Week 37: Day 4
Today Josh asks us: is generosity a conversation just for grown ups?
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Intro: All right, welcome back to Orbit everyone! My name is Josh and today we're looking at a short story and the gospel of Mark focused on generosity. So, I'll be reading to us from Mark chapter 12, from 41-44.
Bible: Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Thoughts: That is an amazing example of generosity! And we're gonna unpick it a little bit and unpack it. But before we start doing that, and before some of you switch off and think this talk isn't for you, I’d like to address a couple of things concerning generosity.
Generosity isn't something that is only related to money. It's not something that's only related to finances. And this is a mistake I made growing up. I heard a talk about generosity, but come on, instantly zoned out! I didn't have any money to be giving away I was like, ‘Oh, this is for adults. This is adults’ business. This is something adults can concern themselves with.’ This is not the case at all, we have so much in our lives we can be generous with. We can be generous with our time, we can be generous with our serving, we can be generous for what we're passionate about, we can be generous with spiritual gifts God has given us. So don't zone out just yet!
We're going to look in generosity through a different scope and we're going to look at how and why we should be generous. Also, God's generosity looks very different from the idea mankind have about generosity. What is it God says about the two very small copper coins this woman gives? He says truly, that widow has put more into the treasury, more than the big, heavy, weighty bags of gold, that the other men and women coming in, were depositing. He says this woman is actually putting in more financially. This doesn't make sense to any of us. It's not something we think about to God, but it matters. And why is that? God cares about our giving, from what our heart is, where our heart is, and what our thinking is in the giving. He doesn't want us to be giving from a place of reluctance, he wants us to give from a willing heart. 2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us ‘don't give reluctantly or under compulsion, where your heart is, decides the value of what you're giving’.
It is also important that we don’t compare our generosity to the generosity of others. Just because someone else is able to give more time, or more money than you, that doesn't make your generosity worthless. Even if you have only a little amount of free time and you decide to give it, in God's books you've given more than all the others because you're giving out of your poverty. This woman was a widow. Traditionally, culturally, in Jewish culture, widows did not have a lot. We see in the story of Ruth, her mother-in-law and her go behind the men as they thresh the fields and they pick up the scraps. This woman probably doesn't have anything in life she needs, yet she comes and she gives and that impacts Jesus so much so that he calls his disciples over. And he tells them this! So when I pray today, I'm just going to pray over us that we will have generous hearts. And also, that God will give us a purpose for that generosity, he will give us an outlet for us to be generous.
Prayer: So if you'd like to pray with me: Dear Lord Jesus, we thank you for your unlimited generosity to us, Lord. And we pray that from that generosity, we will be able to take a small bit of it and give it back that we will apply it in our lives, that we will apply it in our worship of you. Show us where you have needed our generosity and give us the strength and the passion to carry it out. Amen.
Challenge: Now for this challenge your activity for this little devotion I would like you to find a way in your life you can be generous. It can be as big or as small as you want. It could be finding a place in church who could start volunteering your time. It could be deciding to give a little bit of your pocket money each week. It could be whatever you want but find a way and stick to it.
Outro: Thank you very much for listening to me. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.