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[0:00] We join you back in Luke chapter number 21, or right there at that chapter divide of the two chapters. Sometimes when you know the topic or if you know the passage of a sermon, you know exactly where the sermon is going to go.

[0:13] So if you've read through the Bible before and you see that today's passage is of the widow's might, then you have an idea of where we are headed today. You may have noticed we moved the offering to the end of the service.

[0:25] I don't want to believe that I'm going to increase the giving, but I may increase the joy in giving, which is what we like to do in our offering devotion. So I reached out to David Dubois and I said, who was giving the offering devotion today?

[0:36] We're going to change it up today. And he said, I was going to give the offering devotion today on the widow's might. I was going to tell everybody they need to give everything they have right now. All right. And that's probably the expectation that you'd have when we come to this passage.

[0:48] And we may save that for a rainy day when we need it. But I would like, as I study this, when I study, I'm just being honest here. We'll save that for another day. But when I looked at this passage and I saw the title of the sermon was The Widow's Might, and I wrote down all the things that I had heard about the passage that were helpful.

[1:08] But the more I began to study, the longer the title gap. So this is what we ended on today with the title. Their Religious Fright, The Widow's Might, and Giving Done Right.

[1:20] All right. So the Religious Fright, The Widow's Might, and Giving Done Right. And I want to talk about each one of those today as we look at this passage. So the major premise that I put up here on the screen for you is this, that anything that isn't shaped by the gospel is misshaped.

[1:37] And this applies to all areas of our life, including our giving. If it isn't shaped by the gospel, our understanding of who we are before a holy God, if it isn't shaped by that, then it is misshaped.

[1:51] So let's look at what I call the religious fright here. When Jesus stood there in front of them and told them clearly that he was the Lord, he was the Messiah, the one that had been prophesied in Psalm 110, the one that had been prophesied through the whole Old Testament, and the people there, the scribes, the Pharisees, looked at them, and it says that they were just out of words to say, that no more to ask of him.

[2:15] And Jesus, speaking to his disciples, aware of the fact that the crowd is around them, when he speaks, he teaches them something. And that's where he says, beware of the scribes which desire to walk in long robes.

[2:30] And he lays out some characteristics of this religion that is Christless. So even though these, the scribes, they didn't accept that Jesus as the Lord, they walked past him, but they keep walking in their religion.

[2:43] They walk away from the Lord, but they don't walk away from religion. And Jesus is speaking to the disciples, and the crowd is listening, and he's giving a great warning. I want to remind you, we've seen, especially in chapter 19 and 20, these groups that were divided politically before Sadducees and Pharisees and scribes and the Zealot and the Herodians, and all these different groups that would have been splintered politically, they're now very much aligned against the common enemy, which is the person of Jesus Christ.

[3:13] And so even though they're out of questions, the wheels are not stopped turning in their head. They must do something about Jesus that is here. The very end of our Bible, right before the book of Revelation, the book of Jude, it says in Jude 1-3, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

[3:41] It's needful for me to write unto you. As it was needful for be written, it will be needful to be said all the way until the return of Christ to watch out for a religion that doesn't have Jesus at the center of it.

[3:56] And so there's a warning here that contend. In Luke it's shorter, but in Matthew we have a fuller version. And it's a description of what the scribes are as people that don't give Jesus the place that he deserves.

[4:09] But it could also be the story of any group of people who decide to not give Jesus the center of their lives. Any group that doesn't allow the gospel to shape him. And Jesus comes out and the sayings are very intense.

[4:23] I was talking to Micah, we're still before church, and some of us were out here working on something a few months ago and we built a little fire. And Jacob Mass walked up and he said, Can you imagine someday people will die and go, they'll spend eternity in fire.

[4:36] And David Du Bois said, Well, good morning to you too, Jacob. All right. It was quite an intense greeting to draw that thought so early in a morning.

[4:46] I don't know what time of day Matthew is happening here, but in Matthew chapter 23, the things that Jesus says against these scribes would have been, Well, that escalated quickly, right? Or that is quite the intense saying they had.

