03 October 2021 - Sermon (Beyond The Righteousness of The Pharisees): That Which Cost Me Nothing

a reading from mark chapter 12 verses 41-44 jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting the money into the temple treasury many rich people threw in large amounts but a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a fraction of a penny calling his disciples to him jesus said i tell you the truth this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others they all gave out of their wealth but she out of her poverty put in everything all she had to live on this is the word of the lord thanks be to god friends take out your sermon notes with me as we continue in our series on beyond the righteousness of the pharisees but before that let us go to the lord in prayer wonderful jesus wonderful savior mighty god lord we give you all the praise and lord this morning we just ask for you to show us lord show us the standard by which you want us to live so that our lives would be be assault and light to the people around us so that other people see us they will see someone who who is so different from what they expect or from what they see as the norm in the world and so lord just commit each and every one of those unto your hands if you just name me pray amen amen you know this series is based on uh matthew chapter 5 verse 20 and let me read to you what it says it says for i say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven as we saw last week you know very often we christians we only live a life that is the same as the standard of the world or at most we are living at a life where the stat where the world would cease as people who are a bit better or people who are a bit righteous but very often when the people of the world look at us they see someone who is no different from them or someone who they just see as a good person and they don't see very much difference from them other than the fact that we go to church and they don't and the reason for that because the world has basically what i say four levels of standards and the first one what we saw last week the first level of standard is what is called the evil of the world and that is why basically what the world considers as evil that this is something that is wrong the world people won't do the second is what i call the righteousness of the world and it's basically what the world says that it's a standard this is the standard by which the world the people in the world is expected to live by this is the norm but even around the world they will say that you know they look at a certain group and they say you know this is a group that is more righteous than them and that's what i call the righteousness of the pharisees is a standard in which the world views as people being righteous or better than them but we are called to live at an even higher standard than what the world says as righteous and as we're called to live at the standard of god's people or god's kingdom and that is the standard that god requires of us so last week we saw the first topic and that was the way we love people and the evil of the world basically teaches us to love ourselves just care about yourself don't care about others the standard of the world the righteousness of the world is that we love our loved ones people who love us and people who we love but the those that the world would say as righteous the righteousness of the pharisees and those are those people who love not just their loved ones but they love those who are in need those who are suffering those who are down children you know they love those people as well but for you and i who are called to be to live according to god's standard we are called as people of god the righteousness or kingdom of god we are called to not just love those in need not just to love our loved ones but we are called to love our enemies today we're going to look at a second topic and that's the topic of giving but before that let us watch this video [Music] thanks [Music] donkey shane arigato [Music] oh i couldn't well maybe just a bite [Music] don't forget the interest [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] dude he brought the pie [Music] you know when it comes to giving the world operates at a very different standard well in the evil of the world when it comes to giving they will basically say give nothing everything i have is for myself for the standard of the world or the righteousness of the world giving basically means we give minimally you know a lot of times you know sometimes christians will come and ask me no pastor you know how much should i give what am i supposed to give i'm going to give 10 percent i want to type is tight 10 you know yes we practice tithing we believe in tidying 10 percent but i i i'm always very reluctant to give a percentage or a figure to it you know why because what happens is a lot of times when we give a figure then we a lot of times we crystals and tend to end up doing just the bare minimum so if you say okay if you say 10 is the is what i'm supposed to give okay fine i'm going to give 10 that's the bare minimum i'm not going to give up a percent more because that's that's minimum 10 you know and that's the standard of the world the world is if i have to give and i'm required to give i will give what is bare minimum that is required but the world would also see those who are righteous and so that is the righteousness of the pharisees they will say is that we give generously those who are more righteous than the world they are expected to give generously but what about you and i the people of god what are we called in the righteousness of the kingdom of god what are we to give well we well we're going to see that later jesus gave an example he gave an example in mark chapter 12 verse 41 he says this now jesus said opposite the treasury and saw how people put money into the treasury and many who were rich put in much then one poor widow came