Good morning.
I was listening to you sing and it
thrilled my heart.
I wonder if we paid attention to those
words.
It will be worth it all when we
see Jesus.
I wonder if we believe that.
Sometimes we get rather discouraged as we labor
in our various fields and sometimes we feel
like laying it down and just going somewhere
else where there seems to be less conflict,
less problems.
But our Lord Jesus Christ, as He speaks
through the Apostle Paul, He says that we
might share in His sufferings.
To do any work for the Lord Jesus
Christ sometimes requires to suffer.
But it will be worth it all when
we see Jesus.
Life's trials will seem so small when we
see Christ.
One glimpse, one glimpse of His dear face.
Bravely run the race.
May not be long.
This morning we're going to take up in
our continuation of our character studies a woman
that I think has a tremendous lesson for
us.
I'd like you for just a moment to
listen to a little prelude to our study.
One morning a woman arose from her bed
in her single room dwelling.
She got up and the morning air was
somewhat chilly.
She warmed up the fire to fix herself
a little food.
She took the food and set it upon
a table.
And as she sat there eating, she looked
across the table at an empty space where
once her husband sat.
She thought of all the times that they'd
enjoyed together.
But he was gone now.
His death had been a great obstacle for
her to overcome.
But there was one who gave her strength.
The room was quiet.
The children now grown had gone and moved
away to other places.
But as she sat there, she thought of
the words of the psalmist.
This is a day that the Lord hath
made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
With a slightly quicker step, she arose and
picked up her shawl.
And she could hear the sounds of the
city coming awake.
She took her shawl and her small purse.
She clutched them to herself and she stepped
out into the street.
There was many that were heading in the
same direction as she.
And she joined the crowds that were going.
The little purse that she clutched to herself
was nearly empty, except for a couple of
small coins.
But yet it seemed that whenever there was
a need, there was something always there.
But she continued on.
And as she came close to her destination,
the crowds grew greater and much more noisy.
Then as she drew close to the entrance
to the temple and to the treasury, the
crowds were even greater.
But as she neared the treasury, there was
a strange feeling came over her as if
someone was watching her.
She looked around and in the crowd there
was nothing strangely different.
And she continued on.
She stepped up along with the crowds, but
she was not making the same clamor or
the same gestures that they were doing as
many who bring their bags of money and
lift them high into the air and pour
them into the copper treasury.
Hearing the coins make a great noise and
the crowds as they would speak of, look
at how much that person gave or this
person.
She slipped up to the treasury.
She had taken the last two coins from
her purse and she reached over the edge
and let them slide down into the copper
treasury.
She did not yet feel comfortable.
There was still that strange sense that someone
was watching, but there was something else she
needed to do.
And she continued her walk into the temple
for it was the hour of prayer.
Will you turn in your Bibles this morning
to Mark the 12th chapter.
Mark chapter 12.
Mark the 12th chapter in verse
41.
And he, this is Jesus, sat down opposite
the treasury and began observing how the multitude
were putting money into the treasury.
And many rich people were putting in large
sums.
And the poor widow came and put in
two small copper coins, which amount to a
cent.
And calling his disciples to him, he said
to them, truly, I say to you, this
poor widow put in more than all the
contributors to the treasury.
For they put in out of their surplus,
but she, out of her poverty, put in
all she owned, all she had to live
on.
One of the greatest parts of our worship
of God in the life of faith is
our stewardship.
Now don't sit in your seats and begin
to quake that I'm going to give you
a lesson on giving of money.
That is the least important of the parts
of this lesson.
All of you have been entertained with messages
before and have heard them many times about
the principles of giving.
What I'm more concerned with is the entire
act of stewardship.
Money is just a very small part of
stewardship, our finances.
We have been called before God to give
account not only of our finances and of
our lives, but all of the blessings that
he's bestowed upon us.
There is one resource of which we are
to be stewards that every one of us
worldwide has an equal amount, and that's called
time.
None of us have more than 24 hours
in a day.
None of us have less.
We all have seven days to the week.
We all have the same 60 minutes to
an hour.
We all have the same time, and God
calls us to stewardship not only of finances,
but of all of our resources, and one
of our greatest resources that we have is
time, and we need to guard it well.
As we consider this lesson this morning, we
are going to talk a little bit about
finances, but I'd like to ask you a
question this morning.
Let's see if you're all awake and alive
and well, or if you aren't, if Glenn
has failed.
I have a hard time speaking.
By the time I get up here, I'm
about washed out.
