Sermon Title: "RIGHT GIVING IN A WRONG SEASON"
Key Texts: 2 Corinthians 9:7, Malachi 3:8-10, Matthew 6:33, Hebrews 12:1-2, Psalm 51:17

INTRODUCTION
Beloved, we are in the last days. Times of hardship. Times where many are pressed on every side.
And in these days, giving has become godly for some... and desperate for others.

God loves a cheerful giver. But the enemy has twisted giving into a trap for the wounded.
Today God is calling us back: Look to God first, not to giving as a formula.

1. GIVING IS GODLY, BUT MOTIVE MATTERS
2 Corinthians 9:7 — “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

Giving is worship. It is obedience. It is sowing.
But in this last age, error has entered.
Many are giving not out of faith, but out of fear and desperation. "If I give this, then God must heal me. Then God must pay my rent."

That’s not covenant. That’s bargaining.
And when we bargain with God, we leave ourselves ungodly and still desperate because our eyes are on the gift, not the Giver.

Isaiah 1:11 — “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord.”
God wants the heart before the hand.

2. THE REAL NEED: REPENTANCE AND RELATIONSHIP
Your message says it: “Look to God in repentance, obedience of God's word and be right before God.”

Hardship will come. 2 Timothy 3:1 — “in the last days there will come times of difficulty.”
But the answer is not just to give more. The answer is to return to God.

Joel 2:12-13 — “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

God’s priority is not your offering. It’s you.
When you are right with God, He heals both:
Physical wounds: Psalm 147:3 — “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
Spiritual wounds: Psalm 51:17 — “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

3. THE DANGER: USING GOD FOR THE GIFT
You said: “Unfortunately receivers of what they give. Ain't looking to this but after their more giving in. Leaving them ungodly before and desperate in life.”

This is the trap. Using God like an ATM.
Acts 8:20 — Peter told Simon, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!”

When we chase the blessing more than the Blesser, we stay in cycles:
Desperation → Give
No instant result → More desperation → Give more
We become tired, bitter, and far from God.

Jesus warned us: Matthew 6:33 — “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

4. GOD’S WAY: HEAL FIRST, THEN GIVE FROM WHOLENESS
God is not against your giving. He is for your healing.

Hebrews 12:1-2 — “Let us lay aside every weight... and run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus.”

God’s order:
Repentance - Turn from sin and self-reliance
Obedience - Walk in His Word daily
Relationship - Seek His face, not just His hand
Giving - Now give from a place of faith and joy, not fear

When you do this, God restores. Malachi 3:10 — “Bring the full tithe... and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you.”
But notice: the tithe comes after “Return to me” in verse 7.

CLOSING CALL + PRAYER
Church, don’t let hardship push you into error.
Don’t give to manipulate God. Give because you love Him.

If you’ve been giving out of desperation, today is the day to return.

Prayer:
Father, heal us. Heal our finances, but more than that, heal our hearts.
Forgive us for making giving a transaction

Hebrews 10:25 (Not forsaking the assembling.)


1 Corinthians 14:26 How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.

Acts 2:46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.

Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.


Hebrews 10:25 commands us to assemble so that everyone can actively encourage and stir each other up in love (Hebrews 10:24). In 1 Corinthians 14:26, the biblical assembly is where everyone participates not a show where everyone sits silently watching a stage. According to Matthew 18:20, whenever even two or three of us gather in His name, Jesus is right there. Gathering as the church is about active fellowship and home to home community (Acts 2:46), not spectator attendance at a venue.

Matthew 5:6 (Hunger and thirst for righteousness.)

Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

Matthew 23:5, 23 But all their works they do to be seen by men. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe... and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.

1 John 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.


Jesus said those who hunger for righteousness will be filled, but He defined righteousness as doing the Father’s will in real life (Matthew 7:21) practicing justice, mercy, and faith (Matthew 23:23). In Matthew 23:5, Jesus explicitly condemned religious leaders who turned faith into an outward show to be seen by people. True righteousness isn't chasing an emotional high at a service; it is walking in obedience, truth, and love every day (1 John 3:7).

Psalm 122:1 (I was glad when they said. Let us go into the house of the Lord)

Acts 7:48-49 However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord.

1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

John 4:21, 23 - Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.


