TEXT: Luke 20:45-21:4 TITLE: Desperately In Love With God
OPEN: Several years ago, I read the story of an 87 year old woman named Oselola McCarty. She had spent her life working 12 hour days doing other people’s laundry. That’s why people were amazed when she generously donated $150,000 to establish a scholarship fund at the University of Southern Mississippi. What’s even more amazing is that this gift represented only 60% of her total life savings of about $250,000.
When asked how she did it, she simply said that she lived modestly, saved regularly and gave generously (in other words, she’d regularly gave to causes she believed in).
APPLY: Now, how did she do that? How did manage to save a quarter of a million dollars over her lifetime? Well, she did it by deciding to live her life in a specific way. She structured her wants & her needs so that she could reach a specific goal. And because she lived like that, she was able to be generous beyond all expectations.
But as impressive as her story is, as impressive as it was for her to save $250,000 and to give away $150,000… it pales in comparison to this woman that’s described here in Luke. Oselola gave away a huge amount of money - but she still had 100,000 in the bank.
This woman in Luke basically had two coins to rub together… and she gave both of them to God. And when she was done with her donation…
she didn’t have $100,000 left over
she didn’t have $100 left over
she didn’t have 100 pennies left
… she had nothing.
(pause)
But we’ll back to her in a moment. First I want to give a little background on our story today.
Jesus is now in Jerusalem for His final Passover.
The day before, He entered into Jerusalem on a donkey, and the crowds lined the streets with palm branches shouting
"Hosanna"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord"
"Blessed is the King of Israel"
This is the FINAL WEEK of His life.
And many scholars believe this was the last full day of teaching that Jesus shared with disciples. The entire day seems to be filled with questions asked of Him by disciples and others.
Now, Jesus is in the temple.
It helps to understand the setting.
The Temple area was divided into 4 sections
(at this point, we put up Temple graphics on the screen from http://www.ccthomasville.org/ study aids)
The first of thoe 4 sectinos was called "the court of the Gentiles." This was a large area where non-Jews were allowed to enter... but they could go no further under pain of death.
The 2nd area was entered From a set of steps that led to wall with a large gate called the “Gate Beautiful” or the “Gate Susan”. Thru this gate, you would enter the women’s court (Jewish men and women could both enter here, but this was as far women could go to approach the temple proper in their worship).
Beyond this was a third area called "the court of Israel" where Jewish men could gather for worship.
And lastly, beyond this was the "court of the Priests" where the altar of sacrifice and the Temple itself stood. Only priests were allowed in this area.
It was in the “women’s court” that the Temple treasury was housed. Along the wall were 13 treasure boxes with mouths shaped like trumpets. And each of these treasure boxes had a specific designation.
1. According to Alfred Edersheim, several of the boxes were for mandatory temple offerings, where a person could place the monetary equivalent of their burnt offerings and sin offerings. If you didn’t have money for the bull or goat or sheep required in that offering, you could give an equivalent amount of money instead into these boxes.
2. Another set of boxes were for the ½ shekel Temple tax.
3. There were a couple of boxes dedicated to contributions to help purchase wood and incense for the Temple sacrifices.
4. And there was a box dedicated to offerings used to teach the children of poor families.
My suspicion is, it was into this last box that the poor woman gave her gift.
Now, understand… she didn’t have to give this gift to God. In fact, she couldn’t really afford to give this gift.
She’s a widow.
Her husband had died some time ago and she apparently had no children to take care of her.
And the Bible tells us she was a “poor” widow.
The word used in the Gospel of Mark indicates she was destitute… reduced to begging, asking for alms along the street.
She had no home, she had no possessions.
The only thing she seems to own were the clothing she has on her back.
I can see her as she stands in the street, holding out her hand to strangers, and someone places some coins in her outstretched palm. She probably takes some of those coins and buys food for her meal. But then she has these two coins left over.
She could have put them in her pocket.
She could have saved them to put with other offerings she would get on the street, and maybe - if she put enough back - she could be assured of good meal or 2 the next day.
