I always hesitate speaking on this particular subject, and I'm going to tell you why. Because whenever you're door knocking and you're knocking on somebody's door and people are talking about church, this is the reason they say they don't go to church. I don't know why, I just don't talk on these particular subjects. The Lord, I don't think He leads this direction, but He has led this direction this morning. And so, you're wondering what the subject is. I'm going to tell you after I get done praying. But I want to talk to you for just a few moments out of Mark chapter 12. Let's pray first and ask this blessing on this Word. Heavenly Father, thank You now for Your Word. Thank You again for everything that You've teach us from the Word of God. And this morning's lesson is no less important than something we would consider valuable, maybe like family or even missions or, Lord, the call of God on a person's life or doing Your will. But Father, help us understand that, Lord, what You have in Your Word is for us to be the Christian You want us to be and the child of God that You want us to be. Lord, if there's somebody in the service not for sure of heaven, help them understand Lord, it's so important to them that they would know you as their personal Savior. And Lord, if someone's doubting their salvation, get it settled. Help a Christian this morning. Father, Lord, that we again be what you want us to be. And in this aspect also, we love you. Thank you for all that you do for us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. This year's theme for our church is 2020 vision. We've each month is a different one. Believe it or not, we're at the end of july and I have not talked about this month. If you've read in your bulletin, you understand that this particular month is on stewardship. We will go through different things as far as the family which we have. We've talked about marriage, we'll talk about, we'll talk about missions in october, different things for the month that I just want you to think about. And the idea of 2020 obviously we're in the year 2020 But the thought is, is to be able to see clearly. And so this morning, I want to talk to you on this subject this morning, is how do you see your giving? And I know some people, they come to church, they're, oh, the preacher's always talking about giving and what you can give and all that kind of thing. Church family, can I tell you, Jesus spoke about giving. Okay, so we cannot just take away what you don't want to hear because most of us don't want to hear about giving either because of a bad experience or because of a church that we've gone to that we think don't maybe spend their money, spend the money God gives wisely or for whatever reason. But you cannot get around the fact that part of your spirituality is about giving, okay? I've talked about the five basics of the Christian life. It's something that every Christian ought to do. It's the will of God. You ought to read your Bible. You ought to pray. You ought to go soul hunting. You ought to give. You ought to attend church. Those five things ought to be specific to the Christian life. I should be doing God's general will if I'm ever going to find out what God's specific will is for my life. My children, especially the ones that are older now and they've got jobs, I'm almost frequently asking, you're making sure you're tithing, you're making sure you're giving your offering. And I don't know what particularly people give, but can I tell you, it's vital to my children's life because they're a Christian is that they give. And this idea of giving, and you're already quiet this morning. So do me a favor, I want you to say amen right now so you can get it out of the way for the whole service. Are you ready? On the count of three, say amen. One, two, three. Amen. Okay, now you got that out of the way, now you can go back to sleep. All right, now, I want you to think about this morning, this one short story out of Mark, and of course it's mentioned also in the book of Luke. I could kill myself, I took my glasses to my office again. All right, look at Mark chapter number 12, and red letter edition is even harder to read. Thank you very much, grab those for me. All right, verse number 41. If I read this wrong, I do have a King James Bible. want you to know I don't have the NIV in my hand all right but I'm gonna try to read this without my glasses for this morning this morning okay it says in Jesus sat I don't think this is gonna work I'm gonna try I'll try I'll try hold on a second I think I can read the black in Jesus sat over against the treasury and I beheld I'm gonna stop okay should I stop I'm gonna stop my glasses are coming. All right, it's gonna be a whole lot better if I read this All right. So let me just tell you the story this morning. Are you ready? All right You know the story anyway, cuz you know your Bible, right? Okay, so here comes Jesus and I will read these four verses in just a moment Okay, but Jesus by the way, I can see I just can't read. All right, it's without those glasses All right. So once I get those glasses, I'll be all fine All right, I would borrow a pair of glasses, but I've done that before as in the ladies prison I need a pair of glasses the only woman with glasses with my prescription, which is a 1.5. Oh was sitting on the front row, but when she handed me her glasses, they were pink. I said, I don't care about reading the Bible, I ain't putting those pink glasses on, alright? So I didn't have to read those. Son, run, run, run, run. Let me get those up here quick. After Sunday school, I went back to my office and I sat these down, I apologize. Alright, look at your Bible now, I'm sorry about that. Look at your Bible, Mark chapter 12, verse number 41. And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the 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 make 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," what's