Giving All You Have

Luke chapter 21, verses 1 through 4.

Luke 21:1–4

Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box.

And he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.

And he said, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.

For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on.

This is God's word.

One time, Mr.

and Mrs.

Billy Graham were in church together.

And Mr.

Graham, by mistake, put a$20 bill in the collection plate when he had meant to put in a 10.

He reached for the$20 bill and Mrs.

Graham slapped his hand.

And so Billy leaned over and said, I meant to put a$10 bill in the offering.

In God's eyes, Mrs.

Graham quietly assured him, it is a 10.

We joke about giving, but it makes us a little nervous.

Some people are thinking, oh no, he's talking about money.

And we feel uncomfortable when sermons deal with this area of our lives.

We feel so uncomfortable.

And why is that?

I think maybe it's because the church at times has done it poorly.

And the church, rightly or wrongly, has a bad reputation in regards to money.

In fact, as a pastoral staff, on Wednesdays, we sit around and talk about this coming week's passage, and we all had stories of churches that we either knew about or had been a part of that were horror stories in regards to how money was handled.

We heard stories of heavy-handed sermons laden with guilt and shame and high-pressure tactics in order to squeeze more money.

We heard stories of a pastor who called in a couple congregants because he was checking up on how much they were giving relative to their income.

We talked about stories of churches whose pastors use the offering as their own personal revolving savings account and their expense account.

We talked about stories of churches that say it isn't about the money, but then celebrate the large donations as if it is.

And overlooking all of the small faithful donations week after week.

We talked about giving is often equated with clout and influence, and that and that those who give much often are shown special favor.

Sadly, it's often guilty as charged.

But that doesn't mean that we can avoid this issue because God wants us to address the issues of money and our resources and our stewardship.

One author and pastor John MacArthur notes this.

He says 16 of Christ's 38 parables speak about how people should use earthly treasure.

In fact, our Lord taught more about such stewardship than about heaven and hell combined.

The entire Bible contains more than 2,000 references to wealth and property, twice as many as the total references to faith and prayer.

It may make us feel uncomfortable talking about these topics, but clearly it is something that God is concerned with and calls us to consider.

The fact is, God owns it all.

And everything that we have has been entrusted to us.

It's on loan from God.

Everything that we have is a treasured trust.

It is not our own.

He has given it to us.

We are his managers, his stewards of it.

And the fact is, is he really doesn't want our money, he wants us.

And that's what we're going to see as we look at this story this morning.

He wants all of you.

God is concerned about your heart.

Really, the main point of what Jesus says here is that sacrificial giving glorifies God by declaring and demonstrating the gospel.

From the example of this poor widow, we'll learn three things.

First of all, our giving should glorify God.

That's the only motivation behind why we give.

Secondly, our giving should be sacrificial.

And then finally, our giving should demonstrate the gospel.

And so I want us to examine this passage and we'll look at some other passages in regards to giving to put together what God wants us to understand in regards to stewardship, but more importantly, in regards to our hearts, our lives before Him.

First of all, our giving should glorify God.

In the parallel accounts of this passage in Mark chapter 12, verse 41, it's noted that many rich people put in large sums of money.

Mark 12:41

They put in in such a way that everyone around them knew exactly what they were giving.

Jesus addresses the heart of this in Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

I encourage you to turn there for a moment.

If you have your Bibles open, Matthew chapter 6, looking at the first four verses.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Jesus there addresses this area of giving, and notice what he says here.

He says, Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.

For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

For when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogue and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

What Jesus says here in essence is we can give in such a way to glorify ourselves.

Somebody will get the glory in everything that we do.

Somebody is going to get the glory, and it is possible for us, Jesus says here, that we can give, we can give in such a way that the glory is drawn back to us.

Notice what these people did.

They gave offerings, and commentators tell us that uh in these offerings, and particularly the one in Luke, that that the amount that was given would be announced as the people were giving it.

Now, could you imagine if we did that in the offering today?

How many would be here next week?