I have here in my hand, my last
one, a $20 bill, and I have here
a quarter.
Now, there's a considerable amount of difference between
the two.
Do you agree to that?
Okay, good.
Somebody's awake.
I heard a voice.
You are alive and well out there, right?
Now, I want you all to set aside
your thoughts that you've had earlier today about
the vengeance that's going to happen on the
horseshoe courts, and Bill, I hope that I
don't get a feeling that there's bad blood
brewing here, but I've seen those guys out
there.
Man, I tell you, you wouldn't dare walk
in front of them.
You did.
But we have here a $20 bill.
We have a quarter.
Of which of these, of which, or of
what?
If I was to give these to the
Lord, what is God most concerned about?
What's God most concerned about?
Is he concerned about money?
Does God need a $20 bill?
He may not, but I do.
That's not our point.
You're missing the point.
Stay with the program.
Somebody says, I wonder if he's going to
give that $20 bill away.
Stay in your seats.
What does God need?
Veto.
That's right.
You got the lesson down, Pat.
You can go home now.
You know, the Lord isn't concerned about whether
I give a $20 bill or a quarter.
What he's concerned about is me.
What's my heart?
He would rather have me give a quarter
and happiness before him than to give begrudgingly
a $20 bill.
And the thing that we need to understand...
Thank you, brother.
You're right on, Mike.
Thank you.
I trust you're never planning to come back
to Omaha.
But see, the Lord doesn't need a $20
bill.
He doesn't need a quarter.
He wants you.
He's most concerned about you as an individual.
Now, we look at this story this morning
about a widow woman.
We might say, you know, that's kind of
pathetic.
Here's a poor woman by herself.
Her family has gone away.
Her husband is dead.
And all she has is a few morsels
of food and two cents in her purse.
And she puts it in the treasury.
What's she supposed to live on?
Doesn't God provide?
I would challenge you to check your thinking
against her thinking.
What was her motive that day?
I think that she understood more than many
of us do and I know more than
me of what our Lord Jesus Christ, when
he was here on earth, said as he
spoke in the Sermon on the Mount.
Will you turn back to that portion in
Matthew chapter 6?
We were there last night.
I want to continue on with some thoughts
from that portion.
Now, I don't know whether this widow woman
had ever heard our Lord Jesus Christ, but
I'm sure she understood the principles that we
find here in the Sermon on the Mount
in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 25.
For this reason, I say to you, do
not be anxious for your life as to
what you shall eat or what you shall
drink, nor for your body as to what
you shall put on.
Is not life more than food and a
body than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air that
they do not sow.
Neither do they reap nor gather into barns.
And yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not worth more than they?
And which of you, by being anxious, can
add a single cubit to his life span?
And why are you anxious about clothing?
Observe how the lilies of the field grow.
They do not toil, nor do they spin.
Yet I say to you that even Solomon
in all his glory did not clothe himself
like one of these.
But if God so raised the grass of
the field, which is alive today and tomorrow
is thrown into the furnace, will he not
much more do so for you, O men
of little faith?
Do not be anxious in saying, What shall
we eat or what shall we drink or
with what shall we clothe ourselves?
For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek.
For your heavenly Father knows that you need
all these things.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added to
you.
Therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow, for
tomorrow will care for itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.
If I could, or if I would impose
upon him, I know he would.
If I had asked Dr. Jim to stand
up and explain to you the amount of
physical maladies that can be caused by stress
and anxiety, I think we'd probably use up
probably the rest of our time.
We're all becoming, especially in the medical world,
and we are too, because they are finding
it important to educate us.
The anxiety causes many, many physical ailments.
We, through the boob tube, we're giving a
lot of information about upset stomachs.
And is it the food we eat?
Sometimes it is.
But a lot of the time it's nothing
more than the anxieties that we have going
on in our lives.
We worry.
I can't tell you in marital counseling how
many marriages fall apart because of anxiety over
finances, and how big of an impact that
finances has in all of the other aspects
of marriage, the physical aspects as well as
the spiritual aspects.
Anxiety.
We live in an anxious world.
The past few weeks, the world set anxious
wondering of the fate of the hostages of
Flight 847.
Will they kill them?
Will they return them?
What will happen to them?
We waited with almost like we were holding
our breath.
What's going to happen?
Is this a prelude to something?
People today are anxious about who's going to
be the first one to pull the trigger
of a nuclear device in anger.
Somewhere in the world, is it going to
be a Qaddafi from Libya?
Is it going to be one of the
Arabs that's going to be upset and somehow
get hold of a nuclear device?
