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Stewardship I I believe that preaching about money is one of the most difficult subjects that any preacher has to address. People do not like to be told what to do with their money. They don’t even accept suggestions with any great degree of enthusiasm. I remember when my son first started work at the dockyard and brought home his first pay and the hard negotiations that took place with his mother as to how much he was going to give her for his keep. Also how my suggestion that he should put a percentage of his pay into the bank and watch it build up wasn’t received particularly well, you see teenagers have very little concept of the future, and cant see that the money they save today, may provide for their future. If he still had a dollar in his pocket on payday that was bad management He hadn’t managed to spend it all. How things change. Now married and buying a home I believe he has started to realize the value Some churches or sects use the scripture to force their members to give a percentage of their income, and they deny anyone who does not meet their requirement some of the ordinances of the church. I wonder what Jesus thinks about this? I think I know just as you know where there is pressure on people to give, they give with a sense of reluctance and miss out on the many blessings that Lord pours out on those cheerful and willing givers. I read a humorous piece the other day as I was preparing and it told the story of a church that was in the midst of a stewardship month. After a fairly fiery sermon on giving the minister announced that he was going to ask the organist to play, and he wanted all those who were willing to give $500 or more to stand up, to indicate their willingness to give this money. The organist leaned over and asked the minister what do you want me to play to which he replied God Save the Queen Let’s look at our Gospel reading, it’s not an unfamiliar passage, and many of us would have been told this story in our Sunday School days about the poor widow who gave all she had. Verse 41 tells us that Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting their money into the box …….. or whatever was used to collect the offerings, and the writer observes that many rich people put in large sums. I can imagine Jesus was summing up these people and their attitude was surely an indication of their sincerity and motive for giving. I guess some would want those around them to take notice “Look at me attitude”…. Jesus was a great judge of character and he looked right into the person to ascertain their motive In the midst of all these rich people coming to make their contributions Jesus notices a poor widow woman coming in and she put into the offering two small copper coins, but you know it was all she had …..These two coins represented about 1/12 of a cent hardly a fortune. This act was so significant that Jesus called over his disciples and singled her out from the crowd. Why did he honor her gift small as it was publicly. The scripture does not tell us who she was apart from that she was a widow, and as far as we know Jesus did not even talk to her. She simply walked in, placed her offering in the treasury and passed on her way out of the temple into the courtyard, where she went on her way in acute poverty and loneliness. No one else noticed her apart from Jesus, and he saw something in her that no one else saw , it wasn’t something outward, or physical, it was something within. Many people are impressed by the rich………..the generosity of those with bags of money and I believe of we were there we would be impressed as well…. They wanted to be noticed and probably were dressed in their best robes for the occasion. This poor widow who was probably dressed in someone else’s hand down clothes shuffled forward and gave her meager offering. … And Jesus was moved .not by the amount but by how she gave it, and on Gods scale the woman’s gift outweighed all of the others and in verse 43 its recorded that Jesus told his disciples “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more that all of those who have contributed to the treasury, …….even though she only dropped in two small coins. To God it’s not the size of the gift that matters its how you give it ……do you give it with a sense of joy and thanksgiving….. God knows your heart ……..Jesus explains : “They gave out of their wealth but she gave out of her poverty, she put in everything that she had to live on. She gave sacrificially and willingly. God doesn’t judge your gift by its size but by the sincerity and generosity of your heart This woman not only believed that,…. she gave her gift in faith, you see it takes great faith to give all you have, yet she was not in fear of what the future would hold and that she may not be able to survive. If she was a bit worried is understandable given her situation yet she steps out of the temple, having given all she had,…. she stepped out in faith believing in her God. In giving her gift she placed her life in Gods hands. She was a Jewish woman a widow and as such when her husband died she was left without anything. Anything her husband had would be passed down to the eldest son, the widow got nothing according to Jewish custom This is what makes her action so significant …… Not what she gave but what she had left, and its understandable to us just how important those two coins were to her. Many of us today would not even bend down to pick up the smallest denomination coin in our currency (10C) yet to that woman those two coins were the total sum of her livelihood and by giving that to the temple treasury she became totally dependent on God The principal of her giving
was …… Have Faith in God !,… her walk to the temple was a walk of faith
knowing that there was no provision for tomorrow …..What were her thoughts
as she walked ?…. Maybe the words of the psalmist David were ringing n her
ears when we read in Psalm 37 verse 25 I have never seen the righteous
forsaken or their children begging for bread ……… Can I ask you……….Have you ever been totally dependent on God ? I believe we need to be at times. We need to go through experiences some time in our life that makes us feel bankrupt, because then we can fully understand what it means to be dependent totally on God…. relying on God to provide our needs for survival I wish the bible told the rest of the story ….. the continuation,….. there’s so much that we need to know about this lady, we don’t even know her name and we certainly don’t know what was the final outcome….However since Jesus noticed her we can be assured of one thing …….that God took care of her ….. Jesus did say in Matthews Gospel “Seek you first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you” You and I need to catch onto that same attitude that this woman had. We need to start holding up our offerings to the Lord in confidence expecting wonderful blessing in return….. Our offerings are not just money, but ourselves our talents, our time and our skills. This poor woman didn’t hold anything back she gave all she had; The Lord Jesus didn’t hold anything back when he gave his life on the cross for us, and my prayer for you here is that you don’t hold back. Giving to the Lord’s work should be a privilege, and the blessings that you will receive will be immeasurable. AMEN |