[4:58] Here's a few things in Matthew 23 that Jesus says about the scribes. A few things he says that will happen to a religion that doesn't have Jesus Christ at the center of it. He says in verse 13, But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

[5:12] You shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, but neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. You're not only going to not enter into heaven, but you're standing at the door, creating confusion and distracting people from it.

[5:27] Verse 14, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense, you make long prayers, and you're going to receive the greater damnation.

[5:39] Same thing that we see in our passages today, devour widows' houses. Verse number 15, calls them scribes and hypocrites again. It says, You would come past sea and land, that you're willing to take your message and travel with it to make one person become a follower, not of Christ, but of you, and you make twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

[6:00] Calls them a blind guy in verse number 16. He says, You had so many weird superstitious things that a person says that they don't just swear by the temple, but they swear by the gold that is on the temple.

[6:11] He calls them fools and blind. He calls them hypocrites. This is Matthew in verse 23, where he says, You even take the things that are growing wild in your front yard, and you divide it up so that you make sure you give the right amount.

[6:23] You do all the things externally that anybody could ever think of, and you add to it, but your heart, you're blind. You strain at a gnat, and you swallow a camel. You're hypocrites. You're whited sepulchers.

[6:33] You're like a tomb. You're like a mausoleum that on the outside is one way, but on the inside is dead and empty. And so this is a description. These are the attributes of an empty religion, and it was true in that day, and it will always be true of any religious system that is not giving a proper understanding of who Christ is.

[6:55] So the few things are said here. Actions are motivated by the desires of the flesh. Their worship was self-centered and not directed towards God, and as a result, it says that they will receive greater condemnation.

[7:09] You know, I'm very grateful today. I was raised by my mom, who was a widow, twice, but she didn't show me a Christless Christianity.

[7:20] She drug me to church, but she didn't drag me to church so that anybody would see us at church. She drug us to church because we needed the Word of God. Her son needed to see Jesus from the Scriptures, and I'm so grateful for that.

[7:34] This morning with the high school students, I told them I've added another purpose statement to what happens when I meet with you on Sunday mornings. I want to make sure as often as possible that I as an adult and other adults show you that this is real to us, that we love Jesus, because we're only a generation away from where Jesus is not at central to who what we believe and who we worship and praise His name, and then we're going to be just like the scribes and Pharisees in these stories, in these stories where we would only do things for the external value.

[8:06] There's such great danger in an empty external performance-based religion. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 13, it speaks about false apostles and deceitful workers transforming themselves in the apostles of Christ, and we shouldn't marvel because Satan himself transformed into an angel of light, and therefore there's no great thing if his ministers also are transformed as ministers of righteousness whose ends shall be according to their works.

[8:32] These deceitful workers are people that have been deceived themselves. There's so many things around us that are constantly trying to replace the role of Christ in our lives. So many opportunities and temptations for idolatry.

[8:46] I speak about the country of India often. As a church, you allowed Stephanie and I the opportunity many years ago, about 10 years ago now, to spend 30 days in the country. And in making a documentary, I had the opportunity to interview false teacher after false teacher.

[9:02] I met person after person. Every major religion represented in the country, I'd find somebody, and I would speak to them. And much of what I learned explained what I would see being lived out in front of me.

[9:14] A devout religious family would live in a certain way because of what they saw. I make mention of this, but I'd also like to note during that time, I had some of the sweetest moments of worship with the believers there.

[9:25] Had times where I stood beside a guy. I told you how the rickshaw driver told me, he says, you'll never see a Muslim come to know Jesus. And then the next day, I got to stand side by side with a man that was formerly a Muslim, worshiping Jesus, saying, oh, praise his name, as we have done.

[9:41] Or to walk into a church with a friend who had been to only a couple of churches in his life, and they offered us a Bible when we walked in and helped us find what was over there because there were people that loved the Lord.

[9:54] And so I saw both. I saw wonderful opportunities to worship with believers, but I also learned things about false teaching that I'd never seen so blatantly. It's very much apparent here around us, but not as clearly.

[10:06] So I have a picture of a place that we went to. It was called the Lotus Temple. And in the Lotus Temple, there was nine different entryways in it. And we recorded a time lapse of this building. And we came in from, you could come in from nine different ways.