Could you imagine doing that?

Sitting there and they go, oh, well, you know, this person put in$100 and this person put in 50 cents and this person put in$20 and this person still trying to find money in the bottom of her purse.

Could you imagine how that would go over?

But could you imagine the motivation that you would have to make sure that you looked good in the eyes of others?

And this is what was happening.

The amounts would be announced so that others would be impressed.

They were giving in order to be seen by others.

They wanted to be known as generous people.

Jesus observes that we we can toot our own horns.

He says, when you get to the needy, sound no trumpet.

And not only is it possible for others to draw attention to us, but we can draw attention to ourselves in what we do.

Being conspicuous in how we give.

We can glorify ourselves when we feed off of the accolades of others.

Notice that Jesus says that they may be praised by others.

Really, what was going on in their hearts was they were thriving off of the praise of others.

Not only were they drawing glory to themselves, but it was puffing them up and building them up because of how others looked at them and how others considered them, and they they fed off the accolades of others.

They were concerned about their reputation.

If they gave in private, nobody might know.

And so what will they think of me?

And so they had to make sure that people knew because their reputation in the eyes of others was at stake.

And giving just made them feel good.

It wasn't that others glorified them, but but they reveled in the glory as they looked at themselves and how good they were and how generous they were, how freely they were giving, how much they were helping, and and it fed their own hearts.

But what does it mean to glorify God?

What does it mean to bring glory to God?

We uh mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.

God possesses all glory and honor and splendor.

When we live our lives before him, when we glorify him, it's not as if we are adding to his glory.

It's not as if glory is an amount and that God in some way is deficient, and as we glorify him, there is an amount added to his glory.

God is all glorious.

But what we do when we glorify him is we make his glory known.

We live our lives in such a way that we don't draw attention to ourselves, but we draw attention to his goodness and grace and majesty.

And to the degree we reflect God, we draw attention to him and people see his glory.

There's a tension here.

And let me point it out directly.

In Matthew chapter 5, verse 16, it says this.

Matthew 5:16

And you're thinking, wait a minute.

We're supposed to give in secret so that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing because we're not doing it for ourselves, we're not doing it to impress others, we're not doing it to be seen, we're doing it in secret so God who sees in secret will see what we give and be honored, and yet we're supposed to do it in such a way that people will see our good works and glorify our Father who's in heaven.

How do we do that?

I think there's a couple ways that we can, and surely we can think of others, but let me just suggest two to you.

Some of this is resolved by recognizing the corporate nature of the church as the body of Christ.

Individually, we give quietly and faithfully from our hearts to glorify God, and then together as a church, the resources that we have collected, we gather and then we distribute in order that God will be glorified and that the gospel is advanced.

And so, in that way, we we don't draw attention to ourselves, but the church, in its corporate witness to a watching world, sees the glory of Christ both declared and demonstrated through our giving.

And there's a second way I think that we can actually reconcile both of these passages, because when we give, somebody's the recipient.

There is an individual, there is a person, there is a situation, there is an organization, there is somebody on the other end that you are giving to.

And so it may be that if there's a circumstance that you're helping out with, now the person who's there, you may give, and and and they may realize it's from you, but you're not doing it so that you can be noticed, and you're not doing it just so they think well of you, you're doing it from your heart to glorify God, and they sense and see the motive of your heart and they glorify God.

But the question really is why are you giving?

Are you giving in such a way that you're concerned about your reputation, you're concerned about what others think, or are you giving to glorify God?

Because God isn't concerned so much about how others may respond.

He wants to know the intent and the motivation of your heart that you say, God, I am doing this so that you will be honored and glorified.

I'm doing this so that your name will be magnified, not that others will see or others may know, nobody may ever know, but my heart's desire is to give, and you will know, and you will be glorified, and you will use this to advance the kingdom.

And so our desire is not to glorify ourselves, but to glorify God.

And to the degree that we draw attention to ourselves, we diminish God's glory.

