If you have your Bibles, I'd love for you to turn and join me in Mark chapter 12. We are one week away from Victory Sunday. I know that you are aware of that. Praying that God would enable us and provide for us and one of the number one greatest aspects of the next building is going to be our nursery. And so we put these children up here today to compel you to give next week. How many of you believe those kids, those little tiny helpless babies, deserve a multi-million dollar nursery? Yeah. Yeah, I actually believe that. Lots of them, and we know we have to make room for them, and it's a good thing that God is blessing, and we want to help them out. With that in mind, here in Mark chapter 12, We're going to learn a valuable lesson. Very basic, there's no doubt. But the lesson is this, regardless of situation or circumstances, everyone has something to give. Don't worry about what others have to give. Give God your all. By the time we get into Mark chapter 12, we find Jesus in the midst of Passover week. Jesus is in the midst of his passion, maybe we know it as. He is facing the cross in just a few short days. He's already entered the city of Jerusalem and he's heard the shouts of Hosanna. The Pharisees have taken a look at the response of the massive population of Passover week and their assessment in John chapter 12 and verse 19 is this, behold the world is gone after him. To them, it was as if the entire world loved Jesus. And they despised that reality. It did not sit well with them. In fact, in Matthew 21, verse 15, we read this, And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were sore displeased. That tells you all you need to know about the chief priests and the scribes. To see the wonderful things that Jesus did, and to see the response of the children, and to be sore displeased. To be extremely upset about it. From that moment forward, the Pharisees and the chief priests and scribes sought to put Jesus to death. They were working hard to trip Him up. In fact, John tells us this in John 11, 53, from that day forth, they took counsel together for to put him to death. Four verses later, we read now, both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment that if any man knew where he were, he should show it, that they might take him, and we can finish that thought with, and put him to death. They are working diligently against Jesus in this heightened moment of Passover week. They're employing every method they can employ to try to trip Jesus up. They have used the Pharisees themselves who have questioned His authority so that they might accuse Him of blasphemy. The Herodians have stepped up and they worked at Jesus with a law about taxes and they tried to expose Him. The Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead have asked Jesus about the resurrection and Jesus has passed every one of these tests with flying colors. Now, waiting in the wings is a scribe. The Pharisees have had their shot at Jesus, the Herodians their shot, the Sadducees theirs, and now a scribe. A scribal expert in the interpretation of the Mosaic Law. well versed in all of the minutia of rabbinical tradition. He steps up and he tries to trip Jesus up with a question about the law. And it is in Jesus' response that we find the core of our study this morning. In verse 28 of Mark 12 we read this, And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, which is the first commandment of all? This scribe who has been waiting in the wings, he heard the Pharisees and the Herodians and the Sadducees reasoning together and he perceives that Jesus has satiated their questions. So he comes with one more question. Which is the greatest law? Which is the first law, the primary law? Jesus answers, and I'm sure you're familiar with this. Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. The second is like, namely this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. If you had to settle on a word that was the theme as Jesus responded to the question, which is the greatest commandment, it would be love. Love is that word. communicating to us that God is after our hearts. He is after us. His expectation of adherence to the law would not be mere modification of external behavior, but rather it would be the impetus, it would be the compulsion of our hearts that we would love him, that we would love our neighbors. And Jesus makes no bones about it, very boldly, very plainly, He says it is an all-in endeavor. It is an all-or-nothing task. All-in. As Jesus would have responded to this, every one of the Hebrew listeners, their mind would have raced to the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. They would have remembered that certainly this was of note. Deuteronomy 6, 4, and 5 is what Jesus was quoting, what Jesus was referencing as he answered. Deuteronomy 6, 4, and 5 says this. