Choose Reality over Appearances

For a moment, let's bow our heads in prayer.

Father, it can be very lonely in life.

It can be very stressful.

It can be very hectic.

There can be lots of anxiety in our lives.

And so, Father, we give you thanks and praise

that you have invited us week by week

to gather with others who are your people

and to come into your presence

to sit and stand and sing and pray in your presence

and to receive grace from you Sunday by Sunday.

Father, it is a great honour and privilege

that you desire us to be in your presence

to receive grace from you.

And we know, Father, that you bestow grace on your people

as we are in your presence.

And we ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit

would work deeply but gently in our hearts,

that we might receive the grace you desire

to give us this morning

and that we might respond in a worthy manner,

a manner which is worthy of your glory,

worthy of us,

and worthy of the great needs of the world.

And so, Father, we ask that you would do this gentle

but deep and mysterious miracle in our hearts

once again today as we gather in your presence.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus,

your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So I have a trigger warning this morning.

And the trigger warning is,

some of you might have noticed,

if you're familiar with the fact

that we preach through books of the Bible

and we're preaching through Mark's Gospel,

an ancient biography of Jesus,

Jesus talks about money.

So we're going to talk about money.

And that is probably one of the least popular things

to talk about.

And if you're here online,

you're thinking,

oh, good grief,

they're going to talk about money.

Maybe some of you are thinking about the same thing.

But Jesus talks about it.

And, you know, really,

if you think about it for a second,

for us who are followers of Jesus,

the question is,

what does it mean to follow Jesus

in a world where there is money?

And what does it mean to follow Jesus

in a world where money is very, very, very, very important?

What does it mean to follow Jesus

in a world where money is desired

and we feel anxious about it?

What does it mean to follow Jesus

and trust him as our Savior and Lord

in such a world?

And so while on one hand

it might seem like a scary topic,

probably some of you have heard me say it before,

the thing which is so shocking about the Bible

isn't that it's like a hallmark,

unrealistic movie,

but the problem we have with the Bible

is that it's so deeply realistic

that it talks about real life,

it talks about suffering,

and it talks about,

in fact today we're not only going to talk about that,

it talks about hypocrisy,

it talks about climbing the greasy pole

and stepping on others to climb the greasy pole,

it talks about these profound things

that make up our day-to-day life

and we get a bit shocked,

thinking we'll maybe just get

a couple of little pleasing quotes

to discover that it talks about

what it really is like to live.

So we're going to look at that

because we're looking at what the Bible says,

but we have to get to,

there's two other little short stories

that all linked

that we have to look at first.

So if you have your Bibles,

turn in them to Mark chapter 12,

Mark 12:35

verses 35 and following,

and if you're using these little booklets,

it's on page 78,

Mark chapter 12,

Mark 12:35–44

verses 35 to 44,

and here's what is happening.

And just one of the things to remember

as we read this

is that even though if you look at this,

you have the whole book

with a little study page on the side,

there's still a fair amount of pages left in it,

but what's happening here

is just happening maybe two days

before Jesus is dying on the cross.

So when you're reading this,

you need to keep this in mind.

Jesus knows that he's going to die on the cross.

He's told his disciples

he's going to die on the cross

and rise from the dead.

They don't believe him.

I don't know what they think.

They think he's being metaphorical

or poetical or something.

Who knows?

But they don't believe him.

Nobody believes he's going to die on the cross.

His enemies are plotting his death upon the cross

and he knows he's going to rise from the dead.

And so all of these words,

you need to hear them remembering

that that's what Jesus knows

and also must be the,

you know, for some of you

who have really good imaginations,

I'm not one of you,

the emotional shock.

And then even just thinking back

as the disciples,

they go through the shock of seeing Jesus die.

They see the shock of the blood

coming out of his side,

the shock that he's covered in spices,

the shock that he's buried in a tomb.