And all of a sudden people are going
to start throwing things from all over the
world, and we're going to be in the
middle of a nuclear holocaust.
The world is anxious.
We were sitting last night, in fact it
was into the wee hours of this morning,
discussing the plight of the American farmer.
There's a lot of anxiety in the farming
world, in the agricultural industry, over what's going
on.
People today, in the cities, are in turmoil
of anxieties because of the lack of being
able to make a living income, to be
able to provide for their families.
In my line of business, it has been
my sad misfortune on numerous occasions due to
the effects of the business world to have
to go and tell those that report to
me I'm sorry, but that in one week
from today will be your last day with
us.
You're being laid off.
I had a young man just a few
months ago, nice young man and a wonderful
worker, and boy I really enjoyed this young
guy.
He was just every supervisor's dream.
Man, you could give him a job and
you never had to worry about him.
He'd just go out there and he'd work
his little heart out and do a good
job for you.
I had to go up to him.
I had to say, I'm sorry, Steve, I'm
going to have to let you go.
You're on the layoff list.
275 people had to be notified that day
in a plan of 4,000 people they
were being laid off.
And the young guy almost burst into tears
there in front of me.
And I said, Steve, I said, well you
were told that when you were hired that
there was a possibility you might not be
in long-term employment.
He said, yes, I know.
But he said, I passed a point here
a few weeks ago I thought it was
safe.
He said, I just went out and bought
a brand new car.
He said, there's no way in the world
I'm going to be able to pay for
it without his care.
He says, I really like that car.
And I could see the anxiety but no
emotions that were going on within him.
Now we may think it's frivolous, you know,
well, it's no big deal about a car.
But to him it was important.
And maybe you had something else that we're
anxious about.
I know every time I walk across the
parking lot at the University of Nebraska there
in Omaha, heading for the classrooms, and I
know ahead of me lies an hour or
so of a test, an exam.
I can just feel like that large knot
right in here, you know.
Am I going to be able to do
good on it?
I'm sure all of those of you that
are in the classrooms yet today.
And I can say this to you as
a little bit of counsel.
If you're going to school, if you're thinking
about going to school, do it before you
get to be an old man because it
gets harder as you get older.
Because those anxieties never get any easier.
The older they get, the more you're more
concerned about them.
We have anxieties of all kinds.
And yet the word of God tells us,
be anxious for nothing.
I don't know how many times over my
life as I've walked across those streets there
at the university, praying this prayer, Lord, I've
studied, I've done a good job.
Help me to recall those things that I'm
going to need on the test that I
might do well.
Not to bring honor to myself, to bring
honor to you.
Because I want to do those things which
you said, whatever you do, do all to
the glory and honor of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
It's important for you to do well in
your job.
It's important for you to do well in
the school room.
It's important for you to do well as
a husband, as a wife, as a son
or a daughter, in whatever capacity God calls
you to serve.
Do it well and do it with all
your heart.
But he also says, be anxious for nothing.
Because the anxiety isn't going to do anything
but shorten your life.
I'm sure the good doctor would tell you
that anxiety is all they do is have
a tendency to shorten your life because they
put a tremendous burden upon your heart.
We need to learn the lessons from scripture.
The lessons from scripture are not only those
that speak to our spiritual nature, but to
our physical nature as well, because God is
concerned about the whole person.
And we need to learn that there are
many things that God speaks to us in
his word about, but we just kind of
seem to gloss over them.
And we've all said, you know, I can't
help it.
I'm anxious.
I worry.
But you know, God understands.
Of course God understands.
But that doesn't say that he agrees with
you.
He says, I've given you in my word
this promise.
Be anxious for nothing.
I care.
Do we believe that he cares about us?
He certainly does.
He wants us to trust him for everything.
Here is this widow woman, the last two
cents.
If we were put in the same position,
what would we do?
What would you do?
You don't have to answer.
We're not going to have a time of
confession here.
It might be good for us, but we
aren't going to do that.
What would we do?
The cupboards are beginning to be bare.
The clothes aren't as good as they used
to be.
And all I have left is two cents.
And the voice of God speaks to a
widow woman and says, give it all.
Give it all.
And with perfect consciousness and faith, she goes
to the temple that day and takes those
last two cents and puts them in the
treasury.
I ask you now, do you really think
the temple was that it was going to
make a big difference to the temple that
day?
Whether or not they had those two cents.
When you think of all of those rich
ones that were standing there and you know
how they did, the Jews were great.
