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657 | All In · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast.
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  With Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man, woman,
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  boy, and girl must come to Jesus just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
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  Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
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  or on our website at watwm.org,
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  we invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
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  who God is and to strengthen your daily walk.
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  Not every gift we give to God is the same. Gifts differ not only in how we present
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  them or what they are, but also in their value.
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  The account in Mark 12, 41-44 reveals that God is not primarily looking at the size of the gift.
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  He's looking at the surrender of the giver.
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  Join us in this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries as Kim takes us on a
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  journey through the Scriptures, teaching us that God measures our giving not
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  by its size, but by the sacrifice and faith behind it.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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  It's a familiar account in the Bible that we've read many times, probably,
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  and it's about the widow's mite and how God perceives what she gives and how
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  very different it is than how man perceives what she gives. Let's pray.
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  Our kind and most gracious to Heavenly Father, Lord, I ask that you would just
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  open up our hearts and our minds, that we would hear and know exactly what you
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  have for us, and Lord, that we would be inclined to follow the conviction of our heart.
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  Lord, that we would walk away from this message closer to you and more encouraged
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  to be what you would have us to be, and Lord, more like you.
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  Lord, I ask that you would just remove me as far as the east is from the west
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  from this message, and that you would just bless us, we pray.
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  In Jesus' name, amen. Our scripture today comes out of Mark chapter 12, verses 41 through 44.
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  And what we're talking about is being all in.
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  And this particular scripture shows us that God measures our giving not by its
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  size, but by the sacrifice and faith behind it.
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  And what I mean by that is, is that when some people give a large sum of money,
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  that money isn't a large sum to them.
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  It's equivalent to a smaller amount of money. And so when the Lord set up the system
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  of tithing, and he told us to give 10% of our tithes to him,
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  the 10% of someone that makes $100,000 is more than the 10% of someone that makes $50,000.
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  In fact, it's twice more.
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  But it isn't counted as any more of a gift.
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  It is still doing what God is asking us to do and giving of ourselves that 10%.
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  In this particular account, in Mark 12, verses 41 through 44.
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  Jesus is sitting on the side of the treasury of the temple where people are
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  coming in to give their tithes and offerings.
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  And these tithes were set aside to pay for the priests and keep the upkeep and
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  all the maintenance of the temple, much like the tithes are used in churches
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  today, and to do the work of the temple.
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  And these boxes were made out of metal, and so if you drop the big bag of a
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  large bunch of coins into this box, it made a lot of rattle and noise.
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  If you drop just one single coin or two coins, two mites, that were less than
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  a farling, which was not much at all, it would make a very little sound in.
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  That probably scarcely could be heard. And it's natural, and James warns us
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  against this, for people to look at people who give more as somehow being better.
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  But in this account that I'm getting ready to read in your hearing,
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  we're going to see it's not the size of the gift.
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  It's the size of the surrender of the heart that matters to the Lord. Let us read.
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  And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money
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  into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much.
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  And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.
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  And he called unto his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you,
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  This that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury.
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  For all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in
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  all that she had, even all her living.
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  She was all in.
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  Every single thing that this widow had, she gave.
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  Now that is in comparison to people who had a bunch and gave a portion.
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  When we are truly giving to the Lord, we're giving of ourselves,
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  our time, our energy, our money, our passion, our being.
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  In other words, we are placing God first, and we are trusting him completely.
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  And this is what he values.
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  The obedience to trust in the Lord with all your heart, the obedience to do what he asks you to do.
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  Now, this woman who has to give her tithing in front of everyone else might have felt less.
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  And if she didn't feel less on her own accord, I'm certain there were people
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  in the temple who would have made her feel less.
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  Almost like, why do you bother?
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  But that's not how Jesus viewed it.
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  And as we go through this message today, we're going to talk about this,
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  but we're going to also lay this against our lives and see how it is we are generous to the Lord,
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  to see if we are generous enough to really give to Him.
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  Or are we just doing it for others to see, to get by, to check a box off.
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  It is my prayer that when we finish going through Mark 12, 41 through 44,
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  that each of us will have shored up our commitment to the Lord.
