling me about every which thing: I give 10% of my income to charity already and I give more to others. Some of them, they are insistent. Well, how much are you going to give?  I say:  Well, you send me your letter and you send me a donation packet and I will consider whether I want to send it or not because I’ve been scammed a couple of times. People come, well, you didn’t send us money and we’ve already sent it in and they are trying to get a second amount.

So, I am not talking about the unworthiness of the cause and I am not even mentioning which ones it was that did that but a couple of times I have given twice to that and I wasn’t planning to give twice to that.  I was planning to give something to others so we should be really careful and cautious.  But in Deuteronomy 15 we read this:

Deuteronomy 15:7 “If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother,

You are supposed to take care of yours.

V.8 – but you shall open your hand wide to him (don’t just, okay, I’ll take out a little bit) Open your hand wide to him (give him) and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.

V.11 – He says (this scripture is also echoed by Jesus Christ in Matthew 26:11) For the poor will never cease from the land; (the poor you will have with you always, Jesus Christ said.) The poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’

Now you can look up – there are over 205 scriptures that talk about the poor and many of them in the scriptures - you know if you had a field you weren’t supposed to reap the whole field.  You’re not to go back and forth, back and forth and get every single corner.  You are supposed to circle and go around it and leave the four corners of the field so a stranger passing through your area at harvest time, he or she could know they could go to the corner of that field.  That was fair game for them.  That is the way they took care of the needy and the poor so they had ways to provide for them, so he says: Open your hand.

God has many scriptures talking about looking after those in need.  Now He does not talk about redistribution of wealth. Let us all put our money into this; give everyone the same amount.  That is not what He is talking about.  It is your money and you can decide what you want to do with it but He says your heart should be open to those in need. 

In Psalm 82:3-4, we find what God is, what His instruction here is:

Psalm 82:3 Defend the poor and fatherless; (defend them, help them) Do justice to the afflicted and needy.

V.4 – Deliver the poor and needy; free them from the hand of the wicked.

Help them so they don’t have to be taken advantage of by the wicked.

Ezekiel 22:29 – Again just in this brief history, and you can read all types of scriptures that talk about, in the Old Testament, the need to take care of the poor.  Take care of your own and the stranger.  The Jews didn’t just take care of their own; they took care of the strangers too.  If you are a stranger coming through the land, yes, you could be helped as well.

Ezekiel 22:29 He is condemning the people here for their sins and he says: The people of the land have used oppression, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger. 

They have not taken care of the people as they were supposed to, God says. 

Take a look at some New Testament examples.  I will just cite some and I will read some.  Do you remember the little short rich publican?  Not republican, publican.  Do you remember the little short rich publican, what his name was? He was so short he needed to climb up into a tree so that he could see Jesus when He was coming by  - Zacchaeus.  Do you remember Zacchaeus? What does it say about Zacchaeus?  Interesting – Luke 19:8.  Of course Christ was condemned for going to his house and having dinner with him but Luke 19:8; So he went up in the tree and he was short and then Jesus saw him and said, Come down here because I want to abide at your house tonight.  I am coming to your place for dinner.

Luke 19:8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord: Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; (I may be a publican, I may be rich, because he was a tax collector, but) I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”

I liked that idea, what he said:  I give half of my goods to the poor.

Acts 9:36 – the case of Tabitha.  Remember her?  The woman raised from the dead that God used Peter to do it, but in verse 36, and I always liked this because to me it is an example in scripture of somebody who got to see who attended their funeral, right? So, she was dead; all these people are around, weeping, and then she comes alive again. Who’s here? Oh, these people care about me.  Well, I wonder why they didn’t come? All right!

Acts 9:36 At Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. (Or Gazelle.  She must have been either fleet of foot or tall and lanky.) This woman was full of good works and charitable (alms) deeds which she did.

And before she was raised from the dead, those people were showing all these things, they were showing all these things that she had done for them.