and threw in two mites which which makes a quadrant so he called the disciples to himself and said to them assuredly i say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury for they all put in out of their abundance but she out of her poverty put in all that she had her whole livelihood you see what jesus was saying is this that you know those who came those who were rich they were putting in a lot of money jesus yeah they were generous they were giving a lot they were generous and because they were putting so much they were generous but when this but it was the widow who was commanded not those who gave generously that was commanded but it was the poor widow why because she gave out of her poverty her entire livelihood she gave based on out of what she needed she needed the money but yet despite how much she needed the money she gave it away and so like i say you know in the world the world would see those the righteousness of the pharisees are people are the standard of giving generously but for you and i in the righteousness of god's kingdom we are called to give sacrificially not just generously but sacrificially in fact would you write with me the first point of your notes is this is that the new testament disciples are called to not only give generously but sacrificially and that's what we you and i are called to do okay let me explain what's the difference well the oxford dictionary defines generous is defined as showing a readiness to give more of something especially money than is strictly necessary or expected so you give more than minimum you give if you you expect 10 percent you give 20 wow that is being generous what is sacrificial sacrificial also dictionary says it's an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy anyone can give generously and most of us we are always very generous in fact k.l wesley is blessed because many of you majority of you i've been very generous in your giving and so we christians we have no problem being generous but very rarely or almost never do we give sacrificially you see if giving generously is a sign of spirituality it's a sign of being spiritual then we are in trouble you know why because a lot of people give generously and there's nothing spiritual about them take for example you know now and now and then you always hear about these companies they give a huge amount of for donation they are very generous they give millions in donation and their companies like sports toto magnum 3d 4d 3ds you know and all these gambling companies there's nothing righteous about it another thing spiritual about that but yet they can be very generous you know we also know story you know you remember the guy george soros you know he's he yeah don't not not to say what all the negative news about him but we know that because of his business style or his his uh the way he his company and the way he does speculation and all that he has been responsible for destroying many uh economies or many economic situations in many countries and cause a lot of hardship but you know that person people like george soros is also a very generous person he has donated i think almost 6 billion more than 6 billion to charities or even in the you know very often times even the mafia are known to be very generous people and they will donate huge amount of money even to the church to churches because they are generous and so just being generous alone is never a sign of spiritual maturity but on the other hand true giving is not seen in being generous but is seen in how much sacrifice is involved here's the difference a little boy who loves ice cream and he has two ice cream and he give ones to his little brother that is being generous but a little boy who loves ice cream and only have one ice cream and he's still gay and he still give this one to his little brother that is sacrificial when we go for a meal in a nice five-star restaurant and we eat a wonderful meal and we tap out some of it and bring home for our neighbor for our friend that's being generous but when we go to a five-star restaurant and we decided oh no i'm not going to eat and eat with all these abalones and lobster and all that no i'm just going to eat vegetables and rice and the money that i save from that food and i take that and i buy it pack that and give it to those in need now that is being sacrificial you see and that is what paul is teaching the people in the church in corinth you see where paul is writing to the church in korean and he's telling them about another church the macedonian church and paul was telling the corinthians how the macedonian church is doing in giving and this is what he says in 2nd corinthians 8 it says this charity chapter 8 verse 1 he says and now brothers we want you to know about the grace that god has given the macedonian churches out of the most severe trial their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty well up in rich generosity for i testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability entirely on their own so what paul is saying is basically that you know the recordings they gave not just according to their ability because all their extreme poverty they gave beyond what they are able to give and he goes on to say in verse seven but just as you excel in everything in faith in speech in knowledge in complete earnest and earnestness and love for us see that you also excel in this grace of giving in fact we should write from you the second point of your notes is this that the value of our gifts is not in the amount but in what it cost us and that's how our giving is gauge it's not just in how much the giving how much we give but it is in the what it cost us and that's what jesus explained in mark chapter 4 let me read to you again verse 43 it says assuredly i say to you this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury for they all put in out of their abundance out of their excess what they have extra but she out of her