The Widow's Mite: How God sees Giving - Life of Christ Part 78

Now I know that the subject of money when it comes to the church is a real sensitive subject. And you know as well as I do that one of the common reasons people give for why they don't want to come to church and why they don't really appreciate the church is that the church is always asking them for money.

Now I know that's a stereotype and you know that's a stereotype, but nonetheless we have to admit as Christians that we've probably done some things to encourage that stereotype with Christian television, Christian radio, some of the trash that's gone on in all of that regard. So whenever I get up to talk about money, I'm very, very sensitive to the kind of stereotyping that's going on out in the world. I'm going to talk to you about money today because in our study of the life of Christ, we're at a passage that deals with money. In fact, it's one of the most familiar passages in the Bible. It's about a woman who put two little coins in a box.

And you probably know the story. But I want you to understand that my point this morning is not to ask you for any money, but to challenge your thinking and my thinking as Christians about the way we're handling our money in light of what God's Word says to us. You know, I believe that the God of America is money. I believe that Americans worship money. And that the average American really believes that if they could just win the Publishers Clearing House, if they could just win the lottery and just get more money than they ever knew what to do with, their life would be full of love, peace, and happiness. That that would be it.

They'd be set. And yet the Bible tells us that love, peace, and happiness does not come from having a lot of money. It comes from using whatever money we have in the way that God tells us to use it. Just think of all the people you know down through the last few years, Donald Trump, Marilyn Monroe, O.J.

Simpson, and many others who've had all this money. Are their lives full of love, peace, and happiness? Well, the question is, does being rich mean that you're full of love, peace, and happiness?

I don't think so. So let's come along this morning and look at what God has to say about handling money so that we can turn it into some love, peace, and happiness in our daily living. We're going to pick up here in Mark chapter 12 at verse 41. It says, Now Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury.

If you've been following along with us in the life of Christ, you know we're in the last week of his life, and he's been dealing with a bunch of folks who've been trying to question him and trap him, trick him, and he's been fending them off all afternoon. Now Jesus takes a break and said, Hey, guys, let's go over here and sit down and take a little break. And you know where I want to sit to people watch?

I'd like to go sit where we can see people coming in to make their offerings here at the temple. In fact, we know from Jewish writings that there were 13 of these collection boxes in the temple. They were shaped like trumpets, and the people would come into the court of the women, and that's where the boxes were located, and that's where they'd make their gifts.

Okay, so here they are. They're all sitting down. James, John, Andrew, Peter, Jesus. And it said, Many rich people threw in large amounts. Do you ever think about how this maybe happened? Well, if you remember in Matthew chapter six, Jesus said, Watch out for the hypocrites who blow the trumpet and announced that they're coming to make their offering. Instead, make your offering in secret and your God who sees in secret will reward you.

But can you imagine how this must have happened when they came in? They went out and they had a trumpeter or two that proceeded them into the temple, and they would stand there and blow the trumpet. Rabbi so-and-so here to make his generous, benevolent offering, and the rabbi would walk up and he'd put his money in, and they'd blow the trumpet, and then the next guy would come in, alto trumpet. Rabbi so-and-so is here to make his offering, and he would tell everybody what it was. He'd walk in and put his money. So Jesus is sitting here watching this little sideshow out the circus type deal.

Is he impressed with all the money these people are giving? Look, it says, And then a poor widow came and put two very small copper coins worth only a fraction of a penny in the collection box. Now, widows had a tough life in the ancient Near East. They've had a tough life all the time. My mom was widowed for a number of years, and I know from having tried to support her both financially and emotionally that it's a tough existence.

I mean, there's emptiness, there's loneliness, there's a lot of pain, there's a lot of struggle that a widow goes through. And in the ancient Near East, it was worse, because this was an agrarian culture. A woman couldn't work a farm, and so she had no other way to make a living. There was no Social Security. There were no survivor benefits. There was no life insurance.

She did not have a piece of the rock. And this woman, many widows turned to begging to support themselves. Some we know even turned to prostitution and slavery to support themselves. And the Bible says this was a poor widow.