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  Not just our commitment to give, but our commitment to Him.
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  Because however generous we are with our time, our talent, our money,
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  our resources, our availability.
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  It's a statement of how much we love him. It's a statement of how important he is to us.
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  It's a statement of what place he has in our lives.
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  In Mark 12, verse 41, we see that Jesus is seeing what everyone else overlooks.
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  I'm going to ask you, if you would, to just scoot over to 1 Corinthians 10, 31.
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  Here we're going to read...
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  What God tells us in his word about what our motives should be.
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  It says, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do,
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  do all to the glory of God.
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  Our motives in all that we do should be to bring glory to the Lord,
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  to give Him honor and praise.
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  Our life should be a living testimony of the goodness of God.
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  And when we are doing something, we should be doing it for His glory,
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  and we should seek to show and demonstrate who God is by the way we respond
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  to His love and mercy and grace that he so easily gives each of us.
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  He freely gives us his love. He freely gives us his grace and his mercy.
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  And that should elicit a response from us that puts him first,
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  that honors him, that demonstrates we love him.
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  And so everything we're doing isn't just passing time, but it has a purpose,
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  and it's to bring him glory.
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  We're using our gifts and our talents and the things that he has given us to
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  show others who he is, to build the kingdom.
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  Jesus is watching and seeing what others aren't.
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  He's observing these people giving, but he's looking at their motive.
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  See, he looks on the things on the inside and not on the things on the outside.
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  If you would, let's look at Colossians 3.23 that says, And whatsoever you do,
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  do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men.
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  Clearly, these people who were bringing this money in, in as many coins as possible,
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  to clink around in this trunk, was they wanted people to see what they had done.
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  They were presenting themselves as all that and a bag of chips because they
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  had all this money and they were giving it to them.
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  But they were giving from their abundance. And Jesus points that out when he
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  says that he is seeing their motive.
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  He's seeing their heart when he says that she in her two mites has given more than all of these.
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  And the value in the coins in the bag must have been incredibly more than her two mites.
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  But the value to the Lord shifted the scales from fleshly, worldly pride,
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  from a look-at-me stance to a look at Jesus.
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  He saw her heart. He understood the motive.
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  And her sacrifice registered to him.
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  What you must know is nothing that you give to the Lord from a true,
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  pure, clean heart is ever hidden from Him.
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  He sees what no one else sees, and He honors that.
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  He's not impressed with public display or proudly presentations.
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  Without a personal devotion, your gift means nothing.
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  God wants you to give to him because you love him and you trust him.
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  When you are at church and you lift your hands up, are you wondering who's seeing
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  one because you want to make sure they know that you're all that and you're praising the Lord?
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  Are you afraid to lift your hands because you're afraid someone will think you're
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  just too in love with Jesus,
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  the answer he's looking for is that you don't even notice the people around
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  you, that you're worshiping and praising him because it's your time with him,
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  and it's about him, and it's not about anyone else.
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  Worship should be an upward expression of an inward faith.
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  It's an upward expression of the faith that you are demonstrating that lives
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  deep within you of how you love and trust and depend upon the one true living God.
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  Mark 12, 41 shows that he's looking.
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  When we look at Mark 12, 42 and verses 43, which go like this,
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  And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.
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  And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto
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  you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into
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  the treasury. All of it together.
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  The widow gave two small coins, an amount that I'm sure seemed incredibly insignificant
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  to those others that were giving into the treasury.
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  Yet Jesus deemed it the best gift given.
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  See, we are not to compare our gifts that God has given us to those around us.
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  We're not to compare our service for the king to other service.
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  When Jesus looked at the widow with her two mites, and he looked at all the
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  wealthy people who had given of their abundance, she gave from her small token amount.
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  Honestly, she gave from her poverty. Truthfully, she gave everything she had.
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  The value of the gift is not determined by what is given, but when it comes from the giver.
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  Take a look at what the widow gave.
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  When she gave those two mites, God said she gave all she had. She was all in.
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  Her faith wasn't something she spoke about. Her faith wasn't something she laid
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  on display every time she went into the temple and forgot about it all the time.
