Clint Morey - Big Sky Writer
Tips from God
TIPS "Give to the Needy"
0:00
-7:45

TIPS "Give to the Needy"

Tips from God

Today’s “tip” from God is very easy to understand.

That means you should recognize it when God gives you the opportunity to apply this teaching to your life.

Ready?

Give to the needy.

Do I need to say anything else?

No, I really don’t but I can’t help myself.

In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) Jesus gave some advice concerning the attitude you should have when you give to those in need.

"Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Mt. 5:1-4 (ESV)

You don’t give to people in need so that others will think you are a great person.

You don’t give to people in need so that God will be impressed with you.

You give to people in need because those people need help.

And you go out of your way not to let others know about it.

God knows everything and He will reward you.

Give to the least of these

I’m certain many of you give significant funds to various organizations that do good works in your community and around the world and I encourage you to continue doing that, but I want to focus on a more personal interaction.

Notice what Jesus says about the final judgment:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

Mt 25:31-40 (ESV)

Notice in the passage what Jesus doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “those who give me a lot of money will inherit the kingdom.”

Instead He says that when you feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, provide clothes to those in need, visit the sick, and visit those in prison, “you did it to me.”

I would encourage you to ask the Lord to bring individuals into your life this week who have a need that you have the ability to help.

It may be something very big.

Or it may be something very small.

Size isn’t the important issue here.

The issue is helping someone in need.

I’ve been working on this episode for a couple of weeks now and during that time I asked God to give me opportunities to apply the “tip” of giving to the needy to my life.

Well, God provided several opportunities.

I’m going to share a couple of those opportunities that I had because I think it helps you see that you don’t have to have a lot of money to give to the needy.

And yes, I understand, sharing these in the open takes it out of the “giving in secret” admonition from Jesus.

But I hope these examples prove helpful.

Application #1

I attended a National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas last week and when I arrived at my hotel it was a couple of hours before I could check in so I decided to wait in the lobby. While I was waiting, an elderly woman came in the lobby. She had checked out of the hotel and was waiting for a cab or Uber or something.

She tried to engage several people in conversation but no one really paid much attention to her. Then she sat near me and started to talk. I tried to be polite but as she started explaining her difficulties I was getting concerned. It sounded like her stay at this hotel was up but she didn’t have a place to go.

I had been asking the Lord to give me opportunities to help people in need and wondered if I was supposed to find and pay for a room for her.

I was in Vegas for a major convention and that meant rooms were hard to find and very expensive even in the cheap hotels.

But I had asked God for opportunities to give to the needy and if she needed a place to stay, what choice did I have?

Well, she continued to talk and I got to hear her life story. She lived in England and the United States. It took over 30 minutes before I realized she had a place to go and didn’t need me to get her a room.

But she was still needy.

She needed someone to talk to.

The Lord let me be that someone.

I had the opportunity to have a very nice visit with her for 1 1/2 hours.

And it didn’t cost any money … just a little time.

Application #2

When I returned home from the convention I learned one of my wife’s co-workers was prepping her garden and her rototiller wouldn’t work.

Guess what we have in our garage?

A rototiller.

How easy is this?

The Lord had given my wife and I an opportunity to help someone in need.

We let her use our rototiller.

This also didn’t cost any money.

It didn’t even take any of our time. We just let her use it.

The Point

The Lord gave me several other opportunities to “Give to the Needy” over the past couple of weeks. But I’m not going to share those with you.

Instead I want to challenge you to apply this “tip” to your life.

Please keep supporting organizations that do good work, but I encourage you to ask the Lord to bring people into your life whom you can help.

Let Him decide if that help is in the form of money or stuff or time or a listening ear.

I pray the Lord will bless you richly this next week as you “Give to the Needy.”

0 Comments
Clint Morey - Big Sky Writer
Tips from God
We only get one shot at this thing called life. Wouldn't it be nice if we had an instruction manual with tips on how to do it right?
Well, the fact is we do.
Listen on
Substack App
RSS Feed
Appears in episode
Clint Morey
Recent Episodes
3:50
  
2:57
2:40
3:47