The word that's translated here, poor, literally means penniless, destitute, indigent. This woman was little wood shanty in rural Mississippi, poor, if you can get the mental picture how poor this woman was. And this woman went out, and she sold all of her CDs, all of her mutual funds, all of her bonds, all of her stocks, and all of her real estate holdings, and was able to come up with two little copper coins.

That's it, Jesus said. That's all she had. And she came in.

I don't think anybody blew the trumpets before she came to give to you. I think she probably walked in a little bit embarrassed to be in the presence of all these people giving all this money, and she just had two little copper coins, but she walks in, she puts these two little copper coins in, and then she walks on out, quietly, unpretentiously. Now, the coin she gave looks like this. I got this in Israel several years ago. I know you can't see it real well, but it's a little tiny copper coin.

I'll hold it sideways. It's real thin, and this is actually what the woman gave. These are called purutas.

These are the mites that the Bible talks about, and they're real common. They're easy to find, and they weren't worth much. Their actual value was about an eighth of a penny, so this woman, in giving two of them, gave one quarter of one penny. That was what she gave. One quarter of one penny, that was her total offering. Yesterday, I was at the store with my 10-year-old, and we were at People's.

I know it's CVS, but I don't like CVS. I know it is People's, and I'm going to call it what I want, so it's People's. So we were at People's, and we were in People's. I paid for something, and the lady gave me back some dollar bills and some change, and so I said to Jonathan, Here, you take the change. I'll take the dollar bills. Remember this the rest of your life.

This is the way it should always be, and we're going to do fine. So he's got some change in his hand, and we're walking out the front door of People's, and as we're walking out of the corner of my eye, I catch him throw something in the trash can out in front. You know, on the pole, you know those big trash cans they have on the poles out in front? And I said, Jon, did you throw something in the trash can? No, he said, I didn't.

I said, no, wait a minute. I saw you throw something. You threw something in the trash. What did you throw in the trash can? He said, well, I threw the pennies in the trash can.

I said, what? He said, I threw the pennies in the trash can. I said, you threw the pennies? That's money, son.

That is money. You threw money in the trash can? He said, Dad, pennies aren't worth anything. Pennies, you don't even stop on the street to pick up pennies, Dad. I said, oh, you don't, huh? Well, the truth is, I'm Jewish, and I don't stop to pick up pennies on the street.

You understand what I'm saying to you? So you know they can't be worth much if somebody like me doesn't stop to pick them up. Pennies aren't worth much. They ought to stop making them and round everything up to nickels is the way I look at it. Now, if that's how we feel about pennies, if a 10-year-old throws them in the trash cans, how much do you think a quarter of a penny was worth in this day?

Not much. In fact, I'm sure when they were counting it at the end of the day, they probably threw those things in a different pile and said, we don't want those things. And yet, look what Jesus said. Verse 43, calling all of his disciples to him, Jesus said, hey, Peter, John, Andrew, James, come here, come here, come here. Oh, Lord, we're tired, man. No, no, no, come here, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, got something real important to tell you.

What is it? Is the high priest coming? Is the end of the age coming? No, no, no, come here, quick, I'll tell you something.

Okay, what do you want? No, listen, guys, look, see that woman over there? I tell you the truth, this poor widow, Jesus says, has put more into the treasury than all the others. You say, Lon, Jesus needs a new accountant.

Well, I know. But you see, what this is telling us is Jesus does not keep score on our offerings the way we keep score. He's got a totally different system of deciding who gives what. Look what he said.

Here's the system. He said, because all of these other people gave out of their wealth. That is, they surveyed their wealth. They came up with a percentage or an amount that they could give that cost them nothing.

Do you understand what he's saying? They didn't give up any luxuries, any creature comforts. They made no changes in their lifestyle. They didn't give up a thing to give what they gave.

They insulated themselves and they were able to give this amount without costing them anything. Jesus said, but look, this woman, she, out of her poverty, put in everything, all that she had to live on. In contrast to all these rich donors, this lady's gift had cost her something. She might very well go without dinner tonight because of what she put in. And from God's point of view, that means she put in more than all those other people. It didn't matter what the actual amounts were. That didn't matter.