And then the huge shock three days later

when the tomb is empty

and the grave cloths are there

and the stone is rolled away

and they can't find the body

and he appears alive

and they now start to think back

to all of these things that he had said

in the days preceding his death upon the cross

and his resurrection.

That's how we have to amend

and enter into this

imaginatively and emotionally.

And if we do that,

we start to see

the profound beauty of the text,

that the way that it,

you know,

those who've been Christians for a long time

and the gospel becomes real to their heart,

it's that there's a deep emotional satisfaction

with the gospel

that grows as you become more,

as the gospel becomes more real to your heart

because there's this deep resonance

with our deep longings and yearnings

and the gospel has this profound ability

to form us in ways that are for our good.

This, what Jesus teaches

and what he does,

well, let's look.

So it begins in a bit of an odd way

and for some people,

it just seems like he's playing a bit of a word game.

But look what happens first.

Mark chapter 12, verse 35.

Mark 12:35

And as Jesus taught in the temple,

he said,

how can the scribes say that the Christ

is the son of David?

Now, once again,

some of you might remember,

what's a scribe?

A scribe, if you go back in time,

or sorry, if you imagine today,

imagine one person

or a group of people

who are three different things in our society.

A public intellectual,

a legal scholar,

and then think of somebody

who's like an assistant deputy minister

or a deputy minister in the government

and is really competent

and she just knows how things work

in the government,

in the real world.

And so when you see scribe,

think of that.

Somebody who knows how the world works,

how bureaucracies and systems

and the culture works.

Somebody who's a public intellectual

and somebody who's a legal scholar.

That's what a scribe is, okay?

And they're experts in knowing

what our Jewish friends call the Tanakh

and what we would call

the Old Testament in particular.

And so one of the things

which is interesting here

is that Jesus asks a question

and this is easy for us to miss

the significance of this.

On one hand, it's just fair.

Just before this,

people have been asking him hostile questions

and then just immediately before this

there was a friendly question.

But here's the thing,

if you think about it for a second,

if there really is a triune God

that actually does exist

and if that triune God does exist

and has created and sustained all things,

and many here would of course

believe and accept that,

but for some of you that would be

maybe some of you watching

or some of you here,

that's like,

I don't know if I believe that,

that's fine,

but if,

imagine for a second

that there is really in fact

the triune God

who does exist,

who's created everything,

sustains all things,

is sovereign over all things.

Our mental and spiritual

and emotional and aesthetic

and cultural and intellectual categories

couldn't grasp him.

If you think about it for a second,

if my,

if the categories of thought

in Ottawa in 2022,

the aesthetic and spiritual

and emotional and intellectual

and philosophical

and scientific categories,

if our categories were adequate

to completely understand

such a God,

that would mean we were bigger than God,

which means that God doesn't exist.

And so one of the things

which is important

when Jesus asks questions

in the Gospels

is you see the questions

of his critics

and even the questions

of the seekers

aren't going to be adequate

to understand who he is.

He needs to challenge

my categories.

He needs to challenge

your categories.

And actually,

as we see just in a moment,

if you think about it for a second,

what he's doing

is a profound challenge

of our categories

because in our categories,

if such a God exists,

we would set down criteria

by which he should relate

to the world.

If you think about it for a second,

you know,

he should be inclusive.

And in fact,

the matter is,

is no, no, no, no, no,

don't do things in history.

They should do things,

God,

you should reveal yourself

at an emotional level

or somewhere inside each of us

in some way,

which is sort of,

I don't know,

democratic and equitable,

but it shouldn't be in history

and it shouldn't be in the past

and good grief,

it shouldn't be a Jewish guy.

I mean,

what's going on with that?

And we'd have all of our criteria

and it should be connected,

your revelation about yourself

should be connected to us

in such a way

that it's going to help me

to thrive

and be the best me that I,

we'd have all our criteria.

And we put these criteria,

see,

what Jesus is doing here,

he's challenging our criteria.

and that has to be the case

if there is in fact a God

like Jesus describes.

