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We've been talking about spiritual habits for the past few weeks. I have over and over again reminded you that your life matters. You have the potential inside of you to do great things for the Lord. 

However, you will waste the potential and opportunities God has given you if you do not have good spiritual habits in palce. 

I  would be a terrible thing to waste what God has given you. 

  • God has given you time on this earth, but if you do not have spiritual habits, you will waste the talent that God has given you. 
  • God has given you talent, but if you do not have good spiritual habits in place, you will waste the talent that God has given you. 
  • God has fiven you resources, but if you do not have good spiritual habits, you will waste the resourcces that God has given you.

In life, there is no pause button. Life comes at you one second at a time, and there are no do-overs. If you waste the time God has given you, you will have wasted your life. 

  • The first week I talked about the spiritual habit of reading your Bible and meditating daily. I laid out a practical process that you could use to get started reading the BIble every day.
  • The second week I talked about prayer, I spoke about how to pray and how not to pray, and then I laid out a practical process that you could use to start praying every day. 
  • Last week I talked about fasting. I talked about how that fasting is about saying no to the physical so that you can say yes to the spiritual. And then, I laid out again a practical process that you can use to get started with fasting. 

You will notice I have repeatedly used the phrase "practical process." Most of us have goals, but goals without processes mean nothing. 

  • You may have a goal to read your Bible in a year 
  • You may have the goal of praying every day. 
  • You may have the goal to fast at least once a year. 

You need to have a process in place to help achieve those goals. 

You see, there is a difference between a will to win and a wish to win. 

  • A wish to win is you thinking wouldn't it be neat if you were successful. 
  • A will to win is considering the cost of what's required to be successful and putting processes in place to help you be successful. 

Christians do not live the victorious Christian life by accident. Winning in life takes time and effort, but it also takes planning. 

My purpose in this series about spiritual habits is to give you practicalthings you can put in your life to help you live the life that God wants you to. 

This week I want to talk about the spiritual habits of giving. 

Just like reading the Bible, meditating on the Bible, and praying and fasting our spiritual habits, so is giving. 

  • When Jesus talks about fasting, he doesn't say if you fast; instead, he says when you fast. 
  • When Jesus talks about praying, he doesn't say if you pray; instead, he says when you pray. 
  • Also, when Jesus talks about giving, he doesn't say "if you give" He talks about when you give. 

Matthew 6:1-2 1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. 2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

Jesus assumes you will use some of your money to give to his work. So today, I want to do three things: 

  1. I want to talk about why we should give. 
  2. How not to give
  3. and then I want to talk about how to give

Why you should give. 

Matthew 6: 19-21 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

In life, no investment is 100% secure. There are always risks. There are always things that are out of your control. 

  • If you put your money in the stock market, it could crash.
  • If you invest in real estate, the bubble can burst.

So what Jesus is saying here is that the only sure investment is the Kingdom of God. 

Some Lyrics from a son come to mind. 

"There's nothing good because nothing lasts 

and all that comes here, it comes here to pass1 " 

The world and everything in it will one day come to nothing. This means if you have only invested in temporal things when eternity gets here, you will have an eternity to repent. 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying, "don't invest in the stock market." I'm not saying, "don't set money aside for retirement." I'm not saying, "don't use your money to enjoy life and to take care of your family."

I am saying, do all those things but don't forget to give to God's work.

When we give to the work of God, we are investing and two things:

  1. the eternal
  2. people

The Eternal

Matthew 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

When you invest in only worldly things, all you'll have is material things. If I spend all my time and energy making money so that my kids can have everything that I did not have, and I don't spend any time with them, my kids will have stuff, but they will not have me. 

  • All they will have is the newest Playstation
  • All they will have is nice clothes

But they will not have relationship with me. In that illustration, I wasted my time on things that, in the grand scheme of things, don't matter becuase they don't last. 

The same is true when we use out money to serve God. When we give to God's work, we invest in things that can't be taken from us and will never go bad. 

  • The eternal can't be taken from us.
  • The eternal will never be corrupted. 

Over this past year, my wife and I have given to the outreach fund, and we've spent money on eating out.

We've spent money on things like new clothes and a vacation. Those things are essential. You should take time to enjoy life. But all that money we've spent on those things is gone. 

We'll never get it back. We got the money, we spent the money, and we enjoyed our time. 

But we've also spent money on giving to the coat drive and the school supply outreach and God has blessed us because of it and those blessings can never be taken from us. 

It has been said. "What you spend is gove forever, but what you give can never be taken from you."

People

When you give to God's work, not only are you investing in the eternal, ehich cannot be taken from you. You're investing in people. 

Over this past year, we have been collecting money to reach out to out community. 

  • We've given away things like free candy at our Harvest Festival. That doesn't sound like much, but we provided a sage place for parents to take their kids to have fun. A place where we're not trying to brainwash out kids in things that go against their parents' worldview. 
  • We've given away school supplies. Each packet we gave away had about $20 worth of stuff. We gave away over 100
  • Last week, we again reached out to the community by participating in a trunk or treat. We set up a booth with a sign that said, "Win a free TV." Over 100 people came through our booth, and 7 people got saved. 
  • Next week we're going to give away free winter coats and then we'll get a chance to give each person the gospel. 

Matthew 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

For those of you who gave your time and money to those things, when you get to heaven, Jesus will look you in the eye and say, "thank you so much for giving me those school supplies." 

And you're going to say, "Lord, when did I give you school supplies?" He'll say, "you gave money to Harvest Bible Church."

You see, when you invest in the people of God, you're investing in Jesus.

Recap

We're talking about why we should give to the work of God:

  • Because when we give, we're investing in the eternal. What we give away can never be taken from us. 
  • Beacuse when we give, we're investing in people and ultimately investing directly in Jesus.

How not to give

Matthew 6:1-2 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

David Guzik said, "As followers of Jesus we are to be seen doing good deeds, but we are not to do good deeds to be seen." 

The point that Jesus is making here is about out motivation. You see, the why is as important as the what. 

The desire to be seen doing deeds does two things: it hurts us and robs us. 

It robs us. 

It robs us of our eternal reward. Jesus tells us that if we do good deeds to be seen by men, their recognition will be our reward. 

It hurts us. 

When I give all the glory to Jesus and put Him on the pedestal in my life, people look up to Jesus and see His perfection. They may look for flaws, but they will find none. 

When I take all the credit for the good I do, I put myself on the pedestal of my life, and people will look at me and see my imperfection. They will look for flaws and find many. 

How to give. 

  • First, I want to talk about much and how often
  • Then, I want to talk about how to get started.

How much.

The amount you give is between you and God. Notice the words of Jesus.

Matthew 6:3-4 3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Jesus plainly says that what we give is between God and us. No one needs to know how much you give. 

How often

Again, Jesus says, "when you give," not "if you give." The point here is that He assumes that giving will be a regular part of your life. 

So, how often should we give? Regularly! There will be times when you don't have it. Don't let that get you down. 

But you should be in the habit of giving to the work of God. It should be a regular part of your budget. 

How to get started.

  • Start small. Something is better than nothing. If you can only afford a dollar, give a dollar. If you can afford more than a dollar, then give more. Give what you can afford but start small.
  • Pray about what you should give.