poverty out of her need out of what is going to cost her put in all that she had her whole livelihood and jesus says the what that that we should give which cost so much is so much more precious in the eyes of god no matter how huge the generous giving was and in god's eyes that is how our giving is gauged not in the amount but in how much it cost us and you see a sacrifice is only a sacrifice when it costs us something if it doesn't cost it's not really a sacrifice it has a story like stole of this this man he was going around churches and he went to one church to another church and finally came to this church he was telling the pastor he was crying before the pastor you know say pastor you know there is this family who is living down this uh in this building down the road here and this family is so pitiful it's just a widow with five children and this month she can't afford to pay her rent and if she doesn't pay her rent by the end of the month she's going to get kicked out from the apartment and i've been going from churches to churches and i've been asking every church for someone to please help pay her rent for her and she's sitting there and this this man is just like feeling so sad for that lady the pastor looked at the man and asked uh excuse me so who are you the man look at the pastor and say i am the landlord you see sacrifice needs a cause it needs to cause you it's no point being pitiful and trying to help people if it doesn't cause you and a sacrificial giving must affect the giver it must cause you you must feel it and david david understood this principle very well let me read to you in a story in uh first chronicles you know david wanted to to to buy a piece of land to perform a sacrifice and he says it is in verse 21 second corinthians chapter 21 verse 21 then david came to ornan and onan looked and saw david and he went out from the threshing floor and bowed before david with his face to the ground then david said to ornan grant me the place of this trashing for that i may build and alter on it to the lord you shall grant it to me at the full price that the plague may be withdrawn from the people and onan said to david take it for yourself my lord the king do what is good in his eyes look i also give you the oxen for the burnt offerings the trashing implements for wood and the wheat for the grain offering i give it all to you listen carefully this is what david says then king david said to ornan no but i will surely buy it for the full price for i will not take what is yours for the lord nor offer burn offerings with that which cost me nothing see david understood this principle so well that if that for his offering for his sacrifice to mean something it has to cost him that he will not offer something to god that that which cost him nothing you know in the old days in the old testament days sacrificing something to god really costs you know because you see that those days they don't sacrifice money they sacrifice either cows or goats or you know and when you talk about you know the cow you know you'll be like from young you're nurturing the cow you're feeding the cow you're raising up that cow for so until until it's matured then you bring that cow all your hard work to raise up the cow you bring the cow to the temple to the altar and they sacrifice it you know and you know what they do when they sacrifice it they cut it out into pieces and they just burn it poof gone all the years of nurturing and raising up the cow just to put onto the altar and burn poof god you know today when we talk about giving we always say yeah i give but i want to see what's the returns of my money i want to see where my giving goes it goes to pay for this it goes to help this it goes to this anyway we want to see the nothing wrong with that is we need to be accountable we want to see the fruits of what what our giving produce but in the old testament the sacrifice really hurts because what they give truly just goes up in flames and poop that's it it's gone you don't see any returns it just goes up in flames so today when we give we don't expect it to be burnt up no but we but the question is does it still cause you do you still feel the cost that what i'm giving cost me something you know today we can give very generously and it still doesn't cost you can you can give you you can be giving very generously and you still don't feel the pinch of it and that's why you know when we give our giving need to cost how do you know if it costs you very simple do you feel the pain that do you miss it does it feel ouch i'm going to i have to let go of this you feel the pinch if you do then it costs if it doesn't then chances are it doesn't cost you anything it's like abraham when god called abraham to sacrifice isaac it hurts because it costs so the question today how does our sacrifice cost how do we make our sacrifice cost us today i mean other they're taking we're not asking you to take money and just burn it and prove no but how do we make the sacrifice cost today well would you read which you write the next point of your notes we give sacrificially when we give out of our needs rather than our abundance and that's what sacrifice is all about it is taking something from our need and giving it unto god it is not you know don't get me wrong sacrificial giving is not about taking everything we own and giving it and becoming a proper no we're not talking about the you know about selling everything you have and give to the poor and you have nothing no i'm not talking about that but what i'm saying is that we take something from somewhere that that we need that's something that we want something that we desire and rather than using it on ourselves we give it to god maybe it could be a holiday that you have been planning that you desire to go and rather than going and enjoying yourself on that holiday you take that funds and you give it to god and you forgo that holiday rather than maybe it could be