If our criteria aren't challenged,

then we're God.

We're God.

Not only we're God,

our culture is God

and we can look down our noses

at other cultures

who have different criteria

because, you know,

frankly,

we have the God criteria.

So that's one of the subtle things

which is going on

in this question.

All the times in the Bible

that in the ancient biographies

of Jesus,

when Jesus asks a question

and when he raises issues

that we feel uncomfortable with,

he's challenging our criteria,

but that's exactly

what should be happening

if there is in fact

a God that's real.

So,

read verse 35 again

and as Jesus taught

in the temple,

he said,

how can the scribes

say that the Christ,

in other words,

that's one way of saying

the Messiah,

is the son of David

and in that time period

it was recognized

that when the Messiah came,

he would be,

in a sense,

in the lineage,

the human lineage of David

that you would be able

to trace back

whom his dad was

or his mom was

and trace them back

and back and back

and back

and it would go

all the way back,

you know,

dad to baby,

you know,

dad to baby,

you know,

parents to baby,

all the way back to David

and so that was

one of his titles

and so Jesus says,

okay,

it's accepted

that he's going to be human

and he's going to be

in the lineage of David.

We all accept that

and then what he does

is he says these two things.

He says,

verse 36,

David,

that's King David,

himself,

in the Holy Spirit

declared,

and now Jesus

is going to quote

what we now know of

as Psalm 110,

Psalms 110:1

verse 1.

The Lord said to my Lord,

sit at my right hand

until I put your enemies

under your feet.

Now,

King David calls his son

Lord,

so how is he his son?

And the great throng

heard him gladly.

Now,

just a couple of things

to sort of help us

to understand

what's going on here.

There's no way in English

to translate this

to capture what's going on.

It's just,

it's impossible to translate.

And that's why you need

to have gatherings like this

where we talk about it.

The first thing here,

by the way,

is

like,

true confessions,

and this isn't like coming out,

but for maybe some of you

who are guests

or some of you online,

I believe that,

on one hand,

I believe this is a work

of accurate history,

that when we read Mark,

we're reading

an accurate historical account

of things which happened

in the past.

I also believe

that every word

which is there

is the word

that God wanted there.

Now,

I don't believe this

because I'm an uneducated,

narrow-minded,

bigoted,

modernist

whose mind needs

to be decolonized.

Although,

maybe I am

all of those things.

I believe it

because I trust Jesus

as my Savior and Lord,

and that's what Jesus

just taught us

with his question.

Did you notice

what he says?

Look back at verse 35.

David,

so he's acknowledging

that David

wrote Psalm 110,

Psalms 110:1

verse 1,

but he also said

that David wrote it

in the Holy Spirit.

In other words,

when you read,

the Lord said to my Lord,

sit at my right hand

until I put your enemies

under your feet,

you are hearing

the Holy Spirit

speak words

to you and me.

Unworthy,

ungrateful,

presumptuous,

ignorant,

sinful,

foolish,

all those things

that we are,

people who are going

to die someday.

This is the Holy Spirit

speaking

word by word.

That's what Jesus

is just telling us.

They're the real words

of David,

but the Holy Spirit

superintended them

so that the very words

that the Father,

the Son,

and the Holy Spirit

wanted were communicated

and written down to us.

You see,

that's one of the reasons

why if you're a guest

or you're watching online

and you're curious,

that's one of the reasons.

Like,

if in fact it really

is the case

that the triune God,

the creator and sustainer

of the entire universe,

the one who is sovereign

over the entire universe,

if he really has spoken,

doesn't it make sense

to want to sit

and listen?

And that's why

it's part of

a worship service

in a church,

not only the reading

of the scripture,

but us trying to enter

into it

and meditate upon it

and hear it speak

directly to us.

But here's the other thing

which is going on

in the text.

In the original Hebrew,

and all of,

not all,

but most of the hearers

would have understood this

when Jesus was speaking.

What he says is this.