V.39 – Then Peter arose and went with them. When he had come, they brought him to the upper room.  And all the widows stood by him weeping, showing the tunics and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them.

So there was a woman, she couldn’t contribute money but she could do some things.  She could, well, whatever. Knit or however she made it, sew, and she was a good tailor; whatever she did, a seamstress, and she could do things for people and she was known for it and God raised her from the dead.  Not necessarily because of that, but He did. 

Acts 10 – The conversion of the Gentiles begins.  Cornelius - leader of the Italian band.  He was a centurion.

Acts 10:2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always.

V.4 – And when he observed him, he was afraid (because he saw this angel coming to him, speaking to him in a vision) and said, “What is it, lord?” So he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.

God has noticed what you have done.  God has heard your prayers but He has also seen your generosity, your love toward those who have a need.

V.31 – when Peter came, He said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms are remembered in the sight of God.

God has noticed what you did. 

2 Corinthians – we talk about group participation. In 2 Corinthians 8 we find the church at Macedonia.  Now you say well, if I just had more money, I could give.  It is not how much you give. Remember the widows’ mite? She gave all that she had.  She gave all that she had and that was good for God, good in God’s eyes. 

2 Corinthians 8:1 Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;

V.2 – that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. 

There was a need in Jerusalem.  The poor saints in Jerusalem needed some help and so Paul was out trying to garner some goods or whatever he could take back with him, and the church at Macedonia, even though they were afflicted, even though they were impoverished, they still reached down deeply and he said it abounded in the riches of their liberality.  They were willing to give.

V.3 – He said: For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes and beyond their ability, they were freely willing.

They were willingly giving to the poor.  They were willingly showing love to the poor.

V.4 – imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

That they would take this and take it to those people and distribute it because the Macedonians wouldn’t be able to go to Jerusalem.  Paul was heading in that direction. He had his helpers but the next verse I thought is very interesting.

V.5 – And not only as we had hoped, (they didn’t just do this. Notice what they did) but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.

So not only did they give their goods, they just said: Is there anything else we can do?  Anything we could do to help?  So sometimes it is not what you give as far as goods. It might be services; it might be prayers; it might be just your example. Give; charitable giving.  Help those in need.  They are commended in Romans 15.  We find them mentioned here:

Romans 15:26 He said: For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.

So, they were willing to help the poor.

Another example: Philippians 4.  You can certainly count your tithes as part of charitable giving but that you have to give.  That is what God commands.  What more charitable giving can you do?  Offerings. In Malachi He says:  You have robbed me.  He didn’t say you’ve just robbed me in tithes, He says you have robbed me in tithes and offerings.  We need to give offerings to our church. We can give offerings to help spread the gospel. We give offerings to help those in need.  We have an assistance fund.  We have offerings that we can give.  Again, it is up to you.  I will share some scriptures with you after that, but the Church at Philippi, they didn’t just help Paul when he was with them.  They didn’t just say, well, Paul, you come here.  We will take care of you.  We will look after you.  Notice:

Philippians 4:15 He says this: Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only.

No other Church was willing to help support me along the way. Only you.  So again, there is something to giving and supporting your church or your congregation. 

In 3 John – again, looking at some of the history of giving in the scriptures.

We find a man named Gaius. John is writing to Gaius telling him to take care of some person, Demetrius, that I am sending through to you.  Please look after him because everybody says you are so good and hospitable looking after them.  Notice what his reputation was:

3 John 5 – He said: Beloved, (talking to Gaius) you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers, (You help others)

V.6 – who have borne witness  (or testified) of your (charity, your) love (and your alms) before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well.

If you are selectively helping only those who are godly, not being hoodwinked by some of the false teachers coming through, you do well.

V.7 – because they went forth for His name’s sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles.

Or, taking nothing from the world. Only receiving that from you who believe that they were doing a great work.  So again, Gaius is appreciated.