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  Her faith wasn't a notch on her belt or some sort of card she was keeping score
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  of how cool she was and how she served the Lord and how religious she was.
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  No, her faith was a living testimony that she believed that if she gave God
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  everything she had, God would still take care of her. He would honor her.
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  He would provide for her. He would bless her.
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  He was worthy of her to give all she had. She was all in because he was everything to her.
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  I dare say he speaks in this particular passage that those that were giving
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  of abundance weren't all in.
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  They were giving a portion of abundance.
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  And Jesus recognized that she was giving it all. Small acts of faith, they matter.
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  But this wasn't any small act of faith.
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  This was an all-in, embracing, trusting God for who he was.
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  In verse 44, he says, For all they did cast in of their abundance,
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  but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.
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  She was all in.
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  She wasn't being reckless or irresponsible. She had a willing heart to put God
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  first and to believe that he would take care of her just as he promised.
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  He tells us in Philippians 4, 13 that he'll give us all the strength we need.
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  In 19, he tells us that he'll provide everything that we need according to his riches in Christ Jesus.
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  The widow wasn't talking about her faith the widow was living it.
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  She didn't give because she had extra. She gave because she trusted God with what she had.
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  Many of us take care of every other thing before we give to the Lord.
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  When we talk about our resources, we give after everything else has been paid,
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  and then whatever's left, we give a portion of that.
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  When it comes to our energy, we take care of our family, our friends.
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  We get to work. We do all the things.
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  And then we might have a few minutes for prayer and Bible study.
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  It's not the example that the widow gave us.
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  And it certainly isn't the act of giving that Jesus spoke was the most rewarding.
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  No, she gave not because she had extra, but because she trusted God with what she had.
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  All that she had. She had a willing heart to believe God for what he said.
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  She had a willing heart to give to the Lord all she had. She was all in.
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  It wasn't an insignificant gift. It was all she had.
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  It was costing her more, far more, than any gift anyone else in the temple had given.
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  What are you holding back? Because you're afraid. If you give it, you'll lose it.
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  She wasn't afraid she wasn't going to eat. She wasn't afraid she wasn't going to have a home.
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  She wasn't afraid she wasn't going to get two more farlings.
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  She wasn't even interested in that. She was interested in being obedient,
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  and the Lord had told her to give all she had, and she gave all she had.
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  That's complete and utter dependence. That's full trust in the one and true living God.
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  It is that you won't give him? Are you trusting him only with your surplus?
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  Only with a portion of your disposable income?
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  With a minute part of your hours? Listen, time is a great equalizer.
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  We all only have 24 hours.
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  How much is God getting of yours? 2.4 hours is owed him.
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  What are you holding on to because you're afraid? If you hold so tightly to
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  something, you can't reach out and grab the other blessing he has.
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  I realize that in this particular passage of Scripture that we're reading,
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  he's talking about monetary gifts.
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  But I believe that Scripture holds true, that this same principle is about our
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  time, our abilities, our resources, our compassion, our obedience, our wants, our desires.
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  He said, I am the Lord thy God, am a jealous God. You'll have no other gods before me.
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  He told us to trust, not partially, not just at times, not after we've given
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  up what we could do. He said, trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
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  You gotta know she was all in.
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  Wasn't playing church. She wasn't partially in love with the Lord.
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  He didn't feel just a portion of her heart.
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  He had her whole heart. Something has your whole heart or someone.
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  The question is, who were what. We make time for the things that matter to us.
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  How much time do you make for Jesus?
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  Are you all in?
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  Or are you the Sunday, Wednesday in? Or just the Sunday in?
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  Or you remember to pray when you need to ask him for something?
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  Are you the one that serves us his hands and feet when it's convenient and you
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  have planned it and it works into your schedule?
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  I have to believe that this widow who was willing to give all of her money and all of her living,
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  I have to believe she was also available when he called her up and said,
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  you need to go visit your neighbor.
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  They're sick and lonely.
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  I have to believe she was all in when he called her heart and told her that
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  someone needed her assistance.
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  I believe she was all in when he called her on her heart and he said,
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  you need to pray the night through for this person.