Look at verse 36.

He's quoting Psalm 110.

The Yahweh said to my Adonai,

sit at my right hand

until I put your enemies

under your feet.

David himself calls him Adonai,

so how is he his son?

And the throng heard him greatly.

Now Yahweh

is the ancient Jewish name,

a covenant name for God.

He is the true God

that exists

that's over all things

and he is the God

who is in a covenant relationship.

A covenant relationship

is sort of like a marriage

with his people.

And maybe another way

to put it is

every one of my kids

at some point in time

in their life,

they would call me George.

And I would correct them

and say there's

eight billion people

in the world

who can call me George.

There's only nine

who can call me Dad.

And you're one of them.

So call me Dad.

It's a special covenant name.

And so there's all sorts of ways

to talk about God

and the high God,

but for the Jewish people,

it's Yahweh.

And that became

such a special name

that we don't even know

if we're pronouncing

the name correctly now

because that's a whole other

long story.

But the other thing is

that in the Old Testament,

one of the most other

common names for God

was Adonai.

And it means most high,

the most high ruler,

the highest of all gods.

If you went to the pagan Romans,

if you went to the pagan Greeks

and they believe in,

I don't know,

50, 100, 200, 300 gods,

and if they have a sense

that there might be a high God,

when a Jewish person said Adonai,

they would mean

above all gods,

above all gods and goddesses

that you think you know,

above all of them is Adonai.

And so that's what's going on

in the text.

And Jesus is just pointing out

this is a really weird thing.

Yahweh says to Adonai,

but David also knows,

we all know that the Messiah,

everybody knew this was

a messianic text,

that the Messiah was going to come,

but now, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

the Messiah is called Adonai?

And how can the Messiah

be both a human being

and be God?

And Jesus is posing

a riddle to them,

a riddle that he himself

would show that he is

the answer to the riddle,

because he's ultimately

referring to himself.

And this is going to become

very important

when we talk about money

and when we talk about

climbing the greasy pole

and stepping on people,

because what Jesus is saying here,

I mean, part of,

why is it that I as a,

I mean, there's all sorts of reasons

why I as a Christian

believe that Jesus,

in fact, is the Messiah,

that he is both fully human

and fully God,

but not two different beings,

but one person,

Jesus, the Christ,

the Son of God,

the second person

of the Trinity,

who set aside his glory

and divine prerogatives

and his appearance of God

as God,

and emptied himself

and takes the form

of a servant

and comes

and he becomes Emmanuel,

he comes and lives

amongst us

in all of our mess,

and he lives amongst us,

and what Jesus

is saying here,

just remember,

this is two days

before he dies

on the cross,

Jesus is telling them,

when you see me

hanging on the cross,

you are seeing Adonai

hanging on the cross,

that is who is dying,

you are seeing the Messiah,

the Christ,

you are seeing God

die on the cross,

and that is nonsense

to all human categories,

the prime minister

sends others

to go to die in war,

the king sends others

to go to die in war,

the prime minister,

the king,

are protected by others

at the cost of their life,

and Jesus is revealing

that all of those

depictions of God

that fit in our categories

are massively missing

the God

who actually does exist

because the God

who actually does exist

isn't the God

who sends others

to die for his glory,

but he is one

who dies for others

so they might be glorified.

He becomes rich,

that we,

through his poverty,

sorry,

he became poor

so that we,

through his poverty,

might become rich.

We'll see how it works out

in a very common human problem

which is described

immediately afterwards,

and it's actually,

as you look at these

two common human problems

that come right after this,

you start to get a sense

of the deep emotional power

once you come to accept

that Christ is in fact

the Savior and the Lord,

that the gospel is true,

that there is this profound

good news

that God loves you so much

that he himself

emptied himself

of all of his glory

and splendor

and divine prerogatives.

He emptied himself

of all of that

and emptied himself

of all of the praise

which was due with him,

and he left the safety

and the glory of heaven

to come and live amongst us

and experience human life

in all of its fullness,

and then out of love for you,

he dies in your place

and in your stead.

