Thank you for, as has already been prayed, the Sabbath. I thank you, Father, that you have set this time aside week by week, that our souls might be energized, that our time spent with you would recognize that you are God. and that all we have and do comes from you, is for you and to you. I do pray, Father, for this portion of the day where your word is spoken, as we have just sung, that you would enlighten us, open our hearts, encourage us, O God, to follow you in every way that you have designed for each of us in particular. Most of all, Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit would fill us with joy and enthusiasm for your kingdom and for your purposes. We love you, Lord. We thank you for demonstrating your love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to bleed and die for us. We love you, Father, and we want to say thank you by our obedience and the transformation and conforming of our lives to your will. I do pray, Father, that your Holy Spirit would take over and speak to us, give us ears to hear, give me a mouth to speak, and give us your frequency that we might be fully engaged and tuned into you through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and for his sake. Amen. Well, it's good to be back with you. will be in the 12th chapter of Mark. I've decided to bail out of John for this Sunday, and so we'll have to turn to a different book. This passage that we're gonna be looking at is often used as a financial passage. It's the widow's mite, and we'll be starting in verse 41. And he, Jesus, sat down opposite the treasury, and he watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums, and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all of those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had, all she had to live on. And may the Lord give us some new insight into this old and well-rehearsed passage. I want to thank you for praying for me, by the way. I think when I was with you last, I had just come back from California to visit my mom. And what a grace that was, because she did die on the 10th of last month. She managed to die on her birthday. at the age of 96 and I do want to thank you for your love for us and for your prayers. That trip out there certainly confirmed that she knew the Lord and there's no greater joy is there for a Christian when a loved one passes as yours did recently, Mike, your father. to know that they knew him. And I feel badly for those who don't have that affirmation. When we got here this morning, we got here uncharacteristically early. And the doors were locked, but the fans were on. So that was good. Somebody must have creeped in here and gotten everything ready. But as Gwen will tell you, one of my favorite pastimes when I have the time is to rove through old graveyards. I'm the life of the party at most places. But I'm always interested in the oldest ones. And there weren't really, you know, compared to some graveyards, this one had people who were born in the mid-1800s. And a lot of familiar names, I'm sure to you, names that we hear in this community a lot. But coming up, Gwen and I, I use a little shortcut when I get to the top of the hill at Gap, I come back whatever road that is out there to go to Strasburg, and I cut across Hoover Road. A lot of Hoovers are in this graveyard back here. And some of the oldest was a man named Christian and his wife Mary. They were born in the 1840s. And I suspect that it's the same Hoovers that that road is named after. And it gave me a funny sensation because I realized, you know, we're not new here. God has been at work in this community long before we got here. And so our question really is, what is our purpose while we're on this side of the earth? And what is our role in this community? assumption also is, gauging by some of the names on those stones, that there's some rather strong Christians in there. One just declares the gospel, just by saying Jesus Christ died for our sins, that affirmation. And so it taught me that also that there are Christians here in this community that we're trying to reach. And one thought came to mind since I'm with you. I've often think like you guys in terms of how do we reach this community? One seems to be, at least the message I get from this graveyard back here, is that I would try to reach the Christians already that are here. and team up with them in some way. Say, how can we come alongside you towards the goal of reaching this community for Christ? And that's certainly one way would be to identify the Christians who are already here laboring and have a heart for the lost in this community. How many of you live within three miles of this building? Anybody? Well, then I would certainly recommend that. Find someone who's here, because one of the most powerful ways is to have a group of people praying that are here, identify who they are, and maybe even ask if you can start a Bible study in their home if they're not willing to do that. Now, if you meet Christians that are here that are not a part of this congregation, some of them will have a probably different doctrines on the less essentials, and you work together where you can doctrinally, but if they know the Lord, then I would say find out who they are and ask, you know, God has sent a lot of wealth in this congregation and to this community. You would be an asset, a power, a strength, a battery charger to whoever's here who's been praying and living here in this community. and caring about their neighbors for a long time. So anyways, that was just a little advertisement for my graveyard chat. This here, Mark chapter 12, the last four verses deal with this widow. The context is this is probably, as close as I can figure it, this is probably Tuesday of the week that he dies. He's got three more days to live before he's crucified. He has just left what we call today Palm Sunday. And a day has passed, and I wasn't quite sure whether two days had passed or three. So it's maybe Wednesday, but it doesn't seem that the Last Supper is the next day. So my guess is about