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. This is the supreme command. This is, according to Jesus, what he's after. This is the primary commandment, according to Jesus. You settle on that threefold all, all your heart, all your soul, all your power. That's where we derive this all in effort. There is no room for divided affections, there is no room for divided allegiance. This demands from us supreme and total loyalty, loyalty that starts with the heart and is aimed at God. with all your heart." All of us can identify when we say things like, I love you with all of my heart. But what is it that God is communicating? With all your heart means righteous action. Action that is right in the sight of God begins from within. Proper disposition from within towards God in heaven. Solomon wrote this in Proverbs 4.23, Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Keep, guard your heart. Because your heart set determines your lifestyle. Keep your heart. What God is asking for is our inside to be compelled to love Him. With all of your heart, with all of your soul, in short, one defined this way. Our entire being is to display that we love God. Our entire being should be a display. Our entire being should be a testament of the fact that we love God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our might. What exactly does that mean, with all of our might? We have to clench our fists, flex our muscles, grit our teeth, and say, I really love you. That's all I got. How many of you have big muscles and can really show God that you love him? with all of your might." What do we mean when we read all of our might? Interestingly, that word in Deuteronomy 6.5. which is translated might, is very often translated the adverb very in the Old Testament. The noun version of it occurs there in Deuteronomy and only in one other place, which is really an echo of what we read in Deuteronomy, Speaking of King Josiah in 2 Kings 23, we read that he turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses. All, we see it again, all, all, all, all. It's a fact. The noun version is used there, but the adverb, which is what this word is often translated into, is very. I love how one scholar amplified this word practically. He said, if the word usually means very, what would it mean then to love God with all of our veryness? In the Greek, that word is translated power. The Aramaic translation of that word is wealth. But I think both of those translations are pointing in the same direction. For the strength of a person is not simply who he is, but it is also what he or she has at their disposal. Think about what is being communicated. To love God with all of our veriness, with all of our heart, Let all of our body display that we love Him, and with all of our might, with all of our power, with all of our wealth, with all of our resources, with our veriness, let us show God that we love Him. That means the call to love God is not only with our physical muscle, but with everything that we have available for honoring God. And it is undeniable that that includes our resources. And it's all or nothing. It's about the heart set. That's what Jesus teaches us when he told the rich young ruler in Mark 10, 21, Jesus beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, one thing thou lackest, Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor. And thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, take up the cross and follow me. Now Jesus isn't saying in that moment that the only right thing to do is sell everything you have and give it to the poor, but he knew the heart condition of this rich young ruler and he was testing what it was that he actually loved. And in the next verse we get the answer, that rich young ruler went away sad at that saying. Grieved at that saying, for he had great possessions. Think about that sad reality. It's proven what he really loved. Do you love God with all of your heart? Do you love God with all of your soul? Do you love God with all of your veriness? Does he know that he has your heart? I've shared this multiple times. My wife and I are in what I have termed phase one of empty nesting, which simply means that our kids no longer live with us, but where they live away from us, we are still paying for them. We're paying for them home and away. Phase one of empty nesting is fun, but it is also very expensive. I mean, my daughter, God bless her, great job, taking off in life, still on our car insurance, still on our cell phone plan, and still driving a car that is officially legally in my name. But other than that, she's going after it. My son, on the other hand, is very much on the payroll. Do you get it? Very much on the payroll. About a year ago, he called from school and he said, Dad, I have a flat tire. Okay. Full grown, capable, strong man. Change your tire. I can't. Why? I gave the wrench to a friend. Okay. Get it. Yeah, it's gone. And you know the locking lug nut thing? Yep. Yeah, I don't have that either. All right. Son, is there a Honda dealership near campus? Yeah, walking distance. Need a wrench for the lug nuts, and I need the locking lug nut for a Honda Pilot. Son, it's paid for. It's there. All you have to do is go to the service department, say, I'm here to pick this up for Edwards. They will hand it to you, change the tire. How many of you believe that he took it upon himself to go get it and take care of it? Anyone, anyone, anyone? Show your foolishness, show it in public. No, he did not. There was a Tuesday night last year where my wife and I loaded up the car, we went into the Honda dealership, we retrieved the wrench, we retrieved the locking lug nut, we went into the parking lot, we worked on changing the tire, we then took the car down to the dealership, we had the tire patched, put it back on, shook his hand, fed him dinner, and gone back home. About two weeks ago, he called me and he said, Dad, Brakes are making a