[10:19] And this isn't dedicated to one religion, but it's supposed to be dedicated to the fact that inside of all religion and inside of all of us, there's something that is true to be found about God and that all of us are needed together.

[10:32] And when we went in that day, the room was not set up like this. There was no front place for a person to stand, but it was a round circle of chairs. And the people were commenting about how wonderful it was that there wasn't anybody who was speaking.

[10:45] There was nobody with authority speaking, but we were all equal in this round circle. Nobody had the ability to open the Bible and say, thus saith the Lord there, that it would be found individually inside of us.

[10:58] You know, there's two lives that are equally damning. One is this, we allow the tradition of men to replace the commandments of God and we let somebody misrepresent God to us. The Word of God should reveal God to us, not the Word of God plus the traditions of men.

[11:13] Secondly, which is more common where we live today, is allow the world to tell us that God does not speak from His Word and all the answers of life are to be found within ourselves.

[11:24] In reading for this chapter and studying it, I found a quote and at first reading of it, I thought, well, that doesn't seem right. And the more I thought about it, it became quite unsettling. A leader in Christian ministry teaching about how to present the people and how to teach, he said this, our sermons are not lessons that precisely define belief so much as they are stories that welcome our hopes and ideas and participation.

[11:51] Let's have a conversation. I can tell you today that I cannot invite you into a conversation about any of the things that really matter in life because I have nothing to offer.

[12:03] The best thing that we can do is to do the opposite of what he said, which is to give lessons from God's Word that precisely define our beliefs. And so we take the Word of God today and we let it define our beliefs.

[12:16] It can't be the Bible plus the tradition of men and nor could it be without the Bible where it would just become what is found inside of us. We are so thankful to have the Word of God here before us.

[12:28] The Jews had a saying, so he says there's greater condemnation. Why is that? Why is it that those people that were the scribes, the lawyers, those that were supposed to represent the Word of God is there a greater condemnation?

[12:39] The Jews had a saying that said this, Moses received the law and he gave it to Joshua. Joshua received the law and he gave it to the elders. The elders received the law and he gave it to the prophets.

[12:50] The prophets received the law and he gave it to the Pharisees and the scribes. These people, they were the treasurers of God's law. When we said they were lawyers, they were the ones that were representing.

[13:01] They were the ones that people trusted that they saw were experts. So that's why I would say in verse number 47, which the vire widows houses for to show making long prayers, the same shall receive greater condemnation.

[13:14] In the book of Hebrews, it says that those that despise the teaching of Moses' law, that they would die because of two or three witnesses. How much more a sore punishment to those that have trodden under the foot of the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith was sanctified an unholy thing.

[13:33] That's what these people were doing here. They were taking the revelation from Jesus Christ and teaching it as an unholy thing. And so an interreligion is always going to recreate hypocrites.

[13:47] Verse 46 of chapter 20, Beware of the scribes which desire to walk in long robes. Now as I list the description here for you, you're going to see people that wanted prestige. They wanted visibility.

[13:57] They wanted recognition. They wanted status. They wanted luxury, access, access, and privilege. They wanted all the things that religion had to offer minus Jesus Christ as their Lord.

[14:09] So the first thing that was said was they made long roads. In the book of Matthew, so they made their phylacteries which is just a fun word to say and I'm so thankful the day I got it right.

[14:20] As you know, anything with more than two syllables is quite a problem for me. And so they made with the phylacteries enlarged the borders of their garments. Start in the book of Numbers. This is what always is going to happen with this group is they're not creating something new but they're always rebranding.

[14:35] They're always taking something in a direction it wasn't supposed to go. But they took something that wasn't given there and it was supposed to be a device that can remind them of the commands of the Lord and they added to it and they make them longer and longer.

[14:48] So you show up on the Sabbath and one man has his garments that are long. The next one's got to come back next week. They're like, we got to do better. Did you see so-and-so? His robes are so long.

[14:58] The things running off of him are so long. I can't be outdone by that person and that's what would happen. When I go to the chiropractor, the chiropractor says to me, he says, you're just, you're so tight up here.

[15:09] You know, you're so stiff. It must be because of all those religious garments that you wear that's made you so stiff. And I said, man, I'm a Baptist. It's the casserole that's going to kill me, not the religious, not the religious robe.