Out of love for you.

This is a story of one,

of two things.

Your need for salvation,

your potential doom

is vastly worse

than the worst

three o'clock in the morning

time you have ever had

when you wake up terribly anxious.

Your condition is actually

vastly worse.

But on the other hand,

you are vastly more loved

than you can possibly imagine.

And that is the news

of the gospel.

You are vastly more loved

than you can dare to dream.

Look how it works out

in this.

This is a problem

of appearances

and of climbing

the greasy pole

and of,

well, look what Jesus says,

verse 38.

And in his teaching,

he said,

beware of the scribes

who like to walk around

in long robes

and like greetings

in the marketplaces

and have the best seats

in the synagogue

and the places of honor

at feasts.

And then look at this

little neat little thing

he puts in,

who devour

widows' houses

and for a pretense

make long prayers.

And look at this.

This is really

a sobering thing.

I mean,

on one level,

he's talking about

the general problem of,

he's talking about

the general problem

of hypocrisy.

He's talking about

the general problem

that we appear

to be one thing

but we're actually

something very different.

He's talking about

the problem

of how we look

to the rich

or we look

to the popular

or we look

to the powerful

and we do things

to cater their favor.

We do things

so that they'll like us,

that the rich person

will like us,

that the powerful person

would like us,

that the influential person

would like us,

that if we're in business

or government

we look for

who the cool person is,

the person on the up and coming

and we try to ingratiate

ourselves into them

and fit in with them

and fit in with their circle

in the hope

that as they rise

that we will rise with them

and it's a very,

very common human problem.

And on one level,

Jesus' words

is speaking to this

common human problem

but he's also looking

very specifically

into that

which is the visible church

and he's making it say

that it's very possible

for me as a minister

to start to maybe,

you know,

to want to just look

with appearances

and whatever's going

to make myself

more popular

and maybe bring in crowds

or maybe bring in more money

or, you know,

maybe get,

you know,

have more,

you know,

influence,

have more,

whatever it is,

that it's easy for me

to change the way I dress,

the way I speak,

the topics I speak on

and do all of these

types of things

because I want to connect

with the rich,

the popular

and the powerful

and I want to move up

and if I want to move up

I step on those

who are little people

because that's the only way

you move up.

You can't move up

to those people

without stepping on little people.

It's completely

and utterly impossible.

If you're spending

all your time

looking up

at those people,

you don't see the others

that you're stepping on

and we all know it

and Jesus says

that when it happens

within the visible church,

when he says

the greater condemnation,

he doesn't say this

about LGBTQ plus activists.

He doesn't say it

about the people

who are off

just spending all their time

drinking in bars.

He says it about people

like me

and you.

This is a profound

warning to us.

And you see,

we're going to get

to the good news

in a moment.

But you see how

there's this very,

very profound

if in fact

the news

that I have just

shared with you

at different times

throughout this sermon

and the news

of this

that Jesus is saying

all of this

just before he dies

on the cross.

Nobody thinks

he looks like God.

Nobody thinks

he's anybody special.

He doesn't have

any armies.

He doesn't have

a PhD.

He doesn't have

villas.

He doesn't have

sermons.

He's a nobody.

And he dies

on a cross

stripped naked

not even having

his clothes

at the end

as they embarrass him

and humiliate him.

The religious leaders

and the cultural leaders

and the political leaders

and the intellectual leaders

and the aesthetic leaders

who want to climb

the greasy ladder

have stepped

on him

on their way

up

that

greasy

pole.

He's the one

stepped on

on the way up.

and he does it

out of love

for you and me.