the word? Abundance, but she of her want did cast in," what's the word? all that she had, even all her living, all right? Now, church, I wanna, again, using this story as a kind of, get us to think about that Jesus must have thought giving was pretty important because he's sitting watching people give, all right? Now, most of us don't like for people to know how we give, and the reason we don't like people to know how we give is because we don't give. I've learned by experience that people who give are not embarrassed about people knowing that they give. And I've also learned from experience that people who are stingy guts, You know what that is? A person who's not a giver, they don't want anybody to know they're giving, all right? They're the person that, you know, when it comes time for the offering, they fold their dollar bill as small as they possibly can so somebody will think it's a $10 bill, but it's folded so small that nobody will know what it is. Okay, that went over well, all right? Do you understand that God wants us to give? So this morning, I want you to think about 2020 vision about your stewardship. How are you giving? I want you to think about, and by the way, giving can be a whole lot more than just money, whether it's into an offering plate or money, helping somebody else. It can do have to do with you giving of your life, of you giving of your talent, of you giving of your time. There's a lot of things when it comes to this area of giving now. Understand can we start with the premise before we talk about the giving of this widow woman? Can we understand that the first thing when it comes to our giving is that tithing is is elementary base giving? Okay. Now we can do a Bible study this morning, but we understand that tithing was before the law because Abraham tithed We understand that tithing was during the law because Moses taught tithing, last chapter of Leviticus, and we understand that tithing was after the law because Jesus said, don't leave the tithing undone. That's what Jesus said, okay? So, we understand that tithing is not some legalism that, you know, if I'm going to go to heaven, I have to give. You don't have to give God one dime if you accept Christ as your Savior as a free gift. You don't pay for a gift gifts are free. All right, which means I don't have to live a good life to get to heaven I don't have to put ties in their offering plate to get to heaven My salvation is in Jesus Christ in him alone. Now. It doesn't matter if you're an adult It doesn't matter if you're a senior a saint. It doesn't matter if you're a teenager this morning You ought to be giving your tithes and offerings. I Malachi chapter 3, which we often refer to, verse number 10, talks about where and have you, the question was, where and have you robbed God? And he says, you have robbed me in tithes and offerings. All right, the tithe is not my own. In other words, 10% of my income goes back in the church. I've met pastors before that thought they didn't have to tithe because they worked for the church. All right? Let me say a couple things here. Number one, I don't work for the church. I work for him, okay? Number two, the Levites gave tithes of the tithes. The Levites did, which means every person ought to tithe and give their offering, all right? Many of you are home folk around here. Brother Flowers is an assistant treasurer. Brother Stumpfel's a treasurer around here. If at the end of today, for whatever reason, my tithe is not in the offering plate and they're counting money, they come to my office, all right? I like Brother Stumpfel coming because when Brother Flowers comes, he's got a gun on his side, all right? And they say, hey, listen, we didn't see your tithing offering. And I told them, if it's not in there, you come find me. You know why? Because it's going to be in there. Hey, can I tell you something, church family? I know what you're thinking. Boy, I'm sure glad they don't do that to me. Well, church family, I want to tell you something. If the only reason your tithe is not in the offering plate is because you forgot, then you have no problem with someone coming and asking, did you give your tithe today? You say, well, listen, that's not the way we do it. And you're right. We don't do it. Nobody's going to come. No one knows if you give or not. But I want to tell you something. As a Christian, I wouldn't take a chance on my tithe not being in the offering plate. God said in Malachi 3, he says, I'm going to open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing. I want the blessings in Malachi chapter 3 in the same chapter He says because you're giving your tithe and offering I'm gonna rebuke the devourer Hey, I want to tell you something. I'd like to have God against Satan instead of Satan against me So tithing is elementary giving and young person I don't care if you make $10 if you make a hundred or you make a thousand give God his 10% That's elementary giving alrighty All right, y'all doing okay? I know it's a Sunday morning. I know this is not a normal message, okay? But this is the message for the hour, so stay with me a little bit longer, just smile, all right? Act like you're happy, even if you're not, okay? So I want you to understand that tithes and offerings are basic, but I want you to, now here's the thought this morning. The thought is simply about this widow woman as far as her giving. I want you to notice, my question was, is how do you see your giving? But the truth of the statement is really this. How does God see your giving? You all know that I don't check giving records around here. My father did, by the way, when he was, he passed 33 years. My father would check the giving records of a person, especially if he thought a person was having a spiritual problem in his life. He would say, you can always go back to a person's spiritual problem by whether or not they're giving or not, because their giving is an indicator on