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  Perfectly honest, the things we don't see that are indicated by that kind of
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  love and devotion and motivation for her love for the Lord,
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  the money in the trunk that she threw in was probably the easiest of her frequent sacrifices.
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  She knew God had given her the two farlings, excuse me, the two mites that make a farling.
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  So if he gave it to her once, he could give it to her again she was all in she
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  didn't have a convenient faith she didn't have an every now and then faith,
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  she didn't have a relationship with jesus that was only thought about on sundays
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  and wednesdays to be able to give all she had to be able to be on the line.
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  She had to have an all-time, 24-hour a day, seven day a week, 365 days a year.
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  He's first. Kind of relationship.
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  The truth is the crowd probably remembered all the large gifts.
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  Maybe didn't even hardly hear the clanking of two little coins.
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  Centuries, centuries later, we're reading about the woman, the widow,
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  and she makes it into his word, his words.
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  He speaks.
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  He remembered her. She becomes a living example of what it means not only to
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  be generous, but to be all in, to be faithfully obedient.
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  And she allows us to read this and know that our obedience, our faithful obedience is never wasted.
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  See, we really serve Him when no one applauds, and we serve anyway.
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  When there are no stage lights, no platforms to stand on, no paychecks coming our way to worship,
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  We're just worshiping, serving, loving those who faithfully lead us because of their calling.
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  They're not just doing it on Sunday morning and Wednesday.
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  It's that time in between that they're at the throne praying.
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  Their worship is sweet, it's dedicated, and it's consistent.
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  So when they are leading us into worship and when they're leading us into the
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  word of God, when they're taking us to the throne, they're not strangers.
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  They're all in. That isn't their first time that week, and it won't be their last time.
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  You gotta give even when no one notices.
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  Who are you serving?
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  God who sees all or a man that is ungrateful?
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  "'What's your motive? "'Do everything as if unto the Lord.'.
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  We're doing. We're doing for him. We're his hands extended. We are his feet.
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  We are his eyes. We're his ears.
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  And maybe your finances in this world can't offer millions to build a hospital,
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  or $500 to pay electric bill.
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  But maybe you can buy a cup of coffee for a homeless man that needs to know he's loved.
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  Maybe your 10% doesn't look like it will do much, but little is much when God
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  is in it. She proves this to us.
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  When he touches our efforts, they become supreme.
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  And we can do all things to Christ which strengthens us. But it all starts with
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  our condition of our heart, the position from which we reach out to God?
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  Are we reaching out because we love him? Are we reaching out because we trust him?
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  Are we reaching out because we've placed him first?
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  Or are we reaching out so that our little group and our little community can
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  say, oh, look how religious she or he is.
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  There's nothing wrong with having money. If God has trusted you with his money
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  and you are doing what he says and giving what he says,
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  you're just as valuable and just as in tune with him as this woman who gave it all.
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  So whether you're wealthy by this world's standards or whether you're not,
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  make sure in your heart you know that it all belongs to him.
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  Offering that we read about from this widow who's all in teaches us that he
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  sees what everybody else overlooks.
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  And it's about our sacrifice and the position of our heart that we give from
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  that God is interested in.
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  And that when we truly give of ourselves is when we are fully giving,
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  trusting God will bless us and it and take care of us.
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  What she teaches us more than anything is faithful obedience and full trust,
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  is what God values in his children.
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  What is God asking you to place in his hands? Is it your money,
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  your time, your talents, comfort, control, pride?
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  Don't ask yourself what you're giving.
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  Ask yourself if you're giving him your whole heart, soul, mind, and life.
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  God isn't primarily looking at the size of your gift.
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  He is looking at the surrender of your heart.
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  Remember, you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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  For joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture references
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  from this episode in the show notes.
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  We pray today's message has been a blessing. If it has, please consider leaving
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  a rating or review on your podcast platform.
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  Your feedback helps others discover the truth of God's Word.
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  You can connect with Women at the Well Ministries through our app at watwm.org
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  and on Facebook and Instagram.
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  While you're there, learn more about Bible Bits, Kim's daily devotional delivered
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  Monday through Friday by text message and the Bible bit podcast.
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  Thank you for your prayers and support. Remember, Jesus loves you. You are loved.