What mattered was the woman's gift cost her something, and the rich people's didn't. Now, that's the end of the passage, but you know we have an important question to ask, don't we? All right, what's our question? So what? Much better.

Okay. Do you ever wonder what happens to your money after you put it in the offering plate here? Do you ever wonder where it goes next and what happens to it?

Well, let me tell you. It goes downstairs in this building, and we have some volunteers called tellers who come in, and the tellers count the money. Then the money, they put it in a deposit bag, and they run it over to the bank at the end of the morning.

And they take the envelopes that you use. A volunteer comes in on Monday morning and starts logging in by the number on the envelope and the amount so we can give you a statement at the end of the year for IRS. You say, well, now, Lon, when do you get to see how much everybody gives? Monday, Tuesday, do you get the list of what everybody gave so that you can go through it?

Well, the answer is I've been here almost 15 years, 15 years in September. And in those years, I have never seen any of the checks that come into the offering plate. I've never tracked anybody's giving. I've never known anybody's totals.

And except in a couple of very rare cases, I have never been able to put a name on any monetary gift that's ever come into this church. You say, man, they must not trust you very much around here. Well, no, that's not the point. The point is I asked for it to be this way. I want it to be this way.

And I would never change it. You say, well, why not? Aren't you interested in knowing who gives what?

No. And I'll tell you why, because I'm a human being. And being a human being, I know it would affect me.

I mean, I'd come up with this little list in my brain of who gives the most, who gives the second most, who gives the third most. And then it would affect how I treated people. You know, if all of a sudden I said, I'm sorry, I can't do this this week, I'm too busy this week, I'm too busy, I'm sorry, I can't make this. And then donor number two calls up and says, could you do this? Hey, being a human being, you know, it's like, golly, I better do this. I mean, if I don't do it, donor number two in the church might stop giving. I don't want to be under that pressure. I don't want to have a clue who gives what.

That way I can treat everybody the same. You say, Lon, I think it's horrible that you'd even admit that you'd be thinking like that. Well, it might be horrible, but that's the way it is, folks. Deal with it.

That's all I got to tell you. I'm a human being, and I'll bet you if you knew the figures, it would affect you too. I don't want to know them, and I don't intend to ever know them. But anyway, you know what occurred to me? If I did draw up a list of all the big donors here at McLean Bible Church, if I made a list, top ten givers at McLean Bible Church, and I wrote on them the top ten names, and then I went to God and said, God, now let's compare who are the top ten givers in your list at McLean Bible Church. You know what I bet? I bet you I wouldn't have a single person on my list God has on his list.

You say, what are you talking about? Well, I'll tell you, I would make my list just by going through the checks, pick out the biggest check, number one. The next biggest checks, number two.

Next biggest checks, number three. That's how I'd make my list. God doesn't make his list like that. None of those people would probably be on God's list. I'd be surprised, because God's not interested in the amount you give.

Did you understand the passage? He doesn't care about the amount you give. What he cares about is the proportion you give.

He doesn't care about the portion, but the proportion that you give. God's interested in what it costs, not how much you put in. And the reason for that is that giving, friends, is worship. Worship means telling somebody that they're number one in your life. That's what worship is. Now, how can we worship God? Well, we can worship God through singing, we can worship God through living obedient lives, we can worship God through serving him, we can worship God through the use of our time, we also can worship God through our money. And when we worship God with our money, what we're really trying to tell God is, God, you are number one in my life, and you're more important to me than even money itself.

Now, forgiving to become worship, listen carefully, forgiving to become worship, it's got to cost you something. Because whenever you plan to tell somebody they're number one in your life, it's always going to cost you something to tell them. You can't deliver that message without it costing you something.

Guys, if you're here and you have found the woman and you're sure she is the one, you understand? And you tell that woman, you are number one in my life, I love you so much, you are the number one most important thing in my whole life, is that going to cost you something, guys? You better believe that's going to cost you something. That is going to cost you a whole bunch for the rest of your life if you tell some woman that. And girls, when you find the guy and you're sure he's number one, I love him, I love him, number one, and you tell him that, is it going to cost you something? It sure is. And when you tell your wife or your husband, honey, you're the number one thing in my life, is that going to cost you something?