And so we're called in all things to bring glory to God, and that extends to how we use our resources.

So, underlying everything, and the first lesson that we learn from this widow is that she wasn't doing it like the others.

She wasn't doing it to be noticed, she was doing it out of a heart's desire to see God glorified.

But there's two other lessons that we learn here in this passage in Luke chapter 21.

Luke 21 · chapter mention

Our next two lessons explain why sacrificial giving brings glory to God, and so we need to look at the nature of this widow's giving.

And we're reminded there that, secondly, our giving should be sacrificial.

And this is something we need to wrestle with.

We may be asking ourselves, Pastor, how much should I give?

And we look at the examples of the Bible, this poor widow gave everything she had to live on.

She literally, what it says here in the text is she put every resource that she had, every earthly possession that she had to live on in the offering.

It would be the equivalent of you clearing out your bank account and taking your next paycheck and and putting it all together and without any knowledge or concern or or certainty of how you were going to move forward, putting everything in the offering plate.

That's what she did.

But does that mean that we must sell everything we have and give it away to the poor?

No, I don't believe that's what the Bible is is teaching here.

I do think there's a principle that underlies it, but that isn't what Jesus is saying here, and that isn't what the rest of the Bible teaches.

In fact, there are examples throughout the Bible and throughout the New Testament, particularly of people who give a portion of what they have, and God is pleased with that.

Throughout the uh the Mediterranean, they were taking a collection for the church in Jerusalem, and that included taking a collection in Corinth in order to help the poor in Jerusalem.

And Paul writes to the church, uh, we find this in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, and he says this, on the first day of every week, each of you is to put aside some, to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

1 Corinthians 16 · chapter mention

In 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 17 to 19, he's talking about those who God has prospered materially, those who are wealthy.

1 Timothy 6:17–19

And Paul says that to Timothy, as for the rich in this present age, charge them to be generous and ready to share.

And you see, in both of those circumstances, Paul doesn't say, well, you need to understand that you need to take everything you have and give it away.

And so the Bible isn't mandating that we give every earthly possession away and live in abject poverty.

That isn't the message that we should glean from Luke chapter 21, and that isn't what the Bible uh demonstrates elsewhere.

Luke 21 · chapter mention

But here's the catch: God isn't asking us to give everything away.

But he wants our hearts in a place that if he did, we would.

He wants our hearts in a place to say, God, whatever you want me to do, I'm willing to do.

Whatever you're calling me to do, whatever you put on my heart to do, I'm in a place that I want to do it.

And so the issue isn't an amount of money or a percentage of money.

Um, it's about where our hearts are in relationship to God, to say, God, whatever you want me to do, wherever you want me to go, whatever you want me to give, whatever you place in my heart, I'll do it because of gratitude towards you.

For you see, we function so much, and this is part of our problem, we function out of duty.

And God wants us to function out of delight.

We tend to function out of duty.

In fact, I think uh some people would appreciate if I could give rules and standards of what is the minimum requirement to give in order to be a faithful Christian.

For some, that would actually comfort us because then we could say, well, I've given this percentage and so I'm good.

I don't need to worry about anything else.

And in fact, some do that.

Some look to the Old Testament and say uh that every Christian ought to give 10%.

Uh the term for that is called a tithe.

And it seems like a simple solution.

If we said, well, 10% is what is required, and this is what what uh what God asks of you, and if you give 10%, you don't need to worry about anything else.

Um but I don't think that's what the New Testament teaches.

I think there's a couple problems with saying that.

First of all, uh in the Old Testament, uh they were instructed to give more than 10%.

In fact, if we if we had time, we could trace through uh the Old Testament, and there were multiple tithes.

Um there were at least two times a year that they were to give 10%, which would be the equivalent of 20%, and then every three years they were to give 10%, which would have been three and a third, and then on and then on top of that, there were other offerings that were required to give.

And so if you were to add them all up, if we were to take the Old Testament as an example, it would be over 25% that was required of the Jews.