[15:21] And he just didn't understand because that's what he imagined that was being laid on him. And so it still continues today and I'm grateful to not have to participate in any of that. But there's long robes that were supposed to be all for show, that external.

[15:35] We're told that we're supposed to come and not think about what the other people are wearing. We're not even supposed to be part of our discussion, all right? They wanted the opposite. They wanted to make sure that everybody saw them.

[15:45] Then it says that they love greetings. And what is it about greetings? Some of you in here know what my favorite greeting is. I doubt you'd be brave enough to say it, but let's see if you will. If I see you, what do I say?

[15:56] How about it? Good, you do know me, all right? I like to say how about it, all right? Jason's visiting here from Kentucky. You can ask him if that's a Kentucky thing. It's probably not. It's just what I like to do. How about it, all right?

[16:08] And people don't know how to respond to that. These people like their greetings, but that's not what they're talking about, right? What they liked in their greeting was the references that they were given. They liked to be called Rabbi, O exalted teacher, excellent, knowledgeable one.

[16:21] They liked it when they went through the market that people would get up from their seats and they would stand up and they would show respect and honor and reverence to them.

[16:32] They liked to be called Father because they wanted to be seen as the source of all their religious life. And Jesus teaches against that. They liked their long robes.

[16:43] They liked the titles given to them. And then they liked the best seats that were available in the synagogue. Now in our church, the best seat is the back seat, right? The baddest church, the best seat is the back seat. That's not the seat of prominence, okay, in the story.

[16:56] They wanted the elevated seat. Could you imagine the day if we had some people, you know, if you gave a certain amount, you get to sit over here during the service. I don't know that people would really like that, all right? You get to sit here up on stage.

[17:06] Maybe we could have a hot tub seating over here. We could have some box seating over here, chicken wings while you're watching the service. Treasurers. Andrew, think about this, all right? I think I might be on to something. But they wanted that elevated, that idea that everybody saw them.

[17:20] They weren't just coming to church to worship, but they wanted to be seen. So we've got the long robes. We've got the greetings. We have this place of seating, all external stuff. But then it said in verse number 47, they devour widows' houses.

[17:33] And you ask yourself, how could lawyers or scribes devour the estate of a widow? I gave you the answer there. These scribes were people that were not just teaching, you know, the Bible, the Torah that was given to them, but they were lawyers of the day, determining.

[17:49] So they were in a real position here to scam people. Today, the group that is most targeted in door-to-door scams or on the televangelist today, there's somebody right now watching a preacher online, and he's telling them if they had enough faith, then God would do something.

[18:06] And the best way that you can show your faith is to buy me a car. And there's people that are being targeted today with this. And widows and people that would be vulnerable are always being targeted by people, and there's great potential.

[18:20] And so the scribes devour the homes of the widow. It says in Matthew 15, they worship in vain, teaching the doctrines, the commandments of men, that whatever they said, they made it as thus saith the Lord.

[18:34] They would say what they wanted to the people, and they would say, this is what you ought to do. They caused confusion, they get false teaching, there's guilt, and there's shame, and there's empty promises.

[18:45] You know, we'll encounter deceitful people in our lives who want us to come between us and God, and they do that for personal gain. You'll meet people like this. As I said, I sit down, had an interview with some people like that, and you'll meet them.

[18:58] However, we would do well to watch our hearts to avoid the same sin of hypocrisy. If we're not here today, and if we're not teaching our kids today that the reason that we love everything about this and all the things that you see here is because we love Jesus, then we'll very quickly begin to build a system just like is found here in this story.

[19:18] I guess this is chapter number 21, which is the story of the widow's mite. And I want you all to see it here today. I'm going to ask for some help here in a moment. Verses 1 to 2, And he looked up and he saw the rich men casting their gifts in the treasury, and he saw also a certain poor widow casting into them two mites.

[19:34] So what was being said here was casting of the two mites. That's not the expression that we use. When the offering is received on a Sunday morning, we always say, Now is the time in which we receive the offering.

[19:46] Every now and then, somebody will say, Now is the time we're going to take the offering, and we recommend, Let's not say that, okay? Let's say we're going to receive the offering. It seems a little less threatening, all right? It ends up, it means the same thing, but we're going to receive the offering.

