This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day five, our last day of looking through Matthew chapter 17. I want
to listen together to what happens in these last verses of Matthew 17, this
miracle that Jesus works. Verse 24 through 27, "After Jesus and his disciples
arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two drachma tax came to Peter and
asked, 'Doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax?

' 'Yes, he does,' he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the
first to speak. 'What do you think, Simon?

' he asked. 'From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes? From
their own sons or from others?

' 'From others,' Peter replied. 'Then the sons are exempt,' Jesus said to him.
'But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line.

Take the first fish that you catch, open its mouth and you'll find a four
drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours. '" What an
amazing miracle Jesus works here.

There is this tax that needs to be paid. Now it's important to understand that
this is not the tax collectors for the Romans that are coming here like Matthew
was a tax collector for the Romans. These are Jewish tax collectors of the
temple tax.

This is a tax or an offering that was given each year. It was a required
offering, so that's why it's called a tax, that was for the upkeep of the
temple, all that would happen with the temple. So in one sense, they are taking
an offering.

Now they're not asking people to give an offering. They're actually taking an
offering because it was required by the law. And Jesus here, in a sense, gives
an offering.

He gives for both he and Peter. They needed two drachma each. The fish has four
in its mouth.

He gives the offering for both of them. This is the only time I know of in
scripture that you have an example in any way of Jesus giving an offering. He
commended offerings often.

He gave according to God's direction, I believe, when he worshiped every time he
went to the temple. But here you have him having this experience of being asked
to give to the temple the place of worship of that day. And he gives.

And in giving, he does some teaching. There are in these verses some wonderful
truths about the attitudes that you and I should have in our giving. Some
awesome truths.

As Jesus is giving or having this offering taken from him, he expresses some
attitudes that are the same attitude you and I should have in our giving. Three
attitudes in giving. One, you give as an heir of God's riches.

Two, you give out of freedom and not requirement. And three, you give out of
God's supply, not your supply. Now where do you see that in these verses?

Let's walk through it together. It's in the conversation that Jesus has with
Peter. First you give as an heir of God's riches.

Jesus talks to Peter and says, "Well, what do you think? Do the kings have their
sons give to support the kingdom or just the subjects give? The others give.

" Well, others. The sons don't give. Well, Jesus is the son of God.

So as the son of God, this place of worship for God, he should not be the one
who's having to give to this, he's in an essence saying, because sons are heirs.
Now when you think about it, in your life and my life, the Bible clearly says
that when we get to heaven, we're going to be a co-heir with Jesus. You are an
heir of God's riches along with Jesus.

So the attitude that Jesus had about giving, I'm giving as a son of God. I'm
giving as one who has all the riches of God. That's the same attitude you should
have whenever you give.

You give with an eye on eternity. You not only give because of what God might
give to you because you give. Giving is an investment in eternity and God may
very well often does give riches in heaven and the people that are in heaven
because we have invested in eternity and the changes that happen in character
and lives.

But there's another thing here and that is whenever you give, you also give with
an eye on not what God's going to give because of what you give. You also give
with an eye on what God's already given. You are given, you are giving as one of
the richest people on this earth, on this planet.

Now you may think I don't have much, I don't even have enough to feed my kids
right now and I understand the hurt of that and the struggle of that and the
need to pray for God to supply your daily needs and the need for other believers
to come around you to help to supply those. But no matter how little you seem to
have on this earth, every time you give, you're giving as one of the richest
people that you know because you're an heir with Jesus. So you give out of that
attitude.

You give out of an attitude of you have been given all of God's riches. There's
a second thing we're taught here and that is you give out of freedom and not out
of requirement. Jesus says here very clearly the sons are exempt.

He's saying I could have an argument with them about me having to pay this two
drachma tax. I'm the son of God, I'm exempt. Heirs are free, sons are exempt.

And the same thing is true of you when it comes to giving. You give out of
freedom, not some legalistic requirement. You don't give to get into God's good
graces.

You don't give so that you can get into heaven. You don't give so that you can
make sure that God does not judge you. You give out of the freedom of what God's
already done in your life.

The grace that he's already given into your life. When Jesus says this, sons are
exempt, children of God are exempt, the sons and daughters of God. It's a
reminder to me of the place that we stand with God.

Now part of your freedom in Christ is consideration of others. It's interesting
he says here so that we may not offend them. He didn't have any problem with
offending the Pharisees sometimes or even the Roman leaders sometimes, but for
some reason he didn't want to offend those who were taking this offering to give
to the temple.