Tuesday. And if you've heard that term, the perfect storm. The perfect storm is coming together. If you look just back at some of these, look back at chapter 11, verse 27. And they came again to Jerusalem, that's Jesus and his disciples. And as he was walking in the temple, and he is going to spend the rest of 11, all of chapter 12, the beginning of 13, he's going to leave for a little while and come back. He's in the temple in this last week, most of the time that he's there. And it says in the middle of verse 27 that the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him. And they said to him, by what authority? And they challenged him. And we read, if we read just a little before that, they're trying to figure out a way to kill him. It comes out loud and clear. They actually say they're trying to find a way to kill him. And so they're challenging him. They're trying to trip him up. And we have three groups here, the priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees. If you look over in chapter 12, verse 13, No, actually, in the passage we read, we had the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. Here in 1213, we have the Pharisees and a group called the Herodians. People really aren't sure who the Herodians are, but it's pretty clear that they have a sympathy towards the Roman government that's there. They're actually named after the governor who's in charge. They're friendly with the Roman powers. They're Herodians. And normally, the Pharisees and Herodians do not get along. Pharisees would like to be free of Roman rule. Herodians are, if not complicit with them, highly favorable toward them, that they're even known by Herod's name as a group. He has an encounter in verse 28 of chapter 12 with one of the scribes. And actually this guy gets commended by the Lord. And Jesus says in verse 34, you're not far from the kingdom of God. But we see again in verse 38 that Jesus begins his teachings with beware of the scribes. So here he's just commended an individual. scribe, telling him he's not far from the kingdom of God. But Jesus never uses flattery for any group. And he will not use flattery towards us, even Christians, on the day of judgment. Second Corinthians 5.10 says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account for the things we did in our lives, whether good or bad. So even Christians will be facing Jesus Christ not for condemnation The purchase of his blood has already been secured for you, but you will still give an account for the things we did. And this story of the widow's might, to me, Jesus, he's not condemning people who don't give as much as she does. He's not even doing a teaching so much as he's giving an observation, a principle, if you can, of heaven, of thinking like heaven. Let's look at that again. He sits down opposite the treasury and watches the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums, and a poor widow comes and puts in two smaller copper coins. These are called leptas. It's actually a Jewish coin. It's, if not the smallest, the smallest denomination that the Jews had produced. A couple of them didn't even make, and in the original language, a quadrantes, which is a fraction of a denarius. We don't have to get hung up on exactly how much this is. Whatever it was she had, it was a little bit, and whatever what it was worth, she gave all of it. So the point is, is that this poor widow gave what percentage of her finances? 100%. That's key to remember. Now if Jesus could even identify the coins that she is giving in the box, he's got to be fairly close to the box. Which means if he can see not only the people but how much they give, the people can see Jesus. And many with a large amount of finances or a healthy bank account, Notice that he's there, and he's a pretty well-known rabbi, even though the forces now of darkness are coming, and he's just a few days away from the crucifixion. They're aware that he can see what they're giving, and so they throw in large amounts. This woman is described as a poor widow. She's poor on two accounts. She's poor financially and she's a widow. Now there were some rich widows in Jerusalem at the time, but this woman is not one of them. She not only does not have a steady income, she has no one that can provide for her. So she's a double poor woman. She's poor financially and she has no one to provide for her. But she comes and she gives all of it. Now some commentators get hung up on how much the amount was in today's standards. Someone figured out $1.88. I can't be dogmatic about that. I certainly wouldn't suggest you go down the street and start the church of the $1.88. But it's at least not a lot. And so I would think that the wealthy people, I'm not on the thing, am I? Am I now? I'm sorry, how we doing now? So you've got part of the message anyway. I would suspect that they are not only aware that Jesus is watching, but they are pretty proud of themselves for the amount they're giving. Spurgeon, on this particular woman, he says, Jesus teaches us here that Christ is not interested in the amount that we give in the box. He's interested in the amount that we have left after we give. I thought that was interesting. How much of her wealth did she have after she gave? None of it. I was looking up people that are well known for having a lot of money, and I looked up Bill Gates. He's the one that comes to my mind first. He's the founder of Microsoft. He's got a lot of money, and it's still growing. As of the latest account that I could get, he has a mere $82 billion in his bank account. Now, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation fights worldwide poverty by giving away billions of dollars every year. Last year, they gave $4 billion. Brothers and sisters, that's commendable. Praise God that there were people who were able to give that much. But it figures out to a little less than 5% of his total wealth. He gave out of his abundance. I thank the Lord. Jesus is not condemning these people for giving large amounts. That's not the point. He's talking about