[19:58] But we never say, Now let us cast their offerings to the Lord. And inside of this court, we've talked about the different courts that are there. This is the court of the women. The women couldn't have come to where the men were, but the men could go into this one.

[20:11] And around the outside wall, there's 13 different receptacles here where they could receive their offering that was to be given. And when they would go to give it, it could be quite the show because everybody would hear, and they would see what was being given at the time.

[20:26] So I have Grant that's coming here today. He'll be the first one to come up, all right? And Grant is going to give us a large sum of money. If you will, Grant, come up here. And if you will give us your offering here.

[20:39] And, okay, it didn't sound much like of anything, okay? And so we get Grant. He gives a large sum of money. And if you could just imagine the sounds that would come along. Don't leave Grant, okay? You can imagine the sounds that would come with giving this large sum of money.

[20:54] And so there'd be a group of scribes that would be, oh, look at that. How convenient, all right? Go back to that, Grant. All right? And so there's Grant and you hear that noise.

[21:07] Like, everybody's just watching and they're like, wow. Grant pulled up, driving whatever, and he dropped it and the money's just like that. But really, what the scribes would hear, this is what the scribes would have heard.

[21:18] It would have sounded a little differently. They would have cha-ching, all right? Are y'all hearing the same things I'm hearing? This is incredible, right? And so they would have heard this cha-ching. And so this guy, it's a good day, all right?

[21:29] Later on, Jesus is saying that he gave us an abundance, which means he didn't press into his life too much. So he was able to go to a place, let everybody see his new suit, let everybody see who he is. He was able to give in such a way that he really received more than he gave because he's not giving sacrificially.

[21:45] It was a good day for Grant and he was seen as he wanted to be seen. And then now we have, we need a widow here, okay? Grant, you can stand off to the side. If you want, you can judge the widow when she comes by.

[21:55] And I just really hope we get to hear, we have to listen very closely here as the widow comes up and she will place in her offering. Nice.

[22:06] All right? Did you hear that? So in comparison, you can stand over here by the rich man, if you will. And so you hear the two different offerings that are being given here. And so Jesus draws the attention of the disciples and he saw when this widow goes to give her offering and he draws their attention to what's going on.

[22:25] But the other people in the room are the scribes that are watching in on it. And what we've got to be aware of here is we know the reason why the rich man gave what he was giving. We see that he gave out of his abundance.

[22:39] But this poor widow here, she is not only oppressed with poverty, but she has to live in this false system. She has to live being judged by these scribes that are watching.

[22:50] She has to be living in a system where people want to not take care of her as we have 20 plus references in the Bible of caring for a widow. But she has people here that want to take away from her, who want to devour what she has.

[23:03] And so maybe they heard cha-ching when the rich man gave, but even though they didn't hear cha-ching when the widow gave, there were still two more mites that was given to them on that day. And so we can look at it here for a moment.

[23:15] You can be seated. Thank you both so much. You will get a Grammy or an Oscar or whatever you would like. All right? Afterwards. I'll buy you Moe's. All right? That sounds better to a group of teenagers. And so let me just quickly here, and time is going so quickly today, let me give you some different understandings that I had coming into this passage about it.

[23:32] The first one is that Jesus states that the widow gave more because of her gift, was a sacrifice out of her poverty. And that's said very clearly. For all these have of their abundance cast in the offering of God, but she of her poverty has cast in all the living that she had.

[23:48] Jesus said that she gave sacrificially. He saw that. That day, she didn't, there's no reason for her, it doesn't say that she knew that the creator of the universe was watching that day as she gave.

[24:00] How incredible is that? She might have felt the judgment of other people, but on that day, the one who will give everything for her is watching as she gives everything.

[24:11] And so that's true here in the story. There's no doubt that Jesus says that what she gave was greater than the others because he wasn't listening to what was hitting at the bottom, but he was looking and he knew inside of the heart what was the ability to give and what was happening.

[24:26] The second thing that I came to believing was that the point of Jesus' condemnation is that it's not the amount which she gave, but it's the matter of the spirit which he was given. This is very likely, but you will not find that in the text.