Yes, sir. To deliver that message properly, it's going to cost you. Hey, when you tell your children that they're the number one issue in your life, not your career, not your reputation, not what you can achieve, not how much money you make, not how far you go up the ladder, but your children are number one in your life, is that going to cost you something, guys and gals?

You betcha it is. When you go in military service and you say to your country, you are number one, you are number one, could that possibly cost you something in military service? It might cost you a whole lot. See, when you want to tell somebody you're number one, if you're not prepared to pay a certain amount of cost, you can't communicate that lesson. I've had women come into my office, it's usually women, and they're saying, you know, he loves everything more than he loves me. He loves his business more than me. He loves his work more than me. He loves his diving more than me. He loves his motorcycle more than me. He loves his car more than me. And yet if you talk to the husband, he says, no, I don't. No, I don't. I don't love all that stuff more than her. But you see, because he wasn't willing to pay a certain cost, he didn't communicate that message very well, did he?

Friends, if you want to communicate somebody or something's number one, it's going to cost you. And with all these rich people who came, you know what's interesting? Jesus didn't consider any of them to have worshiped. They gave. They didn't worship because it didn't cost them anything. The woman who gave everything she had, Jesus said, now that's worship. Now that's worship.

And that's why that woman gave more than all the rest of them. You say, Lon, what are you telling me? That I got to give everything away to God in order to worship Him? No, I'm not telling you. You're telling me like that girl in the drama who put her shoes in her wallet and would have jumped in the offering bag herself if she could have? Is that what God wants?

No, I'm not telling you that. I'm saying that when you evaluate how God is looking at your giving, the way to evaluate it has nothing to do with the dollars and cents you put in it. I have people come to me all the time and say, Lon, how much should I give? Should I give 10 percent? Should I give 15 percent? Should I give 8 percent? Should I give 20 percent?

I can't answer that question except to say this. You can decide that for yourself by asking yourself a question. Draw a little box and say, now what is it that I could buy with the money I'm giving God that I'm foregoing, that I'm not buying, that I'm not spending on myself? What am I giving up? What's it costing me to give to God what I'm giving? And friends, if you can't put some real tangible things in that box, then I'd like to suggest to you, you're like the rich folks whose giving isn't costing them anything, and you're not giving enough. Do you have to put everything you own in the box?

No. But man, there ought to be some things you can put in that box that you can specifically say, now these are some things that are in that box that if I took the money I was giving to God, I could buy them, but I'm trying to tell God he's more important than what's in the box, than all my fantasies. Listen to this quote.

A commentator said this. When we as Christians give a certain percentage of our income, we usually choose a percentage that allows us to preserve all our creature comforts, and then we congratulate ourselves on our great dedication to God. When we do this, we resemble those who gave out of their wealth. Here in this passage, Jesus commends sacrificial giving, giving that costs this woman something. Jesus is trying to instruct us as Christians that he is pleased when we're giving to God at a level that costs us something in terms of convenience, lifestyle, and creature comforts. There's a great passage in First Chronicles chapter 21, and it's all about David, and David was king at this time, and there was a horrible plague in Israel. One of the prophets came to David and said, now David, I want you to go make an offering to God, and when you do that and you worship God, God will end the plague. So he goes to see a fellow named Arunah. Arunah owned this big threshing floor way up on a hill in Jerusalem, and he said to Arunah, Arunah, I need your threshing floor.

I need to dedicate this as a place where I'm going to make an offering to God so I can stop the plague. And Arunah says to him, First Chronicles 21, take it. Let my Lord the King do whatever he pleases. Look, I'll give you the oxen, I'll give you the sight, and I'll give you the wood, I'll give it all to you, just take it. David said, No, I insist on paying you the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, now listen, and I will not sacrifice to the Lord something that costs me nothing.

You hear David's perspective? David said, Look, that won't be worship if you give it to me and I just turn around and do it. It's got to cost me something. Worship means it's got to cost me something.

I'm not going to take this from you. I'm going to pay you the full price out of my own private funds. And the Bible goes on to say, So David paid Arunah six hundred shekels of gold.

Now how much that is? That's about a hundred thousand dollars in today's money and he paid it out of his own private funds. He didn't pay it out of the king's funds, out of the official funds.