But she doesn’t even think about it.
She has been blessed with enough food for the day and now she wants to express her appreciation to God. She is a woman who is desperately in love with God and she wants to give Him a gift that shows Him her the depth of her love Him.
And there is Jesus… watching her.
There are other worshippers there that day.
There are richer worshippers there.
But while He sees what everyone else is doing – He focuses on this one woman.
A poor, destitute widow.
A woman who has lost everything in this world and yet she gave all she had to God.
She gave to the poor.
But she was probably poorer than the people she helped.
And there’s Jesus… watching.
Do you think He knew she was coming??
Of course He did – He’s Jesus!
Not only did He know she was coming – I believe He had been waiting for her.
Remember, this is Jesus’ final week on earth.
There are only a few more opportunities to drive home what He wants His disciples to know, and there appears to be something about this woman Jesus wants to highlite for them.
So I got to asking myself this question: What would Jesus want us to learn from this widow?
Well, first, it occurred to me that one of the major lessons is this: God notices what we give.
ILLUS: There was once a preacher named John Broadus who going to talk on this very passage. But before he preached, he left the stage & went out with the ushers as they collected the offering. As he went, he watched closely as people put their dimes nickels and dollars in the plate. As you can imagine that some of the people were upset, even angry. Some were confused, some shamefaced, others filled with amazement.
All were evidently surprised.
When the collection was over, Dr. Broadus went back up on stage and said, “My people, if you take to heart that I have seen your offerings this day and know just what sacrifices you have made and what sacrifices you have not made, remember that the Son of God your Savior, goes about the aisles with every usher and sees with his sleepless eye every cent put into the collection by His people.”
And then he read them the story of this widow’s sacrifice.
When I put my donation in the plate, God knows exactly how much it is. He knows WHAT I’ve given and He knows WHY I gave it.
But this is about more than money.
I mean, this story is based on a woman’s financial gift, but we need to see that this is about far more than money.
God not only sees what you put in the offering plate… He also sees what you do for Him at church, at the office, at home.
He sees the sacrifices you make…
and the sacrifices you have not made.
He is mindful of what you do and what you don’t do.
That leads me to the 2nd thing I noticed - God wasn’t interested in the size of the gift.
Look again with me at Luke 21:1-4
“As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ‘I tell you the truth,’ he said, ‘this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’”
Now, I want you to realize Jesus never questioned the motivation of the rich in their giving. He’s not belittling them for what they put in these boxes. He simply compared their gift to the gift of this poor widow.
They gave out of the abundance of their wealth, they had a whole lot more where that came from… but she gave all she had!
Thus, what Jesus wants us to understand is that:
God doesn’t look at the size of our gifts.
He looks at the size of our hearts.
Some churches forget this.
They can in religious pomp and appreciation of wealth.
ILLUS: I personally know of a church that did just that. They were a big, influential congregation, and one of their elders was a man of power and money. If there was a project that needed to be done and the congregation couldn’t meet the need… he did. I don’t know how much money he had, but it had to be quite a lot because the church never knew what it was to be in want. He always gave generously to the church.
Then one day it was discovered that this elder was “fooling around”. He had a few girl friends in town, and he was a married man. When the preacher found out about it, he canned him - the man was removed from Eldership.
But as soon as that preacher moved on to another church… guess what that church did? That’s right, they put that Elder back into leadership. Why? Because he had money. He greased the wheels of that congregation and they didn’t want to lose the benefits of his wealth.
In the days of Jesus, the most important people in church were the “teachers of the Law”
They were important, they were wealthy, and the appeared to be highly religious.
But Jesus pointed these guys out to His disciples and said:
"Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.”
Why did these men have positions of prominence in the synagogues and such?
They had money - they could help pay the bills.
And they were important – it was an “honor” to have these men in the congregation.
But where did these rich and powerful men get their money?
“They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.” Luke 20:46-47
Now not all important, wealthy people are bad. In fact there are many such people who make a sizable difference in the spreading of the gospel. But if a church is not careful it can fall into the trap of looking more on the outside of a person - and less upon their heart.