[24:40] We do not find the motivation for what she gave. She could have been acting out of despair, out of guilt, out of desire for being, contributing towards her own salvation, but what we do find here that was given, it appears that she came and God gives a comparison between two different groups of people, between the way that the man came up or the men come up there in the story and the way they gave and then the contrast to this woman.

[25:08] So I believe, I kept some understanding, but we don't know exactly what is in the heart of this woman. Another thing is the point of the story is that the true gift is to give everything that we have. I don't believe so.

[25:20] This could be my favorite understanding, but it would lead to a great year for our church, but it would lead to a very hard decade for our church, all right, if everybody gave everything that they had at one time.

[25:32] And so Jesus' statement here though isn't based on one gave and the other didn't give in, or one was authentic and the other didn't, it was based on more and less. Does Jesus want to give everything that we have financially?

[25:44] Well, was Zacchaeus wrong when he repaid but didn't give everything that he had? The book of Acts, we find Barnabas is going to sell a field, or maybe your objection, which was my objection at first, was that the rich young ruler loved something other than he was told to give everything that he had.

[26:01] But if I'll take you back to that story, the question that Jesus was giving to the rich young ruler had to do with who was the Lord in his life. He went to the heart of that matter. He could have asked for something else, but that isn't what Jesus asked for.

[26:15] Then we also have a story, remember when the Millers, missionaries in Peru were having their son and they wouldn't tell us his name? And so I called him Bubba Miller until they told us his name, all right? That motivated them real good to do it.

[26:26] They're from Ohio, they don't have any Bubbas in their family. And so I said, we're going to call him Bubba. And they said, okay, we're going to tell you. It's a Bible name, had his guest at it, and it was the name Corbin, which means designated unto the Lord.

[26:37] And the story of the teaching of Corbin had to do with people that would say, I'm supposed to take care of my mom and dad, but I don't have any money because I'm going to call this money Corbin. I'm going to use it for the temple or for a religious purpose.

[26:51] And they were taught that they didn't do right. And so maybe we falsely assume that a person couldn't give wrongfully to the temple. The false teaching was, it's present in that day. But we also know that in despite this false system, there was people that were doing things that was honoring to the Lord.

[27:07] This is the same temple that Hannah went and prayed to. And so we had people that were doing right as unto the Lord, but we also had people that were part of a false system. And then lastly, the moral of the story could be that you should give in correspondence to your means, but that's not the example given here because she gave beyond her means.

[27:24] So coming into chapter number 21, we have Jesus saying that people would devour the widow's houses. And then afterwards, He spake some of the temple and how it was adorned with goodly stones, Luke 21, 5 and 6.

[27:38] And He said, As for these things which were behold, the days will come and the which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. So I don't know for sure today what was the decision that the woman made, what was inside of her heart, but what I do know is that it was a spiritual decision.

[27:57] I believe that she probably gave in contrast to the way the other men gave in a way that was honoring to the Lord, which was very possible that day. But when she did that, she did it contrary to the teaching that was around her, teaching that would have been oppressive to her, a religion that would have not cared about her as a widow even though they should have taken care of her.

[28:20] All of our behavior in life is based off of our beliefs. And that's what I gather here. Jesus sees completely what I can't see completely. The scribes see another thing and I look into this story, but what I do know is that Jesus looks to the heart of the matter in this person and that her behavior was an effect of her beliefs.

[28:39] She was giving based on her understanding of God and giving. So either this widow is based upon teaching that was available throughout the Bible of good or based upon this oppression of this false system, but either way, her decision, it was a spiritual one.

[28:56] Scribes wanted to put themselves between people and their understanding of Scripture. And may we pray that we would never do that. We would never put ourselves between people and the Word of God.

[29:06] When we sit down to help people, the best thing we can do is to literally place this book between us and them and to not stand in between them and their understanding of it.

[29:17] So the Bible is not silent in regards to our giving and our attitude. There's two truths for sure about this. The Bible has a lot to say about giving.

[29:28] That's number one. Truth number two, most people don't want to hear what the Bible has to say. That's truth number two about it. But we see that God sees what has been given. And this is wonderful and it's terrifying.