Maybe because he knew that one day we would be God's temple and he's honoring
the temple in that. Maybe because there was some law behind it in the Old
Testament. I'm not sure of all the reasons he didn't want to offend them, but in
the freedom he had not to give, he decided I'm not going to offend them.

I'm going to go ahead and give. And sometimes in your freedom, you don't want to
offend others. I'm not talking just about giving here.

I'm talking about all the things that we do in our lives as believers. Jesus
teaches us here how to handle our freedom. Give to your freedom in a way that it
doesn't give others an offense.

It's the same thing the apostle Paul said when he said I have freedom to eat
meat, but I'm not going to do it because it might offend other people. With that
in mind, let's get back. Let's focus again on what he's teaching us here about
offering.

Give out of freedom and not requirement. I've often said, we've often said here
at Saddleback, if you feel pressured to give, if you feel required to give,
don't give. Don't give.

You're not going to get blessed. The church isn't going to get blessed if you
give out of requirement. You give out of the freedom of your relationship with
Jesus.

You give out of that. Now, I would have to say, if your relationship with Jesus
doesn't free you to give, something is wrong. Because Jesus is a giver.

Jesus gave his life for us. He gave his all for us. He commended giving many,
many times in his ministry.

So if somehow your relationship with Jesus doesn't free you to give, you've got
to figure out what's wrong there, what's going on there. But if some person, the
way they're asking you to give, if some way that you get something in the mail,
the way it asks you to forgive, makes you feel required to give or pressured to
give or God will judge me if I do not give, don't give. No, you give out of
freedom, the freedom you have in Christ.

You give as an heir of God's riches. You give out of the freedom you have in
Christ. And then you give, number three, out of God's supply, not your supply.

Jesus pays this tax as only the Son of God could pay it with a miracle, with a
miracle. Go catch a fish. All the money we need for this is going to be in the
mouth of that fish.

Now, in one sense, if you think about it, the truth is still the same in every
one of our lives. Everything that you have comes from God. So whether the supply
comes from the mouth of a fish or it comes from God giving you a job and the
strength to do that job is still all from him.

What I love about this miracle and what it teaches me about how God works in the
supply of our lives, how he supplies our needs, is this is a miracle where God
had to do a lot of organization for this miracle to happen. Someone had to drop
a coin in the water. The fish had to pick it up and not swallow it.

Peter had to put his line in the water. God had to direct the fish to that line
so that he could catch that fish and make sure he didn't swallow the coin while
he swallowed the bait so that he could reach into the mouth of that fish and get
the coin out. This is a great miracle of God managing the details.

God does miracles in a lot of different ways and in this miracle, he managed all
the details. When you think about how God supplies the needs of your life, God
manages the details of our lives in order to supply our needs. How can I get to
the right place at the right time?

How can I get the right opportunity? You ask God, "God, would you manage the
details so I could make the right call, so I could talk to the right person, so
the right door could open? " As he's managed those details, he's put you in a
place where he's supplying your needs.

As you give, you're giving out of appreciation for what he's done. When you
give, any time you give, you should give out of appreciation for God's supply. I
know for Peter, it had to be easy.

He reaches in, there's the coin in the mouth of the fish. You cannot miss that
God supplied, but you and I as people of faith, we've got to connect the dots
and see that just as much for us, God is supplying the needs of our lives. Every
time we give, we're appreciating the fact that God is the one who supplies our
needs.

We pray today, I want to take a moment just to pray and ask God to direct our
hearts to be giving hearts. Would you pray with me? Lord, I pray, we pray
together, that you direct us to be giving in our heart and attitude, giving with
our time, giving with our resources, giving with our money.

You're a giving God. You've directed us to give to others so that you might
bless that giving, bless that giving in a way that changes other people's lives
and bless that giving in a way that a blessing comes back on us. So Lord, help
us to have these kind of attitudes, to see the riches we have with you in
heaven, to see the freedom that we have in Christ, to see that you're the one
who supplies all of our needs and out of those attitudes, never grudging, never
feeling required, never feeling like we're poor, out of those attitude, let us
give.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Join us next week, Matthew chapter 18. We're
going to learn about the greatest in God's kingdom from a child.

We're going to learn about what brings joy to God's heart from a lost sheep. And
we're going to learn about forgiveness from a question that Peter asked.