whether they've got another spiritual problem in their life. I've been here 26 years, I've never gone to check a giving record. There's been a few, few, few cases. I don't have a problem checking on my kids whether they're tithing or not. They're living in my home. I don't want God's curse on my life if they're not giving their tithes and offerings. But on a rare occasion, if somebody leaves the church and there's a problem, sometimes, I don't do it very often, but there's been times in 26 years that I've asked, hey listen, I'm just curious, was that person tithing? And sure enough, It's amazing how when a person leaves the church and they're disgruntled and they're not happy, they were never tithing. I determined one time, we had a staff member, this was years and years ago, had a staff member who wasn't tithing. I determined a long time ago, I am never gonna have a staff member who doesn't tithe, ever. They're gonna work for God and rob God? Not very bright. You know, Jesus says, I want you to see how I see your giving. All right, so let's see quickly how he sees our giving. We're in Mark chapter 12 again, verse number 41. I want you to notice, first of all, is that Jesus sees how we give. In verse number 41, it says, and Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld, what's the word? how he beheld how by the way it doesn't say what and if we go to the parallel passage we're going to find that what they give Jesus notice what they give also but did you notice that God said Jesus said he says I beheld how the people cast money into the treasury can I tell you that God sees how you give are you with me this morning God sees how you give I shouldn't be apologetic this morning this is what the Lord has for us but you know when it comes to a Sunday morning I know giving is kind of hard on people, and especially if you're visiting this morning, I just want you to, if this is your first service, this is not the normal. But I want to tell you that the Bible teaches about giving, okay? And you know what? When we give, the Bible says, 1 Corinthians 6, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians 9, verse number six and seven, but this I say, he would sow with sparingly, shall reap also sparingly. And he would sow with bountifully, shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, or of what? Or of necessity, for God loveth a what? Cheerful giver. Cheerful giver. You know, sometimes I get apologetic about preaching on giving because I feel sorry for the people that are sitting there and you're in pain. When it comes to a church service on giving, it bothers you. It bothers you that the pastor would talk about giving, or it bothers you. And I want to tell you, the reason it bothers you is because you don't give. You say, how do you know that? I don't, because I don't know what you give. But I understand one thing. I've sat through thousands of services, and I've never been under conviction about giving, because as a young person, when I got my first job was at Burger King. Dad said, two things you're going to make sure. You make sure you tie it. Make sure you do something for your mother. From the time I was a junior in high school, my first job, and then going from there to throw a car where I worked on railroad cars to going to college and working at UPS, I got the premise down pat. I got the premise that I'm going to give God my tithe and my offering shows God how much I love him. The 10% shows that I'm honest. Everything above my 10% shows that I love him. And as I give to God, God gives to me. But there are people that have never learned that, and so every time they hear about giving, all they want down at the church is money. Church family, God doesn't need your money. He owns the cattle on every hill. He owns all the wealth in the world. He doesn't need your money. Money is just the outward show of telling God, you've got me. That's all it is. So in this idea of giving, can I tell you, I want to change it now. It's not about how you see your giving. How does God see your giving? How does God see how you give? When you give, do you sit down to write your tithe check out and you make it to the very penny because it's killing you? You know, there was a guy, the story was told one time, he went to his pastor, he says, I need God to really do something on my behalf." And he got his first job and the pastor told him very honestly, he said, listen, all you've got to do is make sure you give your tithe. He said, you give your tithe, God will bless you for it and give a little extra. He says, you give your tithe, give a little extra, God will bless you and he said he'd be great. So that young man did exactly what the pastor said. He got his job, gave his tithe, gave his offering and several weeks and months had started to go by and he started to go up the ladder at work. He was starting to get more money. When he first started off it just seemed like a small sum to him. Several months later he comes back into the pastor's office and says, you're not going to believe this pastor, I'm telling you something. I have so much money now that my tithe is more than what I started with making. He says, I can't keep doing this. The pastor said, not a problem, let's pray. The pastor began to pray. Oh God in heaven, would you please take him back to the time he first got his job to where he didn't have very much. The guy said, whoa, whoa, what are you praying? He said, you told me you didn't want to tithe that much, we just got to lessen your income to make sure your tithe is less. Hey, can I tell you, God sees how you give. And I want to tell you, you ought to be one of those cheerful givers. You ought to be excited. And church, I know I can't see your heart. I can only see your face. A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance. The word countenance means face. Whatever's going on in the heart comes out your face. But you ought to be happy when