A Perspective of Giving

[0:00] to Mark chapter 12 here this morning. We are down in verse 41 is where we're at in our series here in our study of Mark chapter 12. And we come to Jesus here as he has finished teaching those and being questioned. You know, we find I think he was resting here a little bit before the trip back to Bethany there for the evening. And the Bible tells us he was sitting there across from the treasury.

[0:25] You know, and this place here is by the entrance of the temple. And this is a place that was not been unfamiliar to Jesus. John chapter 8 tells us that he was here just a few months earlier at the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of, also known as the Feast of Booths and things, that he would have been there and he was teaching beside the treasury that area. And part of that is that's the entrance. It's the Court of Women. They called it. It's where everybody could come and go through there. And the people would have continued to come and walk through that because there was going to be many there because of the Passover. And thousands upon thousands had come to Jerusalem for the Passover that was about to happen. And one of them was giving an offering unto the Lord along with the temple tax that every male would have paid. That was one of those things back from Exodus chapter 30 that each male over 20 years of age had to put in an offering every year. And we find that that was a part of what people would have been doing. There had been a long line of individuals walking into the temple this day.

[1:35] In other words, Jesus wasn't just going to pick one out. He was observing multiple people coming and going and doing this. And this line would have been passing by and including people from all walks of life, from the rich to the poor. They would have passed by the collection boxes on the right. The Bible tells us that they had the boxes that were established back with the kings.

[2:01] And we find that those boxes would have had these large mouths upon them, look kind of like a trumpet. You know? And so I guess the biggest thing I could connect with today on this as far as connect.

[2:13] How many of you have ever been through those toll booths? Or at least nowadays they just scan your license plate. But you know, we've been through those and they have, you have to throw coins in them and you have that big bucket to hit. That's kind of the effect. And you hear the change hit the bucket, it goes all the way down the bucket. Now if you can imagine that, it makes noise on plastic.

[2:31] But imagine what that sounds on like a brass or a metal or a copper as it rolls down into that container. And so that's kind of what Jesus is describing of what's happening here.

[2:44] And so that kind of is going to give us a picture here this morning because the boxes had these trumpet-like collectors placed. And they tell us that there was 13 boxes that were used there. And they had multiple ones for the same thing. But you had so many people come and they needed these to be able to get everybody through at an opportunity. But they would throw them in the specific containers of one to help the poor and one for their temple tax and one for an offering unto the Lord. And they'd have this method of keeping those things separate of what they were doing.

[3:19] But we find here Jesus is observing. He's going to give us a perspective this morning on giving. Because you know it's important to realize that God does have a perspective on giving.

[3:32] But He also has a perspective on us giving. And that's important because we're going to look at what Jesus has to say here this morning about this as we see Him sitting there with His disciples listening to the noise of these coins rolling down into the buckets. You know that itself would have been something entertaining just to watch you know. But as we see here I want to see the picture here as we set out here and read the passage this morning so you can see the context in your mind of what's happening and what's transpiring here with the people. And so as we consider these things let's us stand together as we get ready to read the Word of God here this morning. We're going to pick up in verse 41 here this morning. And it says this, And Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury.

[4:24] And many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow and she threw in two mites which would make a farthing. And she said unto his disciples And he called unto him his disciples and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance but she of her want did cast in all that she had even all her living. Let's pray.

[5:00] Heavenly Fathers we come before you this morning. Lord we just pray have your hand upon the message, upon the preaching of your Word here today, upon the hearts of individuals here. Lord to understand the importance that you place and that perspective on giving and how it ties in to our life. Lord to have the right attitude, the correct perspective and Lord to have our hearts right regarding giving and just even our relationship with you and the reflection that it has as we see these things here this morning.

[5:31] Lord we pray just have your hand upon each one. Lord you know the need. You know what each one brought in with them today. Lord we might be able to focus upon you and your Word here today. Lord we pray if there's one here today that doesn't know you as Savior that they would understand the importance of having that right relationship. But Lord also for your people if there's things that need to be corrected that they might be willing to get with you and to set those things aright.

[5:59] And Lord we ask all these things in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. You know as we see here as Jesus is here it's late afternoon. We know he's been in the in the temple teaching and being questioned all day being examined by the leaders and it had been a long day and here they're reaching towards the end of the day before they're getting ready to go out from the temple and start beginning to make their way back to Bethany where he's going to spend the night here on this Tuesday late afternoon for us is how we would look at it and we see here that this time and Jesus is sitting there watching people pass by the offering boxes.