You know, they bring in their money sacks
and they break it down to the least
possible coin they could.
And, you know, they bring the big bulging
sacks and they'd stand and they'd lift those
sacks in the air.
And, you know, they want to make sure
that everybody around was looking at them.
And, you know, the temple treasury had the
big copper funnels that went down into the
box.
And they'd sit there and they'd take those
things and they'd dump them.
And the coins would hit that copper and
brass drum and, you know, make all the
noise you've all heard that.
Take a bag of pennies and throw them
on a hardwood floor and multiply it times
a hundred, get the same effect.
They'd dump that money there and, you know,
they'd stand around the big smiles, you know,
giving it all, giving it all.
Here it is.
One woman.
And, you know, our Lord Jesus Christ wanted
the disciples to be so impressed with this
woman that he called them from the various
parts.
He says, Come here.
Come here.
I've got a lesson for you.
I imagine they say, What's up?
You know, what do you want?
I want you to watch.
See this woman?
So?
See what she's doing?
She only put in two cents.
I wonder what went through their minds that
moment.
He calls us over to show us a
woman that put in two cents.
What's the big deal?
You know, the temple needs dollars, you know,
lots of money, a lot of coins.
She don't understand.
He says, Look at this woman.
She has given more.
She has given more than all of the
rest of those that lifted their bags high.
Given more.
What do you mean she's given more?
She only gave two cents.
Those other guys, they've given hundreds of times
what she gave.
What do you mean she gave more?
He says she gave out of all that
she had, not just of her surplus, but
of all.
I wonder if the Lord would ask us
to give us all for us to give
him our all.
Would we be willing to do it?
Would we be willing to put in all
that we owned?
That last two cents?
I've often wondered, Why didn't the woman walk
up and let the two cents fall?
I'm sure the people around her would have
understood.
I'm sorry, but this is all I have.
Let the two coins drop.
I don't think she made any display.
I think she walked up and did it
very quietly.
Just let them slide down into the treasury.
Because, you see, I think the point is
that the Lord wanted us to understand the
motive.
She didn't really care about the opinion of
others.
It wasn't her concern that day.
She was more concerned about doing what God
had told her to do, had laid upon
her heart.
Out of a pure heart and conscience, she
gave all that she had.
For, you know, there would have probably no
doubt people would have been there that said
to her, Why in the world are you
giving your last two cents?
Don't you know?
Aren't you aware that charity begins at home?
You should take care of yourself.
Do you have anything in the cupboards at
home?
Well, no, I don't.
And you're giving your last two cents.
Now what are you going to do?
Come around and beg from us and become
a burden to us?
Is that what you're working up to?
You want to get our sympathies?
She didn't really care about the opinion of
others.
She did it quietly before the Lord.
But so often we're denied the blessings of
God because of the opinion of others and
the influence they have upon us.
What would you have said to her?
She'd have come to you and said, I'd
like your advice.
I have two cents.
I don't have a lot at home.
And the clothes I have are the clothes
that I'm wearing.
I feel that I should give these two
cents.
What do you think?
What would have been your advice to this
widow woman?
Think about it.
What would have been your advice in the
light of who you are, a child of
God?
Now, it's always easy to counsel someone else,
especially about finances and especially if you're in
a position where you don't have to worry.
But what would you have done?
What would have been your counsel to the
widow woman with the two copper coins?
Our Lord said that He wants us to
give out of a cheerful heart, but He
does want us to give, give of ourselves,
give of our time, give of all of
our resources, give them to Him and He
will use them.
Giving, whatever it is, is pleasing to God.
It's pleasing to Him and He wants us
to give with a happy heart and give
back to Him that with which He has
blessed us.
We're not giving back to Him.
These are acts of worship.
These are worship, acts of worship to the
living and the true God.
Thought about it.
Give some time to the Lord.
It's an act of worship.
Give of our resources, give of our time
to someone in need, for if we do
it to His glory and honor, He considers
it an act of worship.
As I consider the principles that we have
here, the Lord wants us to give in
honesty.
He wants us always to be true.
He wants us to be consistent.
I remember some years ago sitting in Omaha
on a Sunday afternoon, Billy Graham Crusade was
in town and a little man got up
on the stage and Billy Graham introduced him.
He says, I want you to meet R
.G. Letourneau.
And I said to him, who in the
world is R.G. Letourneau?
Billy Graham says, have you ever driven down
the highway and you come to those signs
you just love to see?
And when we came down here, it seems
like that's all I saw every few hours.
Road construction ahead.
Proceed with caution.