just a car that you're planning to buy and you'll be wanting to buy this branded mercedes car whatever you know e-series and rather than choosing to buy that you said no lord i would downgrade i would buy a cheaper car and that i will give to you because it's going to cost me something you know sometimes rather than eating eating a nice uh 500 wagyu steak i would say a lot no maybe not maybe today no i won't eat that i will just have chopped fun maybe maybe a bit of beef noodle soup and i will give that to the lord and that my friends is we are giving we are sacrificing something in order to give to the lord it's like the story of thought of this little boy you know this little boy you know the uh the sister uh he has a younger sister this boy is maybe about nine ten years old and the sister was maybe about five six years old and somehow the sister is down with a very rare disease and this little boy he had this disease a few years earlier and when and he had this disease and he recovered from it and so in order to save the little sisters the sister the doctors were saying that they needed to take blood from the little boy because his blood would have certain antibodies in order to put it into the sisters to help cure the sister and so they came to ask a little boy whether would he be willing to donate his blood for his sister the little boy taught for a long while and then he looked at the parents and the doctor and said yes mommy daddy yes i would do it. and so the finally the day came they put the boy in next to the sister put the blood and they did the blood transfusion and after a while the boy looked at the sister and see her looking at her his smile he turned to the doctors and asked the doctors am i going to begin to die now and it's at that point when they realize that when this little boy was agreeing to give his blood he thought he would be giving his life as well and that my friends is what it means to sacrifice that it is something that is going to cost you that you know that is going to cost you something and so when we choose to be sacrificial you see a lot of times when we are generous what we do is this we will basically look at our life and say okay this is how i want to spend my life this is what i need this is what i want everything and what i have left over and what i don't need that what i can do without okay god this is what i give to you and i can be generous this is what i give it could be a lot but this is be generous being sacrificial is basically looking at god and say okay god what do you want from me how much do you want from me what is it that you want me to give to you and after we know what god wants us to give and we set aside that for god then now what is left behind we adjust our lifestyle to match what that is left behind and that is what it means to be sacrificial and this is the good example of this is our founder of the methodist church john wesley you know john wesley is told you know one time when he was very young in the ministry he was he just bought a few paintings and he was putting paintings up in his room and he was like just just to decorate the room a bit and just at that moment a young chambermaid passed by his room and he looked at her and he noticed that she is just so poor and this winter is freezing and she got no coat to cover herself except for the thin cloth that she's wearing so john wesley immediately wanted to give her something to buy a coat so that she can keep warm in the winter he put into his hand in his pocket and he realized he don't have enough to give her to buy a coat because he just spent the money on paintings to decorate his room and that more that was an awakening for john wesley and ever since that day he was so convicted that he realized that you know how he spent his money is is important in the eyes of god and so he's purpose in his heart to live a sacrificial life and so what happened was he he basically lived on uh that in those days he was maybe when he first started out he was earning something like 30 pounds and he just basically needed 27 pounds to survive bare minimum and he gave three pounds away as the years goes on he begin to earn 100 pounds 500 pounds by the time he ended his ministry he was earning something like 1 400 pounds few thousand pounds and despite that he was still living on 28 pounds every month and giving away everything else and that is what it means to be sacrificial to know what god wants of you and to give unto god that which costs you me not just generously but that which cost me why is it so important to live to to be a person that gives not just generously but to give sacrificially well we should write the last point of your notes is this is that when we give generously we become our god when we give sacrificially god becomes god what do i mean well let me read to you first matthew 6 21 it says this for where your treasure is there your heart will be also no one can serve two masters either you will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other you cannot serve both god and money you see what happens is this you see when we give generously what we are doing is that we as the the one that decides where our money goes we are the one that decide how much i want to keep how much i need and what i have access okay like this is what you what i'm willing to spare for you this is what i give to you but when we give sacrificially you know when we give generously and we do it that way who decides our finances me who decides how much i give me who decides how much i keep me so in other words i decide my life i am my god but when we live sacrificially and when we give sacrificially we are basically telling god god how much do you require of me this is what i have what do you want and after you hear from god what he wants and the rest is what you live with or you live by now the person who decides your giving is no longer me but god and when we learn to give sacrificially