[6:40] You know. Now for us that would seem kind of weird if we had a if we brought the offering box up here and we sat a row of people for you to watch get your giving. You know in our culture we'd all feel a little weird about that.

[6:52] But it wasn't an awkward thing. I want you to get that out of your mind. It wasn't an awkward thing. It was a common area where people would gather. There'd been much many more people there than just Jesus and his disciples.

[7:03] But Jesus was observing and he wanted to observe because he knew this was going to be an opportunity to give his disciples a key lesson on a perspective on giving.

[7:14] Because you know oftentimes we think quantity of giving is more important than the heart of giving. Sometimes we think the more somebody gives they must be more right with God.

[7:28] And it's a wrong perspective because it has nothing to do with the amount. The amount whether small or great has nothing to do with your relationship with God. Because we're going to find here that Jesus makes a drastic contrast between people.

[7:46] To give a perspective of what's happening here this morning. Because we find here that Jesus witnesses something. And as I read through this I'm not sure whether he drew his attention to this lady specifically.

[8:00] You know like hey guys come around and let's watch here a little bit. We don't know all the little details but we know that Jesus made a point of pointing out this widow compared to all the others that were giving.

[8:14] In other words he pointed her out specifically. You know Luke tells us it was a certain widow. In other words it was a specific individual. This isn't a generic. You know sometimes you'll hear things spoken of in a generic or applying to everybody.

[8:29] And sometimes you'll hear that read that word in scripture where a certain person that means it's personal. It has a connection to an individual. Just like you and I.

[8:40] And we're going to see here that this dynamic of giving because this morning I want you to understand as we look through this that your giving is assumed. A person's giving to God is assumed.

[8:54] It isn't if or when. It's assumed that you will. You say how do we know that because Jesus was sitting by the treasury and people were just walking in and giving.

[9:06] It was considering it's a command also to the children of Israel. You know. I want you to know and often times people get caught up in trying to parse things out of giving.

[9:18] But I believe that we live today and even in higher a command to give because a command to give is not a command just to do the offerings that the Israelites did to give.

[9:30] It's an offering because we love the Lord. It should have a heart attached to it. It should have had a heart attached to theirs also. But you know what?

[9:40] Oftentimes we can do things mechanically. We can get methodical in what we do. You know we just do and just do the process and do the steps.

[9:51] But I want you to understand we have an example of giving because we're going to talk a little bit about tithe this morning and what that is. But I want you to understand that in the New Testament the command is tithe to the tithe but it's not directed specifically at us but because of what God's done for us we ought to understand that our giving to Him and His purpose for His use is assumed.

[10:19] That somebody whose heart's right with God will want to give. Because Jesus makes it clear where your heart is and your treasure is are connected. You cannot separate your pocketbook from your heart.

[10:33] People try to say otherwise but you can observe and know. You know if people see what you spend your money on they can pretty much assume what's important to you. And what priorities are.

[10:46] Why? Because the two are connected. How we use our resources is connected to the things that we love in no matter what area of life that it is. But I want you to understand this morning why is an offering assumed?

[10:59] Have you ever considered? Look over to Genesis chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4 and verse 4. This is the first recorded offering unto the Lord. It's interesting that this is very early.

[11:14] Notice what it tells us here. And Abel he also brought the firstling of his flock and of and fat thereof and the Lord had respect unto Abel and unto his what?

[11:26] Offering. I want you to know that giving to the Lord is something that was not a law invention. You know Moses didn't come up with it on the mount.

[11:37] Giving to the Lord why did Abel do this? Because of his respect and love for God. He said I want to give an offering unto the Lord. There was a connection there in that and we find that Abraham before the law in Genesis chapter 14 there in verse 20 it says and he says this and blessed be the most high God which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand and he gave him tithes of all.

[12:04] In other words all that Abraham had recovered there as he had conquered the five kings you can go back in Genesis and look through that but he gave tithes of all. Now often times people say well tithing is the law well it's in the law but tithing isn't specifically law.

[12:24] That's a very important thing to separate because tithes were given unto the Lord and offerings unto the Lord prior to the law. We see those things play out through the patriarchs.

[12:37] They were given offering unto the Lord and a respect unto God honoring God loving God and we see here the fact that Jesus was observing those that gave that day reveals something very important and that's he has a perspective about giving and specifically a perspective about a person's giving because he's assessing an individual not generic but a person.