ILLUS: About 15 years ago, I read about a large metropolitan church that recently received a gift of $150,000 from a corporate millionaire for a new organ. At the organ dedication, the donor was recognized with speeches, and words of praise, and a plaque of appreciation.
Meanwhile, in that same church, there was an elderly woman who lived on Social Security.
She had been faithfully giving her small weekly gift in the offering plate.
She had carefully managed her resources and is able to make ends meet, but it is tough.
Each week she has gladly set aside her tithe for the church.
But she has never been honored for her giving; she has never received a plaque of appreciation.
In pointing out the woman at the temple and her small gift… Jesus was telling us:
God doesn’t look at the size of our gifts…
He looks at the size of our hearts.
God doesn’t want the wealth of a person as much as He wants their heart.
A third thing I noticed was that God expects His people to be givers
ILLUS: Dr. James I. McCord, who had been president emeritus of Princeton University’s Theological School, once told the story of a man who commented that he was never coming back to a particular church because all they ever talked about in that church was give, give, give. Dr. McCord: I cannot think of a better definition of Christianity than that: give, give, give.
I am convinced that unless you learn to give you can never learn to be fully human let alone fully Christian.
Think about it: If there was a dog walking down the street, healthy coat, obviously in good shape, and he had a bone in his mouth, and that dog passed a flee bitten mutt that was near starvation, do you think that the healthy dog would stop and drop his bone in front of the sick dog? Oh, no. He would clinch his bone that much tighter in his teeth as he passed by.
That is the nature of animals. Only man knows how to be a giver.
McCord went on to say: God is a giver. He gave us life itself. And his ultimate gift was that of his son. What more cherished, more precious, more intimate gift could one give than that of his only child?
If we want to achieve God likeness, we must be givers too.
We must learn to give not just of our treasures, but also of our time and our talents.
The last thing I learned from this woman in Luke: she gave because she loved God.
This woman did not have to give those two coins.
I’d have understood if she had chosen not to do so.
I think Jesus would have understood had not given them.
It wasn’t required of her… she didn’t have to do it.
And she could have given the money to some poor person along the street.
But she didn’t do that. She held on tightly to those coins and she rushed to the Temple and put them in the treasure box.
She wanted to give the money to God because she loved Him.
She wasn’t doing it for show.
Far richer people would have put in far more than her gift.
Her shabby dress and two small coins would never have gotten any attention.
She gave because she loved.
One person once said: “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”
Or as Jesus said: “…where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:21
This woman put her money where her heart was… she gave it to God.
Thus, when Jesus pointed this woman out to His disciples He was showing them the kind of followers He wanted in His church. God wants worshippers that deeply love, and give of their treasures, their time and their talents because they love.
CLOSE: Years ago, it was the custom for people to bring their gifts to the front of the church. A well known preacher was making an appeal to the people to give to a good cause. Many came to present their offerings of love. Among them was a little crippled girl who hobbled along at the end of the line. Pulling a ring from her finger she placed it on the table and made her way back up the aisle.
After the service, an usher was sent to bring her to the preacher’s study. The preacher said, "My dear, I saw what you did. It was beautiful. But the response of the people was so generous that we have enough to take care of the need. We do not feel right about keeping your treasured ring, so we have decided to give it back to you."
To his surprise, the little girl vigorously shook her head in refusal.
"You do not understand," she said. "I did not give my ring to you, I gave it to God!"
So this morning the question you need to ask yourself is – what is the size of your heart? What do you give to Him and why do you give it? Our words to our invitation song goes this way:
Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love, at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee;
Take my voice and let me sing always, only for my King. Always, only for my King.
Take my love, my God, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself and I will be - ever, only, all for Thee, ever, only, all for Thee.
The most important gift you can give to God this morning is your life.
You give it by believing in His Son – that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
You give it by recognizing that you are a sinner and that you need to change your life.
You give it by confessing Jesus as Lord – giving Him your whole life
And you give it by surrendering to Him in Christian baptism.
OFFER INVITATION