a missionary comes through and I can give. You ought to be happy when a special need comes through and I can give. You ought to be happy that you have income that you can tie, that you can give. First of all, we see that Jesus saw how they gave. We'll get to the next thing, look at verse number 42 now. And there came a certain poor, what? Widow and she threw in two mites which make a farthing and he called unto him his disciples and said, 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. I want you to notice not only did Jesus see, sees how we give but God sees who gives. Think about it for a second here. God did not call her by name in the scripture, all he did was say there was this poor widow. In other words, he recognized who gave. There was this poor widow that gave, there was these that gave of their abundance. Now whoever those they were, we don't know, but we understand one thing, Jesus saw them. Jesus knows who gives. You know, In my little humble home, I have seven little children, getting bigger, and it's my responsibility as dad to make sure that, and many of them got jobs and got incomes coming in, and even my little girls, you know, Stephanie, how old is Stephanie? 13, is Stephanie in here? Where's she at? Primary church? Oh, okay, so she's needed this morning. So, how old did you say she was again? Thirteen. So, Stephanie is thirteen. How many of you fellas know all the ages of your children as you raise your hand? All right, the carnal people have their hands up, all right? How many of you fellas, you have a hard time remembering your children's ages as you raise your hand? Spiritual people, right there, buddy, spiritual people. I can't remember my kids' ages, it's just a ridiculous thing in the world. So, Stephanie is thirteen years of age and she's got income coming in. And so it's important for me because those seven are in my house, I know them by name, that I check to make sure that my kids are giving what belongs to God. Because if they're not giving what belongs to God, that means I have an aching in the family and the whole family suffers when somebody doesn't tithe. But can I tell you something? In this congregation, I don't know if you tithe and I don't want to know if you tithe because that's between you and God. All I have to tell you is you better make sure that you do because God knows. You know why? Because God knows who tithes. Pastor, I give my tithes to the radio church. Well, call the radio church to come to your funeral. Call the radio church to baptize you. Call the radio church to practice communion with you. Church family, that's the most ridiculous thing in the world, not forsaking the assembling. In other words, God wants you to be a part of an assembly of a local church body of believers. He was not telling you to give your tithes and offerings to some TV preacher. or to some needy thing, but they're fighting this good cause, pastor, so I'm sending my tithe to them. No, you're a part of an independent, fundamental Bible-believing Baptist church. The word church means ecclesia. The word ecclesia means a called-out assembly, and you're part of that assembly that God puts you so that you could get the gospel to people here and the gospel to the world, and that's where your tithes and offerings are supposed to go. So God knows who you are. Hey, you know why I can preach so? Uh, liberally about giving because I don't know if you give. So I'm not your enemy this morning. I'm your friend. All right. And I just want you to understand is your friend. I'm telling you if you want God's blessing in your life, make sure you give your tithes and offerings because you know why? Because God knows how you give. You know why? Because God knows who gives something else. Almost done. Look at verse 42 verse 42 says this and there came a certain poor widow and she threw in how much? God also knows what you give. Pastor, I thought we weren't going to talk about the what. I thought it doesn't matter. And you know what? This story tells us that it doesn't matter what we give, but God knows what we give. Now, two mites. We often look at two mites as two pennies, and it was not two pennies, okay? One place that I read or heard Two mites, it took 132 mites to make up one pence, all right? Now, again, I don't, so in other words, this is a minute, minute offering, all right? I read another place that the temple tax, for whatever reason, it was called a temple tax, was a half a shekel. She wasn't even given a half a shekel. She was very far from it. So two mites was very insignificant about what she was giving. But Church, I mean, can I tell you? Let me say this first of all, our church has never had millionaires in our church and I would like to have a couple. I've been here 26 years and we have never had a rich, rich person in the church. God doesn't like me. We have common folk. We have that person that's going to go to work, sometimes work 40, sometimes 60 hours a week to provide for their family. We've got that person who, you know, they just, they're not, they're not the, in a lot of cases, they're not the white collar worker, they're the blue collar worker. That's what God's given us here. And by the way, that's fine with me because this is his church, not my church, not even your church. So God's not, he's not looking to find out whether or not you're putting in $1,000 a week. God's not looking for that. But God does know what you give. And God knows if you're giving a tithe and an offering to him. God knows what that giving is. He knew the exact amount. Oh, she threw in two mites. Jesus was sitting, the Bible says, over against the treasury. Now, I don't know how far away that was, but he was not standing over the top of this woman when she put her two mites in. So Jesus is over here, and he says, that woman there, she gave two mites. Now church, I mean, what about this? What about this? If you want me this morning, say amen. Amen. Let's