He paid it out of his private funds because he said, I've learned something, I know something. When you go to worship God, if it doesn't cost you something, you're wasting your time. You know what's really interesting in the Bible? In the New Testament, there's not a single place in the New Testament where God ever commands you as a Christian to give to him.

Did you know that? You say, Oh no, that's got to be wrong. I've heard too many sermons for that to be right. Well, you may have heard lots of sermons, but I tell you, you go through the New Testament, you will not find one verse anywhere in the New Testament that commands you to give to God.

It's not in there. You say, Well, why isn't it? Because, friends, giving is worship. And if you command worship, if worship is a duty that somebody's doing because they have to do it, it's not worship. Worship has to be a voluntary thing, a voluntary giving of yourself to somebody. Do you know you can go through your whole Christian life, never give God one penny, and if you've really trusted Christ as your personal Savior, you'll still go to heaven? Say, No, I can't be right either. Yeah, it is.

Yeah, it is. Conversely, let me say, if you're here and you've never trusted Christ as your personal Savior, you can give God a million dollars, and that won't get you into heaven. Only trusting Jesus as your personal Savior, trusting what he did on the cross to pay for your sin will get you in. But if you've done that, you don't have to give God one cent. Your salvation is just as secure. The only reason to give to God is because you're trying to tell God something. You're trying to tell God, God, you are number one in my life, and this is just one of many ways I can tell you that.

But if you want to tell God that, believe me, the message will not communicate until you can take that little box and put some things in it that are costing you, because God doesn't consider it worship unless it costs you. I drive the lead sled. I don't know if you all know the lead sled.

It's kind of an ugly brown station wagon, and it's got a big old diving sticker on the back. I was driving in the lead sled just about two weeks ago, and I had a little 10-year-old boy in the front seat. He was a friend of my son Jonathan. And we were driving, and we were on a little side street, and I saw somebody I knew. So I stopped the car, and I rolled down the window to talk to him, except I've got one of these windows that are geared real high where it's like, oh, you haven't even had one of those, and it moves about that much after you crank it 10 times around. So I cranked this thing down like this, you know, and I talked to this friend in the other car, and then we start to pull off, and I got one hand on the steering wheel, and I'm cranking it up. You know, as we're going like this, and this little kid sitting next to me looks over at me and says, isn't that annoying? I said, what? He said, we have power windows in our car.

Isn't it annoying to have to do that with your window? And I said, excuse me? Would you like to walk?

You can walk, you know. And I said, yeah, it's annoying, okay? It's annoying. Now, if you want to ride in a car, just be quiet. Yeah, it is annoying. Is it annoying to have to do that? Yeah, the kid's right.

I mean, he's 10, but he's right. It is annoying. He said, well, Lon, why don't you buy a car that was made in the second half of the 20th century and get power windows? Well, that's a good question. I actually had a friend come up to me, you've got to be a good friend to do this, and it was a good friend, and said to me, aren't you embarrassed to drive that thing? I mean, when you go to the gym and you come out of the gym and you get in that, I mean, don't you kind of hide your head and slink out or something?

But the answer is, no, I'm not embarrassed to drive it, and let me tell you why. In 1989, when we were getting ready to build this facility, we were still meeting down in the high school, we needed $2.5 million in cash to start construction on this facility. It was going to be $5 million altogether, and so we did a thing called Operation Caleb, and we said we want everybody to make a pledge of how much they think they can give over and above their regular giving to raise that $2.5 million in cash. So I went home and prayed about it, and I said, God, I don't have anything to give. I mean, you know, I don't have any extra money. I don't know where that's going. And God said, yeah, but, Lon, what could you do with that? What could you sacrifice?

What cost could you pay to be able to give and turn this into a worship experience? And I said, well, he said, what about, you know, that car? We didn't call it the Lead Sled then.

It was a little newer. He said, what about the station wagon? Couldn't you drive that three more years and dedicate the car payments you would have made to me? I said, well, I could. You know, I could. God said, well, I think that's a good place to start. So I said, you do, huh?