[29:41] Could you imagine with that widow there, Jesus is watching in, the one who will give his all there, she saw that day. And he didn't see a small amount. He saw if she was giving with the right intention and right heart, he saw a person who was giving as an expression of faith.

[30:00] Something that was given as an expression of love. Because every spending decision is a spiritual decision. The widow cast her might out of place. And I assume she believes it's pleasing to the Lord.

[30:12] She makes an investment. It's a spiritual decision. Giving should be an act of worship to our Lord and Savior. It demonstrates our love and devotion to the Lord. It acknowledges all that we have is the result of his gracious work in our lives.

[30:27] It testifies to our faith in God that we are to give out of our God-given resources, demonstrating that we can trust him of the firstfruits. So God, we can trust you with our lives as we give today and showing our trust in you.

[30:41] The Bible provides a guide for us. Clearly, it teaches us 1 Corinthians 6 that all that I am belongs to God and all that I could ever have, it belongs to him.

[30:52] And he has entrusted me with possessions. He has entrusted me with them for a purpose, to meet my personal needs and to build and to glorify God's kingdom through me. No matter what I spend, no matter what I give here, or no matter what I spend on my personal needs, it all belongs to God and it should be done as a spiritual decision based upon what I know about him.

[31:14] The Bible continues. We should give sacrificially as seen in this story here. He recognizes it's an individual decision. It should be planned. Or sometimes it's a response to a need as in Acts 2.

[31:26] It can be a demonstration of love and not just some dead adherence to the law we learn in 2 Corinthians 8. We should be generous. We should be cheerful. And our giving should be complete of our entire lives.

[31:38] And we could take months on this, but what I want you to see is that teaching is given in the Bible and it's clear and it's not oppressive and that your understanding of it affects your behavior.

[31:50] The decision that this widow made that day was based on our understanding of who God was. And it's one that was available to her from the Torah, from the Bible that was there for her.

[32:01] It also could have been influenced greatly by those who would want to have confusion that was there. And that's why there's the greater condemnation to them. Those that should have been teaching the Word of God were using it as something for personal gain.

[32:15] That they were using religion for their own personal gain, which is the only option when you don't allow Jesus to have a central place in your life. It's the only option when you walk away from Him being Lord, but you still continue walking in religion.

[32:31] And so today, the number one thing I would like for you to know about giving is that you cannot purchase favor with God, but you can receive acceptance by Him with a free gift.

[32:42] Because we're not as the scribes. We're not those that walk past Jesus as Lord and just want to be seen. So before the offering plate was ever passed, the Bible tells us in 1 John 4, 19, we love Him because He first loved us.

[32:56] You bring nothing to Him. He brought His life to you. All we ever could bring to God was the sin that took His Son to the cross. Regardless of what you give, we would all fall short if it was a means of gaining favor with Him.

[33:12] And regardless of our inability to do or give anything that pleased Him, He died for us. Romans 5, 8, But God commended love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

[33:22] Before the offering plate came, no matter how far, we'd always fall short in no matter what we gave. He commended His love towards us in that while we were sinners, He died for us. And then a so common passage that you would know, but so wonderful, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that is not of yourselves as a gift to God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

[33:45] And isn't this wonderful today? Is that we can give today as worship to our God who will meet our needs in this life and the life to come. And so we can give cheerfully in hopes that our gifts will help other people recognize this wonderful gift that we've been given.

[34:02] So do you need a beautiful picture of a sacrificial gift today? That's what many commentaries say in this story, and that's what we find. We find this great contrast here in this widow and a false system that's just taking from everybody.

[34:14] We find a woman who comes and she gives her everything and sacrifice and worship to the Lord. I shared with my mom my understanding of this passage today, and she said, Son, I think this is going to be like preaching on dragons at Christmas.

[34:28] You're just not going to want to do it, okay? And if you were here at Christmas, that's what we did, all right? And as we looked through this passage and we talked about it, and she said, it's such a beautiful picture, and it certainly, I believe that it is, but it's despite everything that's going on around there, despite this false system that would have been standing there in her way that day as she was to give.

[34:50] The question I would ask you is, is your life, is every aspect of your life being shaped by the gospel, including your giving? I do not know if the widow's giving was shaped by a proper understanding of God, but you and I have that opportunity today.