the level of engagement. And that's why I want to say today that this is not a message on money. It's more than that. What was the underlying principle? Again, Jesus didn't say, give a lot, give this much, she gave 100%. He's saying that she gave all that she had. And the principle here seems to be the level of engagement, the percentage of interest that God is receiving on his investment. It's not by accident that this chapter begins with the parable of the talents. how well are we stewarding, giving back to the Lord in that sense. But the idea here that she is divesting herself of her security, her dependence, she cannot know where the next lepta even is coming from. And so the idea here is to what level are we engaged in the kingdom of God? One of the verses that we taught our son when he was about 15, was that whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto man. Colossians 3.23. That passage, chapter 3 of Colossians, begins with, since then you have been raised with Christ Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ. And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Paul is often, he gives us a theology, sets his writings with a theological base, usually declaring what God has accomplished for us, and then there's usually a reciprocal response. What do I do because he's done this? How do I spend my life, so to speak, spend my time, whatever it is? To what level do I engage back in the kingdom of God? Jesus said, where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also. This poor widow gave everything she had. The Bible also says that I didn't put it. If the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. That's in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. If the willingness is there, some scriptures say if the readiness is there, if the desire to give is there, your gift is acceptable, God, not based on the amount of it. but on the desire of your heart to give, the engagement of it. In fact, it goes on to say in the same chapter, 2 Corinthians 8, that God loves a cheerful giver. The Greek word there is, I wrote it down, not that clever, hilaros. We get the word hilarious from it. So if we thought of it that way, God loves a hilarious giver. You want to know how much you should give? I would say give to the point where you can give hilariously. And once it begins to pinch you, I'd say, well, maybe you'd better step back. It's the willingness. It's the engagement with the things of God and His kingdom. Some people say that Christians are so heavenly minded they're no earthly good. I say it's just the opposite. The more heavenly minded we are, the more earthly good we are. There's a desire to give back, to engage those things which Christ himself is interested in. I wrote down a few areas that we could think about. I just grabbed four or five. It's not exhaustive. But because this is not merely a financial thing, we use money because it kind of translates into things that we can understand. Money is power. Money has the ability to buy the things that we want. And so money is often referred to. But it's only a tool. It's not the money itself. It's that disproportionate dependence upon it, that disproportionate love for it that is criticized in the Bible. This woman is not so attached that she cannot give it all up. She's demonstrating a willingness to engage the kingdom of God so much that all she has can go toward it. Jesus isn't asking everybody to give 100% of their finances. He was very pleased when Zacchaeus said, I'll give half my money away or whatever it was that he gave. It's the willingness, it's the desire to be on God's wavelength, on His page, and say, Father, I want to engage this kingdom. Here's an opportunity to give of myself what you have given me. What do we have that God has not given us? It's that desire to engage, to be interested in the things that God is interested in. And what is God interested in? People. It's people He's interested in. He came to die for people, not angels, not the subhuman creatures, not even this beautiful world. He came to die for people, and he uses people to engage. Let me name just a few of these. Proverbs 20, 29, the very first part of it says, the glory of young men is their strength. So what can a young man give? Energy. Gwen and I just taught a week of vacation Bible school. And our job at VBS, and there were like 100 volunteers. This was massive undertaking. 160 kids came. I'd say a third of them were unchurched. We had the four to six-year-olds, 60 of them in one room. Now, we did have some help. They broke the kids up into groups of about 10 or 12. And there was a teenager and an adult with each group of 10 or 12. But all 60 were in the same room for the teaching time. We learned a lot. I learned why wives are so happy to see their husbands come home just to have someone to talk to. These are like, they are on their own wavelength. But they are interested. I love their enthusiasm. By the way, do you know where the word enthusiasm comes from? Its original meaning is from a Greek word that means entheos, which is in God. Isn't it interesting that the word we have for enthusiasm has for its root word being in God? Well, these kids were enthusiastic, and the theme all week was the Bible. What a topic to teach little kids. The Bible all week long, what a joy it was. And by the end of the week, we got little blessings like little kids coming up to you and saying, I know you and giving you a hug. That was worth its weight in gold. But it was the energy level that they had. I felt like I was telling another leader, I said, you know, if you could corral the energy of a four to six year old and put it in a battery, I mean, you would be rich. Their energy is unbelievable. Try keeping up with one of these kids doing exactly what they do. You'll be worn out in half an hour, if you make half an hour. So the glory of young men is their strength. Our grandson, my son took my grandson over to his mother-in-law's to teach him how to use the lawn mower. He's 10 years old and so he's going to