Okay. So I did that. I said, I made a $10,000 pledge over and above. Brendan and I did over and above our regular giving and figured that's what three years of car payments would be. By the end of 1992, when we moved in this building, by God's grace, God had allowed Brendan and me to pay $10,000 over and above our regular giving towards Operation Caleb. And we said, this is great.

We moved in the building. Then came Operation Caleb II. And when that came, I said, no, God, listen, I'm tired. It's been a long haul. You know, round two, I'm out of round two.

I was in round one. I'm out of round two, okay? I need a new car.

This thing's really, you know, the transmission's leaking, the oil's leaking, it's a bomb. No, God, no, I'm out. I'm out. And God said, okay, you can be out if you want to.

But is that worship? Ah, shoot. All right. What do you want me to do? Wait, could you drive it three more years? Say what? Drive this thing three more years?

This thing won't make it three more years. God said, well, what if I take care of that? Ah, shoot. All right.

All right. I'll drive it three more years, God, if that's what you want me to do. And so here I am. It's 1990.

What is this? Five, right? We're heading down to paying off this building. I made another $10,000 commitment.

I'm heading down to getting that paid off. My lead sled has 194,000 miles. God has healed the automatic transmission leak.

I don't know how he did it, but it just, he healed it. And that thing's still going. And you say, am I embarrassed to get in that car? Hey, would I like to have a Viper? Tell me what I'd like to have a Viper. Would I like to have a 3000 GT? I'd even take a little old red Miata. I'd take anything, you know, anything with power windows.

I'll take anything. But when I get in that car and I drive it, I know what's in my little box. A car with power windows is in my little box. But that's a cost I've said, God, I'm willing to pay that cost because I don't worship power windows. God, I don't worship Vipers. I don't worship red sports cars. I don't worship new cars. I worship God. And if that's a cost I have to pay to worship God, it's okay.

It's okay. Are you giving the right amount to God? I can't answer the question. All I can tell you is what's in the box.

What cost have you been willing to pay? And you're the only one can evaluate how much you want to put in that box. I can't evaluate that for you, but I'm telling you this based on our passage this morning. If you can't put some tangible things, some fantasies that your tongue's hanging out to get your hands on but that you've been willing to forego in order to be able to give to God and communicate to Him, He's number one in your life. If you can't put some of those things in that little box, then I'd like to suggest to you whatever you're giving, it's not enough. It's not enough yet to turn giving into worship. In other words, if giving isn't worship, you might as well keep your money.

You might as well go buy it and keep your money. The only time giving's any good is when it becomes worship, and that's what you've got to do to turn it in. It's got to have some cost. Now I may ask you for a dime. I'm not going to ask you for a dime. That's not what this is about. This is about challenging you and me as Christians to say, God, how can I turn my money into love, peace, and happiness?

And I'll tell you the answer. It's not by getting everything you can and spending it on you. That won't turn it into love, peace, and happiness. It's by using your money to worship God, no matter how much of it you have, to worship God and to spend it on the needs of other people. And believe me, you can't outgive God.

In 25 years, I haven't been able to. God will make sure you get back more love, peace, and happiness than you know what to do with it. If you'll use the money He's given you the way He tells you. May God help you to take a hard look at how you're spending your money and make any adjustments you need to make.

You don't have to tell me what you do. But remember, God sees every eighth of a penny and every one of them is valuable if they're used to worship Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you know this is a minefield talking about money when it comes to the church. And I hope that people here, particularly new people or visitors, understand that I've tried to deal with the subject in a way that has integrity and has ethics associated with it. The purpose of the message this morning is not to manipulate people. The purpose of the message is to educate all of us as to what God is looking for in terms of our giving. And Father, I pray that you would give us a different slant on money, a different slant on giving, that this is not just what we do to pay for buildings and run the light bills and keep the programs going, but this is a way to worship God. And worship always has to have cost or it's not worship. So God, help us to take a hard look at our giving patterns. Help us to be able to really, before you, evaluate whether or not our giving is just giving or whether our giving is worship. Thank you for instructing us as to how your accounting system works this morning. Help us, Lord Jesus, to fall into line with your accounting system that our money might really result in love, peace, happiness, and fulfillment in our lives. And we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.