[35:06] And if you feel like that I have taken a picture away from you today and caused doubt on it, let me tell you that there's so many wonderful pictures of the gospel. I could tell you of a widow who lives in her son's basement, who drives a little yellow car all over town, who comes here every Tuesday, and she prays for you.

[35:24] And this weekend, she went to a house to ask if a lady with dementia would be able to attend church with us. On Thursday night, I showed you a video of a college-age girl who was holding an orphan child in her arms in Nigeria as she was singing about Jesus.

[35:40] There's a beautiful picture of a life being shaped by the gospel. Today, men and women who worked all week long very difficult jobs, physically demanding, mentally demanding, emotionally exhausting, they will place an offering inside of a plate to provide for this church to meet needs so that the gospel can go forth, and they will do this, not they're in favor with God, but because the gospel has shaped their lives.

[36:07] Today, you could be the story of the person that gave their all, and you could climb into this basket and say that Jesus who died for me, I want to give my life completely to Him.

[36:19] In a little bit, I'm going to introduce a video to you that we will show as the offering is received, and I pray that you will give today cheerfully, knowing that the God of heaven sees and that He is receiving worship from our giving to Him.

[36:33] And I pray that money is never placed into the offering plates of this church where people believe that they are gaining favor with God by doing that, that nobody would ever give to this church believing that they would earn their own salvation.

[36:46] And may no one ever stand here or any place that is called Vision Baptist Church and teach anything other than the fact that Jesus Christ paid it all for us and to all the Him we owe.

[36:57] So I'll ask you some questions today before I pray. Is your giving shaped by the gospel? Is it a cheerful event? What I know for sure about the story with the woman and the widow is that her giving was a spiritual decision based on her understanding of who God was.

[37:13] What do I know about our giving is that it is a spiritual decision based upon what we know who God is? Then also in here would you recognize when that enticing nature of hypocrisy comes in when your desire for prestige and visibility and recognition and status and access and privilege become to take hold in your life because when Jesus doesn't have the center place in your life then you have to sit there because somebody is always upon the throne of your life.

[37:41] We also see in this passage that there's a giving that can feel good it's a giving that's being seen it's a giving that will pacify our guilt it's a giving from our abundance but what Jesus sees and recognizes is something that was worship unto him something that was sacrificial and so I'd ask you today and here as a believer if you would consider your motives today in giving and would you do so today cheerfully and let us be clear that you will never gain approval by God by giving but you certainly can receive it today as a gift.

[38:14] Would you bow your heads with me and we're going to pray here in a moment and as your heads are bowed and eyes are closed and the piano will begin to play here in a moment I'd like to ask you a question in here it's not one that I ask every Sunday but it's one that I would like to ask in here today would you raise your hand today I'm going to ask you in a moment to raise your hand today and to testify that you know Jesus Christ that you know that he died in your place and that your sin was paid for completely by him and now you just live your life wanting it to be shaped by the gospel expressing your love for him is that your joyful testimony today would you raise it high toward heaven with believers all across this room saying that this is what I want to say from my heart let me encourage you as you're praying there you can lower your hands now but let me encourage you believers to let the Lord search your heart does the motive and the manner in which you give reflect your understanding of the gospel or is it becoming empty is it becoming just the tradition of men is it before lesser reasons ones that are not honoring the hymn believers pray there in your seat or come to an altar and pray to the Lord but speak the hymn and let him search your heart if you're in here today you could not raise your hand or if in raising your hand you knew that that wasn't the truth let me tell you about the gift of acceptance available for you today see in our story in Luke chapter number 21

[39:43]  Jesus is watching but in a couple chapters he will get up he will go to a cross and he is perfect and he is sinless but he dies on the cross as someone who had sinned but it wasn't his sin it was the sin of you and I and on that day he takes the guilt and he takes the shame and he makes the payment for our sins so the greatest gift you would ever receive was given by Jesus Christ it cannot be earned but it can be received and that's called grace it's the most wonderful thing in all of the world and it's offered to you today that's what we want to provide for you today so let me encourage you after the service today find somebody at the next steps table I want to be down front after the service I'd love the opportunity to speak with you today but the greatest gift that the world has ever received is available for us