noise, okay? I said, is it like a squealing, whining noise? He said, duh, no, it's like a khh noise. I said, like a metal on metal kind of noise? He said, not kind of, it's definitely metal on metal noise. Yeah, that's what it's doing. I said, well look, I'll take a look at it. We'll be down to celebrate your birthday. We drove down to see him for his birthday and we came bearing gifts. As we paid for his dinner and spoiled him lavishly for his birthday, I said, hey, I wanna walk by the pilot. I wanna just take a look and see how far gone the brakes and the rotors are. And I got to it and I was like, dude, how have you even been stopping the car? I said, dad, I told you it was making a noise. Yes, four days ago, you told me that it was making a noise. So we went down to the Honda dealership. You walk in the service department. Now they're like, hey, Chris, how are you? Good to see you. Said, yeah, we're gonna need to put brakes and rotors on this thing all the way around. Nice. Put brakes, we put rotors on it. We get it back to him. He's sending me a picture this week of the pilot, which is now old and it's like a war horse. Parked on the curb, he texts me a picture and he says, look at it, Dad. New brakes, new rotors, and it's all washed and clean. Then I said to Christy, I paid for that car wash. He sent me a picture, new brakes, new rotors, but look, it's clean. Yeah, that showed up on your debit card, man. Now what I'm driving at is this. There is no question asked. All of our veriness, we love him with all of it. If a need arises, we will work to completely finish that need. We will meet his needs to an exceeding degree. We lavish gifts upon him. He's not spoiled. He's not. He is, we're trying our best. The question is this, does God know that you love Him with all of your veriness? Is there any question? Is there any wonder? Is it all your heart? Is it all your soul? Is it all your veriness? In Mark chapter 12, Jesus has been under assault. The Pharisees have gone after him about the law. The Herodians about taxes. The Sadducees about the resurrection. A scribe has stepped up and pressured Jesus with this question about the primary law. But as this chapter concludes, Jesus wants to arrest the attention of the disciples and say, look, Here's a picture of one who literally gave all that she had. I love these verses. The reality of Jesus' awareness of the gift giving even of the poor in verse 41 of chapter 12. A lot happening in this passage. Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how people cast money into the treasury. And many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which makes a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living, all that she had, all her living. There's that word again. It's entirety. There's nothing left, it's an all-in, all-or-nothing endeavor. She literally gave all that she had. Don't have any cloud of confusion. When she walked out of the temple treasury, she literally had nothing left at all. She gave everything she had. How stunning is it to see Jesus seated in this courtyard of the treasury in Passover week where people were publicly giving? And Mark tells us intentionally, many that were rich gave a lot of money. They would walk up to these trumpet shaped metal funnels, which would drop money down into the box. They would hire musicians oftentimes to play a trumpet as they came into the temple courtyard. It was people watching, it was theater. They would watch them as they walked up and dumped bags of money into this trumpet funnel down into the box. Jesus sits in the temple treasury and I assure you he is unmoved by what he sees. But there comes a moment where I can see this poor little widow waiting in the shadows and she threw in her two mites and it even speaks of haste. She doesn't want anybody to notice. She wants to be almost invisible. Perhaps it's some embarrassment or shame she casts in her two mites. But it is in that instance that Jesus wants his followers. He wants his disciples. He wants us to see this. He calls his disciples over to him and he said, that one, that woman right there gave everything that she had. She's given more than everybody else here. Jesus standing up on the inside, utterly unmoved by the wealthy, Moved to point out this poor lady, he's sealing a lesson that he's just shared. If we were to back these verses up to verse 38, Jesus very publicly has just said this. He said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts, which devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These shall receive greater damnation. Now, I don't mean to belabor it, But you see the verbiage in there. Jesus is saying plainly they love salutations. They love to go in long clothing. They love it. The scribes would wear long white linen robes with a fringed hem at the bottom. And if you think that's probably a little effeminate, you're probably thinking properly about the scribes. They loved their white robes because it made them stand out in a relatively impoverished society. They loved it. They loved the chief seat in the synagogues. In fact, they would sit with their backs to the Torah and they would look at the congregation and the congregation would look at them. They loved it. They loved for people to call them rabbi, master, teacher. They loved it. They loved to go into the feast and go to the utmost room and sit by the host. They