start mowing the mother-in-law's lawn. Her husband died last year. That's the glory of young men is their strength. I once saw an Amish boy and girl, they don't have the motorized one, they have the ones that just you push. Well, and they were no bigger than six or seven years old. One had a rope on the lawnmower, and the other one was pushing it. And they were going up a hill with it. That's energy. Glory of young men is their strength. There was a time when I used to be the first one to help people move. I loved hauling the furniture out, but I especially loved putting it on the truck in just all the right ways. I was the slot finder. But I can't do that. My next door neighbor died and his family came and moved all their stuff out of the house two weeks ago. My inclination was to go help them. I'm going to tear a muscle. I'm going to hurt my back. I can't do that anymore. But what I did do is loan him some dishwasher soap. That's the most I could do at this point. The next one is time. Time. Perhaps the most precious resource we have. Time. When someone gives you their time, they gave you the most precious thing they can give you. The time you spend at the crisis pregnancy center. That's a gift. Whenever you visit someone, whenever you're helping someone, they're giving you something they can never recover in this life. And so when someone gives you their time, be aware that the clock is ticking on what they just gave you. It's the most precious gift you can give. We can recover money. You cannot recover your time. And so when you spend an afternoon on a Sabbath with your friends, that's one of the best investments that you can make, isn't it? Just to be together. Time. But which percent? And I've often used words like, in my mind I'm saying this. With my words, I might say, all our time is God's time, isn't it? But in my mind, I'm thinking, well, this is my time, and this is God's time. But is that really true? Is there any part of my time on this earth that is my time, once I've become a Christian? I spent enough time in the past, I think it was Peter, doing the foolish things, taking part in the world. I gave the devil a lot of time. I want to give the Lord more time. In fact, one will tell you one of my prayers after I became a Christian is I would like to give the Lord as much time as I gave the devil plus one more year, just so that the scales could be balanced in favor of the Lord. Well, that was reached when I was 63 and God has given me an additional 10 years. I thank the Lord for that. I thank that I can leave this earth saying, Father, I gave you more time than I gave the devil. Now, it was all his timing. He came into my life and saved me, woke my heart up on his time schedule. It's the same with you and I. We did not find God. He found us. He wasn't the one that was lost. The Lord found you and so I would say at the time that he has done a work in your life, this time, to what degree, getting back to the widow's mite, am I engaging my time with God? I wish I could tell you it was a hundred percent engaged with God. God isn't saying that we have to be working all the time. There is a time to rest, there's a time to play, there's a time to study, there's a time to Meditate. There's a time for everything, but the question is not again the amount that we're giving. It's what is left in terms of my engagement level. Am I giving whatever I'm doing to the Lord? Whatever you do, whatever you do, whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men. Moses wrote one psalm, Psalm 90. He said, Lord, teach us to number our days aright that we might gain a heart of wisdom. Now, I would have interpreted that as, let me be wise so that I can number my days aright. But it doesn't say that. First, Lord, teach me to number my days aright. In other words, make the best use of my time. Is this the best thing I can give you with my time? Sometimes he sits us down because he wants us to rest. He leads us beside quiet waters, makes us lie down. There's a time for that. The question is, can I lie down 100% engaged with that time of rest? Sometimes when I have time off, I waste it with silly occupations. One of the things I do a lot is I play solitaire on the computer. It's just such a veg out thing. No brain power. Click, click, click, click. Next thing you know, half an hour, 45 minutes of precious time has been wasted and did not engage the kingdom of God either. It didn't help me, and it didn't help the kingdom of God. So again, I ask myself, am I engaged on every level of my life? And that's just time. A Bible study in Kinzer. No one raised their hand that lives within three miles of here. Well, it's gonna be costly to engage this community with a Bible study, a weekly Bible study. But I say, that's just a suggestion. I do know that a Bible study is effective. It's a place where people who have questions can go. Not everybody's gonna walk inside the door here because they see this as a religious thing. Now there will be a few people that come in, but we can't plan an evangelistic strategy on the Venus flytrap. We gotta get out there. You know what a Venus flytrap does? A fly comes along and if it happens to land in here, we'll get it. But in most cases, the flies are out there. So I would say think about the investment of time in an evangelistic Bible study. We held one in our home for 17 years every Wednesday night. Every Wednesday night. Now to that, two churches that are still going today are in that town where the Bible study was held. Why? Because the people I rubbed up against, my oil lady was there, the hardware store guy was there, whoever I'm running across. But if you don't live here, you can't engage them. And so if there's a weekly event where people who do live here can bring people, their friends, to study, I would say that's a worthwhile time investment. What if we moved here? What a 100% engagement that would be. I would ask a question. Are you here originally because you wanted to reach Kinzer and its surrounding area? Or were you here because this building became