And you see

if

you begin

to have the gospel

become

if you realize

I can give

my life to Christ

it's

it makes sense

it's

what I need

it's the

I need to give

my life to Christ

and it's the story

of Christ

and the good news

of what he has done

for us

as that starts

to become more real

to us

at a deep level

it forms us

not to be a person

who is going to be

one thing in public

and another thing

in private

who's going to be one

who's never looking

at the little people

and we don't care

if we step on them

it's going to create

within us

a very different thing

because our

our imagination

and our heart

is captivated

by the picture

and the truth

of God

setting aside

his glory

and divine prerogatives

and entering

into our human existence

entering into the existence

of the little people

the forgotten people

that they might loved

and lovely be

at a very very deep level

it starts to form us

in a very different

way of living

but it's exactly

the way of living

that most Canadians want

we do not want

to be separate people

and for most people

we might brush it off

if somebody

if you confronted somebody

about how they've

stepped on this person

and this person

and this person

up to the top

and you confronted

them about it

and they might

they might rail at you

and stuff like that

but inwardly

they would either rage

or be ashamed

because nobody

wants to be that guy

nobody wants to be

that gal

and what we see here

is at a very very

very deep level

Jesus is forming us

for something

that on one level

we deeply

deeply deeply

desire to be

when we accept

the gospel

it's in that context

that he talks

about money

now just before

I read this

I'm going to have

my standard caveat

if you're here today

and you don't know

what you think

about Jesus

you're not sure

whether you

believe in him

or want to belong

to him

maybe you're thinking

you're going to leave

maybe you're trying

to figure out

what to do

if you're watching

online

and you're just curious

so I love

what

before you hear

anything else

just listen to

what he has to say

but I want to make

you aware

of the fact

that the council

and myself

would like it

if that describes

you

you haven't given

your life to Christ

we don't want you

to give us any money

like really

literally

we don't want you

to give us any money

because it's not

about money

it's about

figuring out

whether Jesus

is in fact

the one

who can reconcile

you to the

triune God

the creator

and sustainer

of all things

and that's the

great existential

question

and money

is completely

and utterly

irrelevant

and

and I'll explain

in a moment

why Jesus

says what he says

and why it matters

to us

once we're

following him

but if you

haven't decided

to follow him

yet

we don't want

your money

not about money

it really isn't

what does Jesus

say

and this is a

very scary thing

it touches on

our deep fears

about Christ

and money

verse 41

and he sat down

opposite the treasury

and watched the people

putting money

into the offering

box

many rich people

put in large sums

and a poor widow

came in and put in

two small copper coins

which make a penny

now that's a very

inadequate translation

and there's not really

any good way

to make an English

translation

unless if you had

a study bible

or something

there might be

a footnote there

I looked up

the average

Canadian salary

and so basically

what you understand

is imagine

that in Canadian

society

and I've known

people who've

had to

had their money

managed for them

and so every day

they have a couple

of dollars

or whatever the

amount is in the

bank

and five days a

week they get

money available

to them

and in Canadian

in our current

current day

this is somebody

who every day

from Monday to

Friday gets

two toonies

that's what it

means for Canadians

two toonies

four bucks

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

they go to

wherever the

social service

center

hand them

two toonies

and that's

what she has

to live on

and she

puts both

of them

aside for the

glory of God

now

and then

Jesus says

this

verse 43

and he

calls his

disciples

to him

and said

to them

truly I

say to

you

this

poor

widow

has put

in more

than all

those

who are

contributing

to the

offering

box

for they

all

contributed

out of