Now how is God, what does God, think about all this? I left Him and Jesus Christ to last.  They both cared a lot.  They both cared a lot.

Deuteronomy 10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.

V.18 – He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. 

God takes care of the fatherless, the widow and the stranger coming into the land.  He looks after them with food and raiment.

In Psalms 146 – I am just picking out a few of these selective scriptures I can give you on it just to prove my point.  God cares. God doesn’t ask you to do something He doesn’t do.

Psalm 146:7 He says: Who executes justice for the oppressed (speaking of God), who gives food to the hungry. The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners.

V.8 – The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; The Lord raises those who are bowed down; The Lord loves the righteous.

In the Old Testament it was considered a righteous act. If you were righteous you were going to take care of people in need. God loves people for doing that.  Jesus Christ – I’ll only refer you to two scriptures in the New Testament. Check Matthew 14 and Matthew 15.  You don’t have to turn there. 

What did Jesus do?  He told His disciples: Why don’t you give them something to eat?  These people are hungry.  They say, well, we don’t have anything.  There’s no McDonalds close by; we can’t buy that much; we don’t have enough money to buy all that for all these thousands of people.  So what did He do?  He turned fish and bread into enough abundance to feed everyone and then gather it up afterwards.  Matthew 14 and Matthew 15.  He fed 5,000 in one case, 4,000 in the other case.  Jesus Christ cared. He walked about healing all manner of sickness and disease.  Jesus Christ cared for those in need and we are to as well.

What is your part in this?  What is your part?

James 1:27 – What is pure religion anyway? Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their trouble.

He says: Are you fatherless?  Do have father? Yes. Oh, forget you. Are you a widow? No, my husband is over here.  Well, forget you.  No, He doesn’t mean that, that you should only do this but that you should especially do those.  Those are the ones who especially need our help.

V.27 - … To visit the orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

How should we give? How should we give?

In Matthew 6 Jesus Christ says you don’t want to make a parade over it.  You don’t want to make a big show over it for your own personal glory. Now tonight, we are going to have some fun in bidding on different items and tonight people, sorry, tomorrow night. They are going to practice tonight. Tomorrow night you are going to be bidding on different items. I don’t consider that tooting your own horn.  I consider that having fun and generously giving to some other cause.  But it you have somebody blow the trumpet when you did it, well, we might have some problems there. 

Matthew 6:1 He says: “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them.  Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

And remember what they did. They had their trumpet blower, their Harry James or whoever was a good trumpet player in their day.

V.2 –Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet (apparently that was their custom) before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

You might get disdain tonight when you beat somebody - tomorrow night - when you beat somebody in getting a cake or a pie that they were bidding for and you bid for, and they bid for and you bid for, and you had fun.  You might not get any praise. You might: I wanted that.  Why did they take that? No, I am just teasing but it is fun and you’ll have a great time and Mrs. Metzel even bids against herself. She is so happy to get something and give money away, she even bids against herself. It is a fun evening.  If you have never been to the charity auction you should consider that tomorrow night because it is raising money for LifeNets and ABC. They are partnering in this project.

V.3 – But it goes on to say: But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

It is a little hard when you write a check, trying to write in your book and not holding your left hand - to hide, anyway. But your left hand – in other words: try to do it as privately as you can.

V.4 – that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

Now your general offerings, you don’t go around telling people: Well, I gave to this account; I gave to that account; I gave to this one and I gave to that – you don’t go around telling people those things.  You have your reward.

When you honor the poor, you honor God.  When you honor the poor, you honor God.

Proverbs 14:31 He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who honors Him has mercy on the needy.

So if you reproach the poor you oppress them, you bring reproach to your Maker but if you honor he that honors God has mercy on the (poor) needy.

So you honor God when you care for the needy.

Proverbs 29:7 tells us the righteous do care for the poor.

Proverbs 29:7 The righteous considers the cause of the poor (they consider), but the wicked does not understand such knowledge.