In the Old Testament, Psalm 122 referred to the physical temple in Jerusalem. But under the New Covenant, Acts 7:48 states that God does not live in buildings made by human hands. Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4:21-23 that true worship is no longer attached to a physical mountain or venue. 1 Corinthians 3:16 proves that we are the temple of God. A church building is just brick and mortar; we are the house of the Lord wherever we go.

1. You have served God enough.
2. You have gone to church too much.
3. You don’t have enough to pay your tithe.
4. You can serve God later; you are still young.
5. You have done all you can; just give up.
6. You will never amount to anything.
7. God will never Use You.
8. God will never Bless You.
9. You will certainly END up in Hell.
10. You can never Win Souls

Matthew 17:24-27

Now that the transfiguration is over and Peter is sufficiently humbled by speaking where silence would do nicely Jesus and his apostles reach Capernaum. And of course, the Jewish leaders there are looking for any reason to trap Jesus they could find so they lean on the temple tax.

Understand this, through God's law and precepts the temple was cared for. The priests had an income, the instruments were created hundreds of years earlier. This was an annual tax, it was called an offering, but it is spelled out in Exodus 30.

Exodus 30:12-16
[12] “When you take a census of the sons of Israel to count them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord, when you count them, so that there will be no plague among them when you count them. [13] This is what everyone who is counted shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as a contribution to the Lord. [14] Everyone who is counted, from twenty years old and over, shall give the contribution to the Lord. [15] The rich shall not pay more, and the poor shall not pay less, than the half shekel, when you give the contribution to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves. [16] And you shall take the atonement money from the sons of Israel and give it for the service of the tent of meeting, so that it may be a memorial for the sons of Israel before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.”

The leaders continually fail in challenging Jesus’ teaching so they are left with nitpicking on matters of the law. And Moses was given detailed instructions on matters of law. Here it is 2 drachma, in Exodus it was half a shekel, in truth, it was an offering equivalent of two days of wages once annually for every male over the age of 20. It is an offering and is also called a ‘ransom’ for the people.

So before anyone tells you that God does not care about what we give Him regularly think back on this. God specified a set amount (2 days wages annually) in addition to tithes and offerings in Leviticus. (10% of revenue of everything else.) If you believe that God cared this much in the Old Testament about how much and how often His people gave money and all of a sudden in the New Testament He's changed His mind, there may be a flaw in your thinking.

Despite the excuses we make, God expects regular giving from Christians. A tithe of 10% is bare minimum, and does not cover our offerings over and above that. But offerings are still expected. And this ‘tax’ was actually an offering that was taken from what was earned.

Jesus illustrates this by telling Peter to go fish. You see, by now, Jesus and the apostles were sustaining themselves solely with the offerings the early believers gave. And since Jesus told Peter to pay for himself and Jesus with what he pulls from the water. The reason that Jesus didn't tell Peter that he should wait until he has enough to pay for all 13 men, is likely because the apostles, with the exception of Peter, could have all been under the age of 20. Note the Jewish leaders were not questioning the apostles giving the temple tax, just Jesus.

So they ask Peter, so does your rabbi pay the temple tax? Peter's immediate answer is, “YES HE DOES!” Then Peter comes to Jesus kinda like the confident 5 year old checking on the accuracy of statements he’s already made. And Peter doesn't even get the question out because as soon as Peter enters, Jesus knows what he was going to ask.

And Jesus gives Peter the lesson going back to Jesus’ identity as divine. Jesus clearly asserts that he is not obligated to pay because he's the Son, not a stranger. However, He doesn't want to offend someone with such a trivial matter. So He arranges to pay.

It's at this point that my ADD/ADHD brain starts annoying me. And I have to ask myself a question, the answer to which doesn't make a bit of difference to the story at all. And that question is this, did Jesus know somehow that there was currently a fish swimming around with the exact amount required to pay for Him and Peter? Or did He cause the coin to miraculously appear in the fish the moment Peter caught it? Is God intimately aware of all things all animals have swallowed ever at any time or is this a specific miracle to this fish and this fisherman?

How it got there doesn't matter. But I'd still like to know.
Wouldn't you?



[24] Now when they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?” [25] He *said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?” [26] When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt. [27] However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a stater. Take that and give it to them for you and Me.”