[13:02] As we're going to look here this morning we see here that this giving is just expected as it was there as from a child of God today as it was in the beginning. You know we need to understand that giving to the Lord has an expectation it's assumed because what you love if you love God you're going to do what?

[13:23] You're going to want to give. Why? Because your wallet and your heart are attached. You can't separate them. Jesus makes it clear that your heart and your wallet are attached.

[13:36] Matthew chapter 6 makes that very clear but we see here as Jesus is there he says he beheld how they gave. Look there in verse 41 and Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury.

[13:54] In other words they were there a while he was watching with expectation he was watching with discernment about what was given. You know Luke records this also and Luke says he saw that word saw there in Luke chapter 21 has an implication behind it that means he understood what was happening.

[14:13] In other words it wasn't just an observation but an understanding of what was taking place. Because as these people would march by and to give their offering you see that there's a connection that's going to be made.

[14:30] You know that reality of them bringing it to the temple you know I'm going to give a rabbit trail here for a moment because it's a good important time to put this in.

[14:42] Because another observation you'll see here is where they were giving. Because today there's much confusion about where somebody ought to give to the Lord. And we find some principles within scripture because the place that we're expected to give that place is the church in the Old Testament was the tabernacle or temple but later it is through the church the local gathering of assembling of God's people.

[15:06] The church is not an institution it's an organization of people together. I want you to understand this morning what we're talking about because the place in the Old Testament you know we find here that we ought to give a tithe of those things.

[15:22] You know Leviticus 27 verse 30 tells us this it says in all the tithe of the land whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of the trees it is the Lord's it's holy under the Lord.

[15:34] I want you to understand what you have is holy under the Lord not because God gave it to you but it's how you use it because it's giving it back to him the one who blessed you.

[15:45] If you give to the Lord it makes the whole thing holy. To give to the Lord out of the increase in the substance that we have it's holy under the Lord and we find here that even in Malachi you know a verse often times people will use to try to beat down but I want you to see there's a lot of emphasis here that's important to understand because the context is where they were doing it it tells us in Malachi 310 bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith sayeth the Lord of hosts I want you to understand that the storehouse it's referring to in Malachi is the temple and today we don't go to the temple to give an offering we come to church to give an offering because that's where God has established because in the New Testament we find Paul to the church at Corinth tells us this he says upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay in store in him as God hath prospered that there be no gathering when I come the context of this verse is a local church that was gathering in the resources that those things might be present that gathering in the gathering place was the local church you know the context here is the proper place to give your tithes and offerings you know as a pastor sometimes people will come and ask you know about supporting missionaries or evangelists or other projects you know and often times people say well I tithe to this over here or tithe to that over there

[17:16] I want you to understand biblically you're tithing in the wrong place you're giving unto the Lord in the wrong place because that resource is to come to the local church where it can be directed as God would see fit there's a lot of miscommunication and misinformation you know we hear a lot of that today but there's a lot of confusion amongst God's people even on this of things people say and do but I want you to know God's word tells you very clearly that it ought to be in the Lord's house because if you start dispersing it out you know what you're saying God's house isn't important that's not what God told me your tithes and offerings and special giving to missionaries needs to be directed through the local church that's why not because the preacher said so because God said so it's what God has established that we need to follow we need to follow what God has done to corporately together to direct the use of those funds for the

[18:22] Lord but we find here that giving is assumed but secondly your giving is assessed God assesses your giving you know often times we fail to realize that that God gives an assessment of somebody's giving what's he doing here he's assessing what people gave he's comparing what this widow gave to others that were rich walking by and I imagine there was more than just rich people walking by there was people of all different ranks of life but as the rich would walk by and they would give their offering just like we talked about with that toll booth bucket the more coins you throw in there the louder it gets so it wouldn't have been hard to know hey this oh that person gave a lot but you can imagine the widow walked by and throws a couple of small coins in there and you hear it didn't take a rocket scientist for him to figure out who gave more in quantity because that would have been obvious and some people would use this as a show to say