They don’t care. They really don’t care what the cause is but the righteous considers the cause of the poor.

The Proverbs 31 woman was a rather special lady.  We often point to her as a model for the ladies in the church and certainly many of her characteristics could be models for the men in the church too. Notice what it says about her.

Proverbs 31:20 She extends her hand to the poor, yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.

When someone needs her, she is there. Do you care about those in need? Do you care enough, and I am not talking about just in the Church, I am talking about out there.  There are great programs out there.  There are people who have need and I know LifeNets does a great job of getting it right to the people but I also know Red Cross could use your help. I also know that at different times you send money to these different organizations for them to do their job, to help people. Do you care? Do you care? How charitable are you?

What will be the results of you giving and caring? What will be the results? God will bless you. Now you don’t give this offering so God will bless you.  Okay, I am giving this because I want You to bless me. There!  I didn’t do it because I care; I didn’t do it out of I love; I didn’t do it out of righteousness; I did it to get a blessing. Now you won’t get a blessing for that.

Psalm 41:1 Blessed is he who considers the poor; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.

You want God to look out for you?  He will look out for you and you know one of the happiest things you can do? In Proverbs 14:21: It is to give. A lady listed this as a Huffington post.  Her name is Susie Moore. She is 30 years old and she said there are 30 things she said that she wanted to accomplish. She is a life coach and I think it is number 17. No, maybe it is number 19. I’ve got to get it.  It is number 17.

She said: “Here are the 30 important things I learnt by the time I turned 30 this year.” Number 17: “Generosity matters. Giving is one of the greatest things we can do for ourselves and others.”

Giving is one of the happiest things – I think I read it in the Prevention Magazine several years ago.  Giving is one of the happiest things you can do. 

I take my handkerchief up because I am perspiring and wipe my eyes because if my perspiration, which is salty, gets into my eyes then I will start crying and I don’t think you want to see me weep up here.  Not when I am giving this type of a message.  Anyway, generosity matters.

In Proverbs 14:21 – we were at Proverbs 14:31 before. He says:

Proverbs 14:21 He who despises his neighbor sins; but he who has mercy on the poor (remember the Greek word in the New Testament comes from the word mercy, eleos; it is eleémosuné), happy is he.

Happiness comes from helping others, from knowing you made a difference in their life in a certain way.

Proverbs 19 - While we are here, again, the results. The results: what comes back to you? What happens as a result of what you do?

Proverbs 19:17 He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given.

I want to read you another quip or quote. This number 4171. It is another father trying to teach his son something about giving.

“A father once gave his little boy a half dollar and told him he might do with it as he pleased.” He gave him 50 cents. We don’t have many half dollars around any more, but he gave him 50 cents. “Later when he asked about it the little fellow told him that he lent it and the father said: ‘Did you get good security,’ he asked? ‘Yes sir’, said the boy.  ‘I gave it to a poor beggar who looked hungry.’ ‘Oh, how foolish you are! You’ll never get it back,’ said the Father.  The boy said: ‘But Father, I have the best security for the Bible says he that gives to the poor lends to the Lord.’”

He that gives to the poor, and I’ve just read that scripture, Proverbs 19:17, and God will make it come back to you.

So tomorrow evening we will have an opportunity to give at the annual charity auction.  That is not the only time you give. That is just a special time we have raising money to help young people go to summer camp down in Columbia and Mexico and helping those individuals out.  That is what we will be doing tomorrow night.  That is not the only giving. There are lots of worthwhile organizations to give to.  There is also the Church and we have our own assistance fund and we have a gospel that needs to go out to the world.  What greater thing can you give people than truth?  So we are not saying give all your money to charity; forget about the needs of the church. No, but there are needs and God does say take care of the stranger.  He doesn’t say just take care of yourselves.  So we’ll have that opportunity. The students have been working very hard to try to prepare for this. They will be preparing tonight again for several hours. Practicing to give you a good show; practicing in setting up and getting things ready for you for tomorrow. So I really do hope you will consider charitable giving.