their

abundance

but she

out of

her

poverty

has put

in

everything

she

had

all

she

had

to

live

on

be a

little

bit

as if

Bill

Gates

came

to

visit

us

and by

the

way

Bill

if

you're

watching

you're

always

welcome

but he

comes

and after

the

sermon

he

you know

ignores

what I've

said

about not

giving us

money

and he

writes us

a check

for

$25,000

I don't

know how many

billions he has

left over

but he has

lots

of billions

left over

after $25,000

my guess is

most of you

here

couldn't drop

a check

for $25,000

very easily

maybe a couple

of you could

but

here's the

deep fear

we have

with the

text

if we're

honest

with it

what is

Jesus

doing

here

George

don't

you

think

this

woman

was

foolish

George

don't

you

think

does

God

just

want

us

to be

poor

George

I

would

like

to

be

able

to

own

a

condo

or

a

house

someday

I

want

to

make

some

money

so

I

can

just

like

I

don't

want

to

have

a

McMansion

I

would

just

like

to

be

able

to

have

a

house

of

my

own

and yet

Jesus

seems

to be

talking

here

in a

particular

way

as if

what

he

wants

is

that

the

best

thing

I

could

possibly

be

is

a

poor

widow

giving

all

of

my

money

until

I

starve

to

death

like

George

this

just

seems

to be

completely

kooky

doesn't

he

know

what

it's

like

to

be

human

doesn't

he

know

what

it's

like

to

have

to

worry

about

money

doesn't

he

know

the

answer

is

he

does

know

all

of

those

things

he

does

know

all

of

those

things

and

if

we

just

listen

to

our

heart

for

a

second

why

is

it

that

it

would

be

like

a

dagger

in

our

heart

if

all

of

a

sudden

I

don't

know

God

showed

up

just

in

front

of

us

and

said

I

need

you

to

write

a

check

for

$3,000

and

for

almost

every

single

one

of

us

here

that

would

be

like

that's

not

all

your

money

in

most

cases

here

probably

but

why

is

it

that

we

get

so

anxious

around

money

and

why

is

it

that

we

hate

being

anxious

around

money

yet

we

are

anxious

around

money

and

you

know

if

you

think

about

it

for

a

second

if

you're

anxious

around

money

and

you're

having

problems

with

money

doesn't

that

usually

indicate

that

you

need

someone

who

loves

you

so

much

that

he

died

for

you

that

maybe

you

need

his

help

with

your

money

it's

not

that

he

wants

us

to

be

poor

first

of

all

Jesus

is

pointing

to

what

he's

about

to

do

on

the

cross

Flannery

O'Connor

wrote

a book

back

in the

50s

and

one

of

her

lines

in it

which

I

love

is

that

you

can't

be

poorer

than

dead

you

can't

be

poorer

than

dead

and

Jesus

literally

does

he

is

the

true

and

greater

widow

he

literally

truly

gives

all

that

he

has

there's

a

very

wonderful

quote

I'm

sure

St.

Paul

was

thinking

about

this

story

when

he

wrote

this

wonderful

quote

it's

not

going

to

be

up

on

your

screen

you

just

have

to

listen

to

it

it's

2nd

Corinthians

chapter

8

verses

9

and

10

and

it

says

this

for

you

know

the

for

your

sake

he

became

poor

so

that

you

by

his

poverty

might

become

rich

you

know

if

you

think

about

it

for

a

second

there's

no

free

lunch

about

15

years

ago

there

was

a

very

wealthy

man

in

the

congregation

and

he

invited

me

out

and

Louise

out

to

a

$500

a plate

banquet

this

is

15

years

ago

I

don't

know

what

that

would

be

today

with

inflation

a

$1,500

$2,000

a plate

banquet

and he

invited

us

to it

and of

course

Louise

said

oh yeah

we have

like an

extra

$2,000

each

in our

pockets

we'll

buy

no

we

said

we

can't

afford

it

I

said

no

no

it's

on us

it's

on me

it's

on me

you're

my

guest

now

did

I

get

a

free

meal

yeah

was

the

meal

free

no

for

Tom

to

take

us

out

to

that

meal

in

today's

dollars

he

was

out

four

grand

somebody

had

to

pay

and

what

Jesus

is

saying

here

is

that

he

is

going

to

pour

himself

out

he

is

pouring

himself

he

is

becoming

completely

and utterly

poor

and he's

becoming

poor

so he

will pay

the cost

that you

cannot

pay

he

will

pay

to

cover

that

heavenly

banquet

and that

time

of

eternity

that

you

cannot

possibly