pretend for just a moment, OK, that I'm Jesus. We're pretending, amen? Amen. How many can pretend? Guys, are you going to raise your hand? You're terrible, all right? Let's pretend I'm Jesus. What would you think if Jesus showed up Now remember now, in the story, Jesus is on the other side of the treasury. He calls the disciples, come here let me tell you something. You see that little woman over there? She gave two mites. How would he know she gave two mites except he was the son of God? You see those rich guys? They just gave of their abundance. Now what would it be if Jesus showed up today and here's what happened. He gave two dollars. He gave a hundred dollars. He gave two cents. He gave nothing. She gave $60. He gave $90. What if Jesus started walking through and saying, this is what this person gave, this is what this person gave, this is what this person gave, this is what this person gave? That's exactly what Jesus knows. So I like the envelope system. And can I just say this? This is an opinion, OK? So I just want to tell you what's an opinion and what's a Bible verse, OK? From my experience, I have learned that people who do not use the offering, it's not a rule of thumb. But as a general rule, people who do not use that offering envelope, they're not tithing on a regular basis. Because I've had people come to my office, yeah, I just throw, I put my tithe in cash. Now, you, there might be a rare person like that, that does that regularly, and just puts an offering, and you're actually truly tithing. But my experience over the years is this, is that if a person does not use, you say, well, I don't want anybody to know what I give, okay? Can I define that? You're not gonna like me for what I'm about to tell you, okay, because there might be somebody that's really, you're an honest person here, but I want to tell you it's not the norm. Let me define that. I don't want people to know that I'm not tithing. I've heard this one too. I'm giving to God, not to man, so I don't fill out an offering envelope. I want to tell you something, church family. I'm giving to God, I'm not giving to man. I fill out an offering envelope every week. And nobody knows. And I hope you understand my heart this morning. This message, we don't know if you give. I don't know if you give. But God knows if you give. I'm just trying to tell you, God knows the exact penny that you give. So guess what? Just be honest. Do you really think that you're going to get away with it? You know, you get to heaven. Well, I didn't fill an offering envelope. You know, I tipped God. You know, I give him a $5 bill, he'll have a $10 bill here. You know, I kind of tipped him for church, but I didn't really give my tithes and offerings. But you know, he really didn't know about it. Who are you hiding from? We don't matter. This congregation doesn't matter. This pastor doesn't matter whether we know or don't know. You know what matters? God knows what you give. This widow woman in heaven is going to be rewarded by God because she gave her all. And there's a bunch of rich folk that they kind of just tipped God, gave of their abundance, their excess. And they're not going to be rewarded by God. Church family, I'm done this morning, but I'll close with just a couple of statements. But how I see my giving and how he sees my giving can be two different things. Did you hear me this morning? How I see my giving and how he sees my giving can be two different things. You know, at the end of the year, I get a giving statement from Brother Stumpfel, they fill all that out. By the way, you couldn't ask for a better financial officer. Brother Stumpfel, you've been in this, what, were you doing it before I came? So, 30 years probably. Financial, guy's honest. He's the kind of guy that can look somebody in their face and not be thinking about what you're giving. I don't think I could do that. I'm thankful for a man like that. So they fill out the giving statements, and you get a giving statement. I get my giving statement, okay? Church family, if what I make in a year, and all you gotta do is lay your giving statement down next to your W-2, as far as what I made and what I gave, because God already knows that, and you're gonna be able to find out if you're giving. And I wanna tell you what Jesus is looking at. He's not looking at necessarily the amount, because the amount doesn't matter. If you give $5 and that's your tithe, God's pleased with that, okay? You know what God's like? How you give. Who gave? What you gave. God knows it all. I'm glad I don't have to be a millionaire to make God happy to give. I'm glad I can have $100 a week come in, get my $10 and add to that offering, and God's just as happy with me as he is with the white collar worker over there that's put maybe a thousand dollars into the plate. God's just as happy with me as with him, because it's not the amount that I give. It's that I give. Good, God in heaven. All right, church family, I'm gonna pray. Listen, this morning, if you're here this morning and not for sure you're on your way to heaven, this message on giving, do not let it be a deterrent or distraction to the most important thing. The most important thing is you receiving the free gift of eternal life that Jesus loved you and died for you. If you're a church member here this morning, you should have been amen to me the whole time if you're given. If you're a visitor here this morning, we want you to come join. But more important than anything else, Part of my relationship with God is me reading my Bible. Part of my relationship with God is me praying. Part of my relationship with God is me telling people about Jesus Christ. Part of my relationship with God is me going to church. And part of my relationship with God is me giving. He doesn't need my money, He's gone. But if He's got my money, He's got me. Does He have you? That's the question. Would you bow your head and close your eyes this morning?