2 Corinthians 8 – we will close with just two more scriptures. Further down from when the Macedonians had given this wonderful offering he says:

2 Corinthians 8:12 For it there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.

So God doesn’t want you to give what you don’t have.  He doesn’t want you: I am giving this but I don’t know where I am going to get, where the next food is coming from. You’ve got a responsibility; you’ve got a responsibility to your family, yes.

Some people - I know the one year a fellow came over and he said, I brought - from Indianapolis - I brought $400 to give to charity and I will go up to $400 in buying your wife’s Baklava. It went that year for $430. He lost. So he had to figure out other ways to spend his money because he wanted to give it.  That is the way it is.  Many people say: here is how much I want to give. Here is how much I plan to spend and that is what I will spend and that is good!  Give what you can give. Don’t give what you don’t have! I have heard that said many times. God doesn’t expect that.  Not according to what he does not have.  You give according to what you have not according to what you don’t have.

Now go to 2 Corinthians 9 again and notice:

2 Corinthians 9:7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity. Remember a tithe is a tithe. That is 10%. That’s gone. When we give our offerings that’s giving of what money we have control over.

V.7 – So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; (don’t be constraint) for God loves a cheerful giver.

V.8 – And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

V.9 – As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”

So God will bless you as you are willing to be a giver. In Luke 6:38 – my last scripture that I will read. What can you count on? You can’t out-give God. It always comes back and you never know from what corner or what area it is going to come back.

I remember one time when telephoning was so hard to do. It was so expensive from California to call back to Canada to talk to some of our friends there. I would call from California and of course at that time you didn’t have cellphones.  You didn’t have a lot of these great plans so, if you called anywhere for any time you have to pay by the minute. So I called back to these people who I thought needed some encouragement. I called back and talked to them for quite a while. Well, that is okay. I will be able to make due and pay for that.  You know that week I got three calls from people that I hadn’t heard from in a long time, long distance calls. Now why did it happen in that week? I think God wanted to tell me, I’m paying you back. I’m paying you back. There was no reason for them to call me.  If was not, well, I was expecting this call anyway. No, I wasn’t trying to play that game.  It just happened. God can make all sufficiency work for you.

Luke 6:38 Jesus said this: Give, and it will be given to you: (now if you give to get, you won’t get. If you give to give, then God says:) Give and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom.

Picture going to an ice-cream store and you pick out the cone that you want and you pick out the flavor you want. Black raspberry, chip - you know the store. And they take that scoop and they put it in that thing and it disappears and they give that to you.  That is not what this is saying.  This is saying: Packed in, packed in, packed in and overflowing. The cream is starting to melt. That is what He is saying.  You press it down, you shake it down, make sure it is in there and I love ice-cream cones but it goes all the way to the bottom. Now when you just eat the top as I do, ring it around the top, especially soft ice cream, they just ring it around the top and it looks like you have a lot but when you finish the top part there is nothing in the bottom.

God says: shake it down, press down, packed and overflowing. That’s the way He says to do it. That is the way He is going to give it to you, shall men give to you. 

V.38 - … For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

God is the great equalizer in the sky. He will take care of you, provided you have a charitable heart; provided you have a merciful heart; provided you have a righteous heart, then you can give alms. You can give eleémosuné to others and help them.

One final note: When Jesus Christ, when He was dividing the sheep from the goats, He said to the sheep: You fed me when I needed food; you clothed me when I was naked; you gave me a drink when I was thirsty.  And they said: When did we ever do that? He said: In as much as you did it to one of the least of My brethren, you’ve done it to me.

Giving is about helping people in need. Charitable giving is taking your heart, your love, your care and your concern and giving it to them with a right heart and a right motive.

May we all be charitable in our giving and nobody will ever have to ask us: How charitable are you?