He said: here's how you can make sure your light's not darkness - when you give to the needy do it privately. Don't do so, as one who sounds the trumpet. This is such cool imagery. See, sounding the trumpet was something that would happen. Every weekend in their synagogues, they took an offering; but every day on the street of the synagogue, they had offering baskets available for the poor, and they would have them bolted down okay? The offering baskets had the opening to it was very broad at the top and very narrow at the bottom. Why? So you couldn't get your hand in there to steal it right, so money only went one way. You with me? But because it was broad at the top, and narrow at the bottom, it had the shape of a trumpet; so sometimes people would come by with their alms to the poor, they would take their coin and put their hand all the way down in there, and quietly drop it in. But others would come by, and they would throw their coins in, and the noise would reverberate down the street, and people would look, so that they would know that they had given to the poor. They called that practice sounding the trumpet, sounding the trumpet.
So Jesus says: when you give to the poor, don't do so as people who sound the trumpets. Every day they had a group of men who were responsible for collecting it. They were called the Gobey Tzedekah (Gobey means to collect). It means: the collectors of righteousness. So when people gave alms to the poor, what was it called? Righteousness, tzedakah; the collectors of righteousness. The word tzedekah is where we get the word Deacon from, the tze-dekah. The deacons were originally people who were supposed to collect alms, and make sure that the strangers, orphans and widows got fed that day. Jesus says: when you give, when you give your righteousness, when you do your acts of righteousness - don't do so as one who sounds the trumpet.
Now let me stop right here and give you some practical advice. The way they gave to the poor, was through reputable organisations, where they knew it was going to help people. So they had men in charge of distributing it. They were not against - listen, if you see a beggar out here, or a homeless person - they were not against you buying them a meal, or giving them money as the Lord led; but the primary place that you would give your offerings to the poor, are through reputable organisations, where you know that something good's going to happen from it. Like there's so many of them, if you don't know of any there's plenty. I just learned about one called Fred Hollows. There's this group in Australia, and the primary cause of blindness in the Third World is dirty water, and they can fix that, because it causes cataracts. So there's this guy named Fred Hollows, and he's going into places, and he's making blind people see for $30! It's like: what!
So you mean I could go to Hogs Breath tonight, and spend $35 on a steak; or I could take that same $35, and I could give sight to the blind. Are you kidding me? If you want to go to Hogs Breath - go to Hogs Breath; but done do so at the expense of taking care of the less fortunate. So you don't feel guilty if you go to Hogs Breath; just don't use money that God meant to bless other people to do that. Its reputable things. This church is a church of generosity. It's a church that does things all over Indonesia and Malaysia, they have a Ugandan orphanage. If you don't have anywhere to give your poor offerings, see these guys - they're doing the job. They're doing the deal, and I'm telling you, it's the Gobey Tzedekah. It's the acts of righteousness. Don't do so, as one who sounds the trumpet, but may we develop a tzedakah spirit. See this life of the cross, this kingdom life was all about making others lives better. If you want the kingdom to be established in your life, you have to make an internal heart commitment, not be perfect - this is not about being perfect. It's not about making up a mistake. It's not even about making 1,000 mistakes.