And you see the big machines working around
on the highway.
I remember some years ago going across the
state of Colorado.
There in the mountains, huge earth moving machines.
I mean, these babies were big.
They looked like they could hold a couple,
three of those semis and still have room
to spare inside of them.
They were chewing up the mountains to make
a new highway.
I remember seeing on those machines, Letourneau.
Billy Graham says, whenever you travel, he says,
you come across this guy in a variety
of ways.
He was the man that designed the huge
machines that's helped take a lot of the
state of Florida and turn it from swamp
into productive land.
Of course, it depends upon who you want
to talk to.
But nonetheless, he's designed machines that have been
able to do some magnificent things.
R.G. Letourneau got up on that Sunday
afternoon.
He says, I want to tell you a
little bit about my life.
He says, I'm not bragging.
He says, I'm a multimillionaire.
He says, the Lord has blessed me far
beyond my wildest expectations.
But he says, I've been a multimillionaire three
different times.
I said three different times.
Pretty good.
But he said, I've also been in bankruptcy
twice.
He said, when I first started making money,
he said, I hadn't been a Christian too
long.
And he said, I understood the principle of
giving to God.
And he said, I understood the principle of
tithing from my earlier childhood training.
And so he said, I said, OK, God,
between me and you, it's 10%.
All that you give to me, 10%
is yours.
And he said, so I gave him 10%.
He says, I felt very confident about that.
But then he says, times began to get
a little hard and the money seemed to
be coming in not quite so fast.
So I kind of reneged on my promise
to God.
And I used his money in other places.
And in the sight of a few months,
he says, I was flat broke in bankruptcy.
He says, I came before the Lord and
I have not been the faithful steward.
I promised to you 10%.
And I went back on my promise.
But he said, with a broken and a
contrite spirit, he said, I went before God
and confessed my sin.
Not ever expecting again to be a multimillionaire
or even to be a wealthy man.
But he said, once again, from the ashes,
God built up.
And he says, I again became a multimillionaire.
And I said, it won't happen again.
And 10% is God's.
So he said, for a number of years,
it was always 10% off the top
went to God and his work.
And I know there are many around the
world that can attest that R.G. Luterneau
was a faithful giver to God.
But he said, you know, it went on
for a few years.
And again, God tests our faith.
And he tested my faith and the business
became a little bit hard again.
And he said, once again, I committed the
same crime, the same sin against God.
I quit being a faithful steward.
And again, he said, I was in bankruptcy.
And he said, again, the lesson came to
me and God is merciful.
And he says, I had to repent and
confess God, I failed you again.
He said, I never expected that God would
ever bless me like he had in the
past.
But he said, I purposed in my heart.
God, I will return to you that which
rightfully belongs to you.
And he said, again, my business began to
prosper.
And he said, it prospered far beyond anything
I'd ever been before.
But he said, you know, as my business
began to grow, I began to think, you
know, this all belongs to God.
It doesn't belong to me.
He's the owner.
I'm just the manager.
Who am I to keep 90% and
only give 10% back to the owner?
He says, that's not good business.
So I began to say, OK, God, let's
work out some things here in finances.
You teach me the lesson.
And so he said to me, R.G.,
are you willing to go 20-80?
I said, sounds fair.
So I gave 20% to the Lord's
work and kept 80.
And he said, and still my business prospered.
But then it came back.
He said, the Lord again spoke to me.
He says, R.G., are you willing for
a 30-70?
What have I got to lose?
And it went on time and time again.
And when R.G. Letourneau went into the
presence of his Lord, R.G. Letourneau was
giving 90% to the Lord's work and
he was keeping only 10% for himself.
You say, yeah, when you're a multimillionaire, if
he has $100 million, he's giving $90 million
to the Lord and keeping $10 million for
himself.
That's not too bad.
I could handle that.
But the principle is there.
The principle is there that our Lord didn't
haphazardly say, it's difficult for rich man to
enter into heaven.
You know, when we become blessed by God
in so many ways, do you ever notice?
Are you continually at his feet when you're
prospering?
Or are you continually at his feet when
you're in need?
I don't know about you, but I'll have
to confess to you, when it's abundant, I
find the path to the throne of grace
sometimes has more grass growing on it than
when I'm in need.
Because when I'm in need, the path to
the throne of grace is well worn.
I spend much time there.
And that's a sad commentary.
For you know, the path to the throne
of grace, so often we only find time
to go to the throne of grace when
we're in need.