But we have to recognize that they were functioning in a different era, and they were there to support not only the temple, but also the government under a theocracy.

And much of what was what was required was really a tax.

And so I think that although it might be helpful for us if we could turn there and say, well, let's just say 10%, and we'll use that uh as our standard, and then we can feel comfortable if we've met that minimum requirement, I don't think that's what God is concerned with.

Because you see, God doesn't want 10% of you, He wants you, He wants your heart, and He wants a heart that is generous and sacrificial.

He already owns everything, He doesn't need what we have, it's really His, we've been entrusted with it, but what He's concerned with is the attitude of our hearts.

We want to know what the minimum requirements are, God wants to know where our heart is.

Giving that pleases God is given freely and joyfully and sacrificially.

Uh if you have your Bibles open, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 8.

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

I want to look at another passage just briefly in the area of giving.

Then tie it back together with what we find here in Luke chapter 21, and looking at this widow and looking at the example of the Macedonian believers.

Luke 21 · chapter mention

Look in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verses 1 through 4.

2 Corinthians 8:1–4

2 Corinthians chapter 8, verses 1 through 4.

2 Corinthians 8:1–4

It says, We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.

For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.

This is an astounding passage on the heart that God desires from us as his children.

Notice what it says here, they gave freely.

They gave, it says, of their own accord.

What motivated this widow in Luke chapter 21, what motivated the Macedonian believers wasn't a sense of duty, but it was a sense of delight.

Luke 21 · chapter mention

This is what they wanted to do.

They didn't do it out of a sense of obligation or guilt, they did it out of a sense of joy.

And sometimes we are motivated out of guilt or compulsion or fear, and we think if we don't do this, God's going to punish us.

Or that somehow God's going to take away a blessing and we give for the wrong reasons, but God desires for us to give because we see the beauty of the gospel.

They begged for an opportunity to give.

Notice what it says at the end of that in verse 4.

Begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.

This is amazing.

What they were saying is please don't take away from us the blessing of giving.

Please don't deprive us of this opportunity.

Please don't take it away from us thinking that we don't have enough to give.

We would feel amiss if we couldn't participate.

They gave freely of their own accord, they gave joyfully.

So giving is an expression of our worship and gratitude to God for all that He has done for us in Christ.

It's an expression of worship, it's a response to grace.

Joyful giving reveals where our hearts are.

And we're called to give sacrificially.

I don't want to ignore or minimize that.

Jesus commented on the rich there in Luke 21.

He said they all contributed out of their abundance.

In other words, they saw whatever they had left over, whatever wouldn't affect their lifestyles, and that's what they gave to God.

And then he contrasts it with the widow, and he says, out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.

We saw in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, the Macedonians above their means they gave.

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

In other words, it was more than they could afford.

Their giving affected their life moving forward.

They gave in such a way that by giving they were giving up something else that they could have had.

It says of the Macedonians, they gave out of their extreme poverty.

Interesting, by the way, if you would look up the statistics on giving, they've run the numbers, and as a percentage of income, the more income somebody makes, the smaller percentage of income is given according to the IRS.

But they gave out of their extreme poverty.

Giving that is truly sacrificial means that your giving must in some way affect your life or cause you to give up something you might have otherwise enjoyed.

But how could these people do this?

How could they give out of their poverty?

How could the Macedonians do this?

How could this poor widow do this?

We don't know everything that was in their hearts and minds, but there are some things that we can piece together by their devotion to God.

First of all, they knew the grace of God.

They understood what they had received from Christ.

They looked at it and saw their extreme poverty, that we are beggars reaching out to the hand of a king, and he gives us what we do not earn and what we don't deserve.

They knew the grace of God.

They believed in God's goodness.

How could they do this?

They knew that God was a good God.

They knew that God looked down on his children and he had a disposition of love towards them.

He has a disposition of love towards us.

They knew they trusted in God's providence.

They knew that God knew the future.