[19:38] I imagine some of them probably went down you know it's kind of like when we had VBS and we had the penny offering you know and everybody would bring up their bucket of pennies and they'd pour them in you know they want all the noise to be made especially the little guys you know they would come up and they would try to make the biggest noise possible or when we were taking up an offering for parish you know people would send their little kids up and the little kids would be like yeah well they do that noise would assess a quantity maybe not exact but it would give you an idea of what was being put in because of the noise that was being generated and we and we find here Jesus is assessing this and Jesus calls his disciples attention to a certain widow that had placed an offering in the box you know as Jesus called them over I imagine they anticipated Jesus to point out somebody that gave a lot you say how do you know that because Jesus number one does a contrast to it number two our human nature is to pay more attention to the a lot than we do the little that's just our human nature it's kind of like how we're pre-wired you know we have that mindset in our mind and we assess things by that means but instead

[20:55] Jesus directs them to a humble poor widow that was passing by you know we don't know but earlier in this passage it talks about you know the scribes and Pharisees devouring widows houses maybe she was one of those widows we don't know but we do know she didn't have anything all she had left we find just all the things she had to move forward we know that she was poor and didn't use it for an excuse though not to honor the Lord you know the Bible says she only had two mites or a farthing which this word farthing is just a you might say it's a understanding in a different currency a farthing is a Roman coin and so to a Roman audience because remember Mark was written to a Greek and Roman audience in other words a mite was a Jewish measurement and a farthing would have been a

[21:58] Roman and Greek measurement in other words so when they read this if it was written to them oh okay it's been converted for me you know how you convert currency from one currency to another that's basically what Mark did here for us is he converted the currency so we have something to understand because in other words what are two mites but to his audience they understood that hey this is not much this is a little bit of nothing we find here this little bit of nothing that she gives look down at verse 43 in our text it says he called unto him his disciples and saith unto them verily I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury I want you to think about the assessment of that statement think about the assessment of that statement all they that gave what's Jesus saying he's not comparing her just to one person he's comparing what this lady gave to multitudes of people that's quite an assessment and the assessment he attaches to it is important because he says that she cast more in these two coins that went tink tink tink tink tink was more in the eyes of Jesus than all those noisemakers that dumped in bags of coins one after another now I want you to understand something very important here

[23:29] Jesus is not speaking necessarily negative of the others he's using it as an illustration to say hey these gave but we're going to find here he says they gave out of their abundance but this widow did something of note she gave all that she had the others did not give all doesn't mean they didn't give correctly because Jesus is assessing this certain individual in contrast to the others and what he reveals to us is important that Jesus cares about what we give now I can just always like to try to picture how the disciples would have been sitting there you know just using human nature and I imagine they were sitting there with a pretty puzzled look on their face when Jesus made that statement how did she give more than all these others how do we know the disciples probably did that because they're people just like you and me if somebody made that statement even Jesus you'd be looking like okay let's make the connection here this is not connecting in my mind this is not how we put those things normally together because they heard all the loud noises of the rich that had just gave their coins and they say

[24:42] Jesus here is pointing out this little widow that said that put in just a little bit that she gave more but I want you to see here it's more not because of the quantity but because of the proportion the proportion that far exceeded what the others gave now I think it's pretty easy for us to understand that comparison because to give a little or some of what you possess is a lot different than giving all that you possess that's a big contrast giving all that you possess now it's important here because God's expectation of giving is tied to being proportional it's not a dollar amount but it's a percentage we find that throughout the scripture the same proportion is true it talks about the tithe that 10% that standard that we see throughout the word of God you know we know we know that we're not directly commanded to tithe but I want you to understand that as a Christian you ought to not from commandment but out of love because Jesus never spoke down the tithe he didn't say it wasn't honorable to do so his only assessment of giving and tithing was the fact of how people did it the heart attached to it you know look over into

[26:11] Matthew chapter 23 for a moment Matthew chapter 23 in verse 23 we say the word of God tells us this he says woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you pay tithe of mint and and these and cumin and have admitted the weightier matters of the law judgment mercy and faith now notice this these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone in other words Jesus says you were right to give but you also need to pay attention to the other things associated with your heart because you can't buy off God you know some people try to buy God you know they say well if I just give enough you know they have this mindset that they'll gotta overlook things I want you understand there's nothing you can give to gain favor with God no amount of money no amount of labor those are things we ought to do because we love God because he already loved us we ought to desire to serve him and invest in the things of God