loved it. They made a pretense of long prayers in the marketplace because they wanted you to think they were great. They loved it, but they didn't love God. And so when they came into the temple courtyard and they were dumping their money in and everybody oohed and aahed, they loved it. When they had to go home at night and pillow their head, they desperately wanted an appeased conscience, and so they would give, and they loved their appeased conscience. They loved how they dressed. They loved how the money sounded. They just didn't love God. And Jesus said of them, they devour widows' houses. Literally, they're so corrupt. that they'll actually take money from the poor widows and they will enrich themselves. Much of the money they're giving now is on the backs of poor little widows. Don't listen to these hypocrites, they're fakes. That's what Jesus is saying. But he points us to this little widow woman who is giving all that she has. This widow wasn't giving because she wanted to be noticed. She wasn't giving because the scribes told her it was right. She wasn't giving because she really felt compelled to participate in temple upkeep or expansion. In fact, the temple was a display of ostentatious wealth. She didn't even fit in. The temple was such a display of ostentatious wealth that her two little mites, which made a farthing, would have made no impact at all. And after all, these guys would probably not use her money properly anyways. They devoured widows' houses, but she wasn't giving for them. She wasn't giving because the scribes told her this is right. She wasn't giving because she wanted to put a new gold lamp somewhere in the temple. She was giving because she wanted to please God. She was giving because she loved God. She didn't know that Jesus was watching her, but she knew that God was. She was living out the great commandment. She was loving God with all that she had. It would stand to reason that she only had two mites. She could have given one and kept the other for herself, but she gave all that she had. So Jesus in Mark 12 says to this scribe, here's the great commandment, love God with all your heart. with all your soul, and with all of your veriness. And as this chapter comes to a conclusion, he's seated in the temple courtyard, he's watching the rich people give, and he says in effect, I know what you love. I'm not impressed by your gift, because I know what you truly love. I don't give one rip about your external behavior. I see what you love. And yet this little woman gives, and we would turn our heads away in shame. And Jesus says, no, wrong. I know what she loves. She's all in. This Passover crowd would have missed out on it. But as one wrote, it's not how much we give to God. but how much we withhold for ourselves that he is concerned about. The lesson is also brought home to our hearts that in the last analysis, God wants not what we have, but he wants us. He wants our hearts. I don't believe for one second that this widow woman who gave all that she had, and Jesus took note of it, went home and didn't have her needs met. I believe that for a fact she went home and supernaturally she was cared for till the end of her days. She loved God with all of her veriness and there was no question about it. Another said, if not careful, we are disposed to measure the value of actions quantitatively rather than qualitatively. Moreover, we are better judges of actions than of motives. We can see the outward conduct much clearer than the inward character. God therefore in his word constantly teaches us that he looks rather upon the inward man than the outward. When she gave all that she had, she proved her trust was in God. When she gave everything she had, she trusted God more than she did her material possessions. All of our needs typically need to be met first, and then we give God the leftovers, but not this woman. And this widow woman raises a question for us. Why give? Why do it in the first place? What we do with our money is an important issue. We are responsible to God for the stewardship of our money. It is an act of worship when we give. And the Bible kind of brings it full circle when we understand the impulse, the compulsion for my giving should be one of love, and that would enable me to do so cheerfully. And then the Bible teaches us that God loves a cheerful giver. Giving and our walk with God is rooted in love. First his love for us, and then it is the love of Christ which constrains us to continue onward. God mandates all of our hearts. It's an all or nothing endeavor. All of our hearts, all of our soul, and all of our veriness. It is a mandate truly for loyalty, motivated by love. Is there any question? whether or not you love God. Would you please just for a moment bow your heads with me? Thanks for listening this week to the Graceway Baptist Church podcast. For more information about our church and our ministries, head on over to our website at gracewaycharlotte.org. We are a church located in South Charlotte. We are growing and our ministries are doing big things for Christ. If you're looking for a way to get plugged into what we're doing, email us at info at gracewaycharlotte.org. Also, stay in the loop with everything happening by following us on Facebook and Instagram. Our handle is GracewayCharlotte. Thanks again for listening to the Graceway Charlotte podcast. We'll see you next week.