That God, if they gave as God had led them, that God knew the future and that God was going to meet their needs, even as they were meeting the needs of others at the moment.

And we can be assured that they were led by God's Spirit.

This wasn't a matter of guilt and compulsion.

This was the reality that God was moving in their hearts.

We've learned that we're to give to glorify God.

We've also seen that giving that glorified God comes from a generous sacrificial heart.

But why does sacrificial giving bring glory to God?

And let me conclude with two aspects of this.

And really it points to the gospel.

Our giving demonstrates the gospel.

And let's think through this for just a moment.

I've mentioned already we give in order to declare the gospel.

We give our money, our resources, our time, our energy, our effort, but we give so that God might be glorified, so that the gospel will be advanced.

We exist as a church to glorify God by proclaiming the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ until He comes.

That is our mission, that is our motivation, it is our highest priority, it is our greatest responsibility, it is our most profound joy that we can proclaim Jesus and people will come to saving faith in him through the church.

That one day people from every tribe and tongue and nation will gather around the throne because of our combined efforts over the generations while Christ tarries.

And that one day we'll gather around the throne to worship.

We have a great commission to go and make disciples of all nations.

So our giving supports the declaration of the gospel, but it also demonstrates it as well.

Think of the passage or the verse that I talked about during communion.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

We don't deserve anything that Christ has given us.

Anything that Christ has done for us.

We, by very definition, grace is undeserved favor.

The only thing that we could ever demand from God is justice.

The only thing that we deserve is to face the consequences for our sin.

And so the very message of the gospel is that Jesus Christ became poor, leaving the glories of heaven, giving everything, including his life, to us for us, so that we in our poverty might receive the riches of the cross.

And every time you give to somebody else in need, you demonstrate the gospel.

That you, in a sense, live out what Christ has done for you in the life of somebody else.

Somebody who doesn't deserve it, who can't afford it, who can't pay back what is given.

It's a living illustration of the gospel, of what Christ has done for us, and the gospel is the motivation for everything we do.

It's the motivation for why we live, and it's the motivation for why we give.

And when we give, we demonstrate the cross.

How do we give?

We give generously, we give sacrificially to glorify God for the sake of the gospel.

Why do we give?

We give joyfully out of the overflow of the gratitude of our hearts for everything that God has done for us.

It's not a matter of guilt, it's not a matter of shame, it's not a matter of drawing attention to ourselves.

We freely give because He's freely given.

What difference does our giving make?

Scholars tell us that the coins that this woman put in were called lepton.

And it was the smallest coin that could be given.

It was the uh it was one 128th of a denarius, and a denarius was a day's wages for a poor day laborer.

It is the equivalent of five minutes worth of work.

And notice what Jesus says.

He says, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.

And what he's saying is not that she put in more than the next person.

What he's saying is she put in more than everyone else who gave combined.

God's economy isn't our economy.

It wasn't based on the amount of the gift, it was the heart of the giver.

But consider this.

Think of how those two small copper coins have motivated believers for generations, for 2,000 years, and the billions upon billions of dollars that people have given joyfully and sacrificially because of this woman's gift.

God wants all of you.

He wants your heart.

He doesn't want 10%, he wants you all in.

Are you willing to do what he wants you to do and go where he wants you to go and give what he calls you and moves you to give?

It's not the amount you give.

God wants your heart.

Father God.

Even in saying that, we interpret it in light of where we are.

We feel guilty.

We feel obligation.

Lord, remind us of the gospel.

Help us to think of Jesus and the cross.

Remind us of what we have in Christ, that we as beggars have received the gift of the King.

And that you have lavished your love upon us in Christ.

You continue to lavish your love upon us day after day and week after week.

Give us eyes to see your goodness in our lives every day.

That our hearts are overflowing with gratitude, and that whatever we do, we don't do it for guilt or or a sense of obligation, but a sense of joy.

And that if we are deprived of that opportunity, we feel like we miss something.

Because we love you so much.

So, Father, stir our hearts to be moved by the gospel.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.