But you know, sometimes I think the Lord
would appreciate if we'd spend just as much
time thanking him for all the wonderful blessings
that he pours out upon us.
For every good and rich thing, every wonderful
thing cometh down from the Father, the Father
of life.
And he blesses us in so many, many
different ways.
And yet how discontent we always are.
We learn the sin of discontentment in the
life of Gehazi.
And we would pray this morning that all
of us would recognize discontentment in our hearts
and set it aside.
We learned some wonderful lessons from the widow.
Here was a woman.
She didn't have to worry about being encumbered
by materialism.
She could have cared less about the materialistic
things.
How many of us are really concerned about
the materialistic things of this world?
I'm not too concerned about those things.
But if we really get down and examine
our lives, do we really care?
You bet we do.
We all want to have good images, don't
we?
We want to be pleasing to other people.
You know, the Apostle Paul gave us a
little lesson.
He was speaking about the ministry, but I
think it's so applicable today.
Turn in your Bibles to Galatians.
And if you haven't looked at this verse,
look at it.
Galatians 1 and 10.
Or of God.
Why am I striving to please men?
If I were still trying to please men,
I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
Now, Paul's speaking of his ministry and the
gospel.
But I think a principle is here that
is very important for us in the area
of stewardship.
For am I seeking the favor of men,
or of God?
Or of myself?
Am I seeking to favor myself above God?
Do I want the favor of men?
Now, there goes...
You know, when we go down the street,
we like people to take a look at
us and say, Hey, there goes the guy
that knows how to handle it.
We want to hear the accolades that man
pours out.
We want to have a few of those
for ourselves.
But Paul realized this.
He says, am I seeking the favor of
men or of God?
Do I want to please God or do
I want to please men?
He says, for if I am striving to
please men, I am no longer a bondservant.
Now, a bondservant was one who said, I
will work for you.
I will commit my life to you.
I am yours.
There was a bond that was made, and
it was for life.
I no longer want my life to be
my own.
I commit myself to you.
Do I want to seek to please man
or myself?
Or if I am striving to please men,
I am no longer a bondservant of Jesus
Christ.
Here was a woman that was unencumbered by
materialism.
She no longer cared.
It wasn't that important to her.
Another thing that we can see, another lesson
we can learn from the widow woman is
that she believed God in who that he
said he was.
You know, when Abraham took Isaac to the
mountain to offer him up as a sacrifice,
I don't know the thoughts that went through
that man's mind.
I know some of them.
I don't know whether Abraham was anticipating that
Isaac, after being offered for a sacrifice, would
be resurrected by God or what.
But Abraham heard that God would provide.
He said he'll provide himself a lamb.
And he did.
He provided for Abraham that day.
And Abraham called that place the place where
God will provide.
God will provide, and he did.
That woman had a firm belief, a stand
of faith, that God would provide for her
in her every need.
She was not hesitant to take the last
two cents and give them to God, for
she knew that God would provide.
For he had been providing all along in
her life, and she knew it.
And she recognized that by the walk of
faith, he would continue to provide for her
because he loved her.
You can see in her life, her life
of faith, that she was a true woman
of God, a woman of faith.
She was purposeful in her acts of obedience.
I wonder how many of us, if we
knew it was the last two cents that
we had to give, if we would be
quick to rush out the door to head
for the treasury at the temple to give
our last two cents.
Or would we sit in that room by
ourselves and agonize over the two cents?
It said she went, she gave, and she
prayed.
For it was the hour of prayer.
The activity of her life backed her faith.
Her every activity showed forth her faith in
God.
She gave all.
And when God says all, I think it's
very indicative that he means all of her
resources.
She gave all that she had.
And the wonderful thing that as she went,
and as she gave, she had this knowledge.
She knew that God knew.
Now, I don't think that she knew that
day that Jesus was watching her.
I don't think she knew about that until
she reached the portals of heaven.
I don't think she knew that Jesus was
going to use her as a lesson, that
he would have written in his word a
few verses that would mark her life.
But she stands to us as a lesson
of faith, a monument of faith, that we
might be encouraged in our walk of faith.
For she knew that her God knew, and
she was satisfied.
He knows, and he cares.
Peter ushered those words to us as they're
written in the Holy Writ, casting all your
cares upon God, he cares for you.
She knew those words, for he had been
caring for her in a consistent way.
My words of challenge to you this morning
from the life of the widow woman.
We could go on with some more lessons
from her life, but let's draw to a
close there, and we'll ask ourselves these questions.
What of me?
What of my resources?
What of my energies?
What of my time?
And what of my life?