[27:21] Jesus here moves it up a notch we know that the poor widow that gave all that she had all her substance so I want you to understand your giving is assumed and it's assessed but I also want you to understand there's an aim a motive behind your giving that Jesus brings forth here because the motive the why you do something is just as critical as the what you do because we find that people will do things not for somebody else even if it benefits somebody else but they do it to try to appease themselves or appease others or to gain favor they might be doing the right thing but the motive is wrong why you do something the motive behind what we do for the Lord is just as important as the what I want you to understand the what is important but the motive or the aim of it is important also they correlate equally because you can do the right thing for the wrong reason because people do that all the time trying to manipulate people well look what I did you know they try to gain advantage or they try to manipulate or to do things even within relationships that way they give not because they love because they want to gain you know they're trying to manipulate the situation not to be because we love the Lord but when we get that motive behind what we give we find some motives that ought to be associated with our giving here in scripture and I think we can associate them with this widow that came because we see it in her actions we see it in what she did because the first thing we need to do is to understand that we should give thankfully you know getting into

[29:12] November here we're coming up on Thanksgiving you know most time we think of thankfulness as just a verbal thing but if you study throughout the scripture giving is associated with thankfulness throughout the Old Testament you'll see this principle played out Leviticus 22 29 tells us this it says and when ye shall excuse me and when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the Lord offer it at your own will the context of this verse is a literal giving of a sacrifice not just verbiage but there's an actual giving attached to it now verbally praising the Lord is one way of thanking him and honoring him but also in what we give because it says I appreciate what you have done for me as a believer we ought to be appreciative of what God has done for us what's he done he's given a free gift of salvation to all those who will call upon him

[30:19] I want you to understand the word free doesn't mean it didn't cost something you know there's a great misconception today that oh it's free you know it doesn't cost anything if it's free to you it costs somebody else something you never get anything for free the only reason you might receive it at no cost is because somebody else already paid for it we get salvation at no cost because Jesus Christ paid for it he paid the whole bill he took the tab and said it's on me he said I'm the one you know I want you to understand this thankfulness a thankful heart is a giving heart I believe that day we can see that widow was thankful for who God is and what he had done by the amount and the willingness to give what she had you know look over to Psalm 116 Psalm 116 in verse 7 we find over here it says I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the

[31:22] Lord you know we can be thankful because of what God has done we can be thankful he's given us a salvation that's full and free at salvation you get everything he doesn't leave anything out to all those who will call upon him I want you to see this morning the importance of this that the giving because of what he did for you and I it should cause us to not give out of application but to and to but to give thankfully but also when we're giving thankfully we find we ought to be cheerful about our giving you know cheerfulness is a spirit in which you give it also you know God loves a cheerful giver because I want you to understand people can give things multiple ways you know people give out of guilt and I want you to understand when we're talking about money this morning I'm not trying to guilt you into anything because your giving is between you and the

[32:22] Lord and God says he assesses it it's not the preacher's job to assess your giving that's God's job you know why because God sees your heart we can be led astray by if we allow our observation of what somebody gives because giving doesn't gain favor with God we ought to be giving because we love God because we're thankful for what he's done we ought to do it cheerfully to understand there's a willingness behind it 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 in verse 7 says every man according as he purposes in his heart so let him give not grudgingly nor of necessity for God loveth a cheerful giver you know sometimes we can give with the wrong attitude well I better do this or I need to do this but you know ultimately God says he wants somebody that says I get to do this that's a cheerful giver one that says I love God because of what he has done for me and I think he's worthy of even more than what I'm able to give because we cannot give to supplement what he's already given to us we cannot supplement that and to give more for that it's a difference between obligation to give and the desire to give when it delights our hearts to give to the

[33:46] Lord it's no longer a burden to give but a blessing to give a cheerful giver looks at giving as an opportunity as a blessing because why is it a blessing because you can be thankful that all the substance that God has given to you you have something to give because what we have is given to us of the Lord we need to understand the importance of it a thankful heart makes a cheerful giver yet Jesus also draws the disciples attention to the proportion that she gave she gave liberally we should give liberally we ought to be willing to give of what we have and not be stingy especially when it comes to the Lord's work and his people consider that God says that we can expect a blessing proportional to our giving you know Luke chapter 6 look at verse 38 Luke 6 38 says this give and it shall be given unto you good measure pressed down shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom for with the same measure that ye meet with all it shall be measured to you again you know