god becomes our god and why is that so important because god knows that you know that there is an inherent evil in being in a fluency okay don't get me wrong i'm not saying that all those of you who are living wealthy is affluent and affluent is evil no don't get me wrong i'm not saying that but what i'm saying is that there is that inherent leo or inherent uh temptation in affluences and this is what it says in deuteronomy 8 it says this beware that you do not forget the lord your god by not keeping his commandments his judgment and his statutes which i command you today les when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them and when your herds and your flocks multiply your silver and your gold are multiplied and all that you have is multiplied when your heart is lifted up and you forget the lord your god who brought you out of the land of egypt from the house of bondage then you will say in your heart my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth in other words what the book of deuteronomy is saying is this you know that if we are not careful that when we allow the comforts of life the affluences of life don't get me wrong a fluency doesn't mean just being rich you can be middle class you can be lower middle class and you can still be comfortable in life talk about the comfort of your life that you're living in a life that is comfortable anyway a danger about being in a comfortable zone in life is that we can be so caught up in that comfortness that we will reach a point where we think that all this is because of how great and how good i am and it learns us to forget about god and that's why the bible wants us you know that we need to learn not just to give generously but to give sacrificially because when we do and when we give sacrificially and we consciously intentionally choose to deny certain things in our lives so that we can give to god that instead of giving it spending it on ourselves what we are doing is we are disciplining our hearts we are reminding our hearts that this all is from god we are reminding our hearts that we are not the masters of our lives we are reminding our hearts that we don't deserve the things that we have that these are all god's blessing and we discipline our hearts but when we only live in such a life where we are spending on ourselves and whatever leftovers we can be generous but whatever leftovers we give to god then sooner or later there is this inherently all that our hearts will forget god and we will begin to think that i deserve all this i earn all this and i become the god of my own life in closing i just want to share this story about a church in chiang mai installed by this missionary about a story of a church in chiang mai it's not a big church the church maybe consists of about 400 people and in this church the roughly the weekly wages the average weekly wage of the members of this church is something like 20 cents usd and of this meager wage every member of the church continues to give not just their tithe but they give sacrificially out of that 20 cents usd that they have and because of that this church of 400 people was able to pay the full and support themselves finance their church pay their pastor's salary and on top of that they are able to send support two missionary families from their congregation to other churches to plant churches elsewhere all in all this church of 400 has been doing more than many churches around that area and they are able to do that because there was this sacrificial giving among the people but you know something interesting this church is a church made up of lapis every member this church is a church within a leper colony in chiang mai and maybe perhaps is because they are lapis and that they understand the value of suffering that they are able to be so sacrificial in their giving and in return they are able to be a blessing to not just themselves but to other people in the world you know friends i know as we continue in this series i know that the standard is high but you know that's the standard of god and that's the standard that we ought to strive to live by i know it's not easy i struggle i i too have not reached that standard but i strive i want to encourage all of us as we go on in this series that we don't just say look at the standard and say you know i this is it forget it i'm not going to bother about it now always still do we try to change god's standard to something that we are comfortable with no i mean i encourage all of you that we listen and we take god's standard as it is and although it may seem so difficult and although it may seem so impossible but we know what the standard is and we strive to it little by little baby steps by baby steps as we struggle and we trudge along we work towards god's standard and let us not be comfortable with the standard that we are at a standard which the people of the world will look at us and see us as no different other than the fact that we go to church on sunday and they don't let us pray wonderful jesus wonderful savior mighty god lord we give you all the praise all honor and all glory and all this morning we ask you once again lord to teach us the value of giving not just such generously but sacrificially and help us not to start in little areas in our lives and as things as simple as forgoing a meal or foregoing a holiday or a brand new clothes so that we can learn to be a people who love you not just generously but sacrificially so that our lives will not be lived for our own pleasure and our own glory but our lives will be truly lived for your glory and so lord i just commit each and every one of my brothers and sisters unto your hands lord may you teach us and help us when we fail in jesus name we pray amen amen

Channel: WMCKL Wesley Methodist Church Kuala Lumpur

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Id: M6iWMx0OP7U

Length: 37min 45sec (2265 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021