[34:55] I want you to understand it's basically this don't be cheap there's a difference between being frugal and being cheap frugal is wise use cheap just says I want to keep it but there's a proportion she gave liberally and I want you to understand that the word today liberal is tied to a different dynamic often times we hear the word liberal today liberals today think I want to spend somebody else's money for good things Bible says that if you're a liberal person you take what you have of your resource and willingly give it for somebody else it's not taken and given and given to somebody else a true liberal heart is of that it's saying I want to give freely for those things we ought to be liberal with what we possess and frugal with what others have entrusted to us because what you have is what you have to give you cannot give honestly what somebody else possesses you have to give what you possess what you have that proportion that's the reason

[35:59] Jesus made it clear that this widow gave more than all those because she gave all she gave it with a thankful and cheerful she was a liberal giver it moves us to the next dynamic that we should be sacrificial there's a sacrificial element because to give a sacrifice unto the Lord you know David in 2 Samuel makes it very clear that you can't give an offering unto the Lord that doesn't cost you something we know that today it's easier to give somebody else's money than your own it's easier to say somebody else ought to give their time than my time somebody else ought to do that but you know what sacrificial giver is the one that says that merits my time because God's measuring it how we use our time our money our resources Jesus here directly points out the sacrifice of the widow's gift giving not from her abundance but of her need others there gave from their abundance

[37:10] I want you understand I believe there was probably many there that day that gave cheerfully they gave liberally they gave thankfully but Jesus says they gave of their abundance in other words what they put in wasn't directly impacting what went on at home in other words they had enough resource left over everything was taken care of it's not that their heart wasn't right that's not what God is saying that's not what Jesus is pointing out he's pointing out the sacrificial element to say it's going to cost me something to give to the Lord she gave from her need her aim and giving was to honor the Lord even though she didn't have much to give you know often times people think if I start I'll start giving when I have more I'll give you a little clue you're never going to have enough to start giving you will never have enough to start giving because you'll never get to where you think you have enough because when you do have extra it seems like it's too much to give often times we are caught in this and then the best thing to do is to give everything you have to the

[38:19] Lord because he already owns it all and then a little 10% won't matter so much because what you have is from the Lord anyways what God has blessed you if you look at it hey Lord I'm a steward of what you've given to me and how I ought to use it you know it's not so hard to give it back to God if you realize it's already his it already belongs to him you know Psalm 107 verse 22 tells us this and let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing now I want you to see here that Jesus is pointing out the reality of the assessment of your giving how we ought to measure ourselves against his assessment we find the reality is tied to our heart this widow gave because she trusted and honored God she wanted to do with what she had you know this morning your aim in giving ought to be that of one that gives because of what the Lord has given you and it starts with the fact that he's offered to give you salvation he's offered to forgive you of your sin because he paid the price for everything the question is what will you do with it because he's offered it to you and everybody has a choice with it hopefully today there's been a time and a place when you have called upon the

[39:50] Lord saying I recognize what you did and I want to accept what you paid I want you to take your payment and put it to my account because I cannot pay it that's calling upon him recognizing who he is he has given freely everything you need to be saved taking your sin and paying its price and cleansing all those who call upon him you know that ought to change our perspective about giving it ought to change our perspective of what God has given to us because just like this widow Jesus gave everything for you he came and he suffered and died for your sin and mine what a powerful picture we see here this morning because Jesus has a perspective on you today if Jesus was giving a written assessment of you what would it say that's a question you have to answer between you and the Lord what's that assessment between you and him as heads are bowed and eyes are closed this morning what about you today as the

[40:53] Lord spoke to you about some needs maybe it's just in your attitude about using of your resources and your time and your energies towards the things of God because of what he's done for you maybe to get with the Lord and say I need a change of attitude Lord I want you to look at me and say there's a right assessment that I'm thankful and I'm cheerful and I'm willing to give not because to gain favor but because of what you've already done for me maybe you're here today and don't know for sure where you stand with God I invite you to come and I have somebody show you from God's word how you can know where you stand with him that you might be right with him that you might have his free gift of salvation what about you today heavenly fathers we have an opportunity to respond here this morning Lord I pray that you have your hand upon hearts here today your spirit be working

[41:53] Lord you know each one you know where each one stands Lord there's no hiding from your observation Lord I pray that you just would work mightily upon your people if there's one here today that is not your child because they haven't chosen to call upon you accept you by faith and the wonderful gift that you've given to us Lord I pray today would be the day Lord help us not to depart from here the way we came in Lord we might have a right spirit and a right perspective your perspective of us Lord we ask it all in your precious name as heads are bowed and eyes are closed what about you today is a piano