available? Doesn't matter which one it is. You are here now. And you're not here by accident. Do you think this building came available By whimsy? By accident? Or do you think there was a design that this building should become available to a Bible-believing, gospel-preaching, Jesus-loving, fire-breathing, nostril-flaring bunch of Christians should wind up in Kinzer with this kind of strength? No. Whatever the original reason it got us here, you are not here by accident. Now it's time to engage. To what level? It's what's left in the tank once you give it. Let me start another one. This one is actually a fruit of the spirit, but it's one of those fruit of the spirit that engages others. If you think of the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5, 22 and 23, somewhere in there, love engages others. Joy engages you. Peace engages you. Love, joy, peace. Patience engages you. Benefits others, but engages you. Love, joy, peace, patience. Faithfulness, gentleness. Love, joy, peace, patience. Kindness, that's the one I want to bring out. Kindness is often translated mercy in the scriptures, or loving kindness. Kindness is something we give to someone else. I would put a circle around that. If you're a body of believers, I'd say be kind to one another first of all. It is so easy, brothers and sisters, to be critical. It's the easiest thing in the world to throw a stone at somebody else. But to be kind is a gift. It's also a fruit of the spirit. If you're doing well with the Lord, you will be kind to others. It flows, doesn't it? It flows to others. Louis Palau, The South American evangelist once said, be kind to one another because everyone is fighting big battles. I think I shared that with you before. Everyone is fighting big battles. If you were to live in another person's life for just a week, you would never treat that person the same way that you did before that again. Everyone is fighting something. We're all struggling with something. Be kind to one another. is exhibited in a benefit to somebody else. There's a group of inmates in one of the prisons that I go into. They actually, a group of Christians on this particular block, now a prison has a lot of cell blocks, so you're doing your time on a particular cell block with the same people, and you don't get to choose who they're going to be. And when a new guy comes in, because this is a block where they're waiting to go to trial, so it's new people coming in, they're scared to death, they've just been arrested, they've never been to prison, they don't know what they're facing, and they're afraid. The group of Christians on that block get together a little bag of soup, extra socks, some noodles, and they bring it to the person who just came in. What's happened there? That act of kindness not only has met their some material needs that they may not have together yet, but it sure did a whole lot in terms of making them less afraid. Not only have they walked into a place where they've heard all these horror stories, here is 10, 11, 12 men who have chipped in from their own supplies that they had to purchase to give to this perfect stranger. That act of kindness has almost every time wound up with more men in the Bible study. Because I don't get up on the cell block in that particular place. They have to come down to the classroom where I am, which is just below their cell block. So unless they're bringing people, my Bible study isn't going to grow. God has maintained over the last, been there eight years. No, almost 10 years. A steady level of believers and seekers who come to the Lord and they in turn become the same way. Kindness. How about if someone does come in here? This is a small church. It's easy to feel conspicuous. Wouldn't that be true? If you walked in here and you didn't know anybody, And if no one's greeting you, you're really going to feel out of place. Gwen and I go to a fairly large church. Our son doesn't go there. He says it's too big for him. But it's the same problem there. With a large church, everybody thinks everybody's paying attention to everybody else. But what they're doing is just flocking to each other. They haven't seen each other all week. So the young people see their friends and they're chatting it up. And the older people are talking their highly spiritual stuff and all this stuff. And the newcomer is not recognized. It's the people who have their antenna up for somebody. And you know what? It's so big that I can introduce myself to someone who's been coming for 20 years. Hey, you're new here, aren't you? Well, 20 years. But I don't care. And now I say to them, I know you've probably been coming here 20 years, but I don't know you. And I reach out my hand. That's an act of kindness. You know what I do in the prison? Walking down the hallway, I think I've told you, they call them tiers. And here they come, these tough looking guys, and everybody's got a stony face. I smile. I grin. I hold out my hand. Hey, Clayton, how are you doing? Of course, I don't know their name yet, but I'll tell you what, a smile, a greeting, and a handshake that's being offered, I have never yet seen where that stony exterior doesn't crumble. What have we said in that? Just a nod of the head. How are you doing? How are you? My name's Lenny. I'm one of them smiley-faced Christians that comes in here every week. That's what I tell them. Right away, I've identified myself. Oh, he's one of those smiley-faced Christians. Well, them smiley-faced Christians do do that. They're always introducing themselves. We can do that even with strangers. Gwen and I are old people. You see old people coming out of the store, hold the door for them. You'll always get, oh, you're a good kid. It's kindness. You can do it for people that you don't even know. What about when you ever slow down driving and there's someone that's trying to get into a heavy line of traffic and you just stop out of the kindness of your heart because if you're spirit filled, kindness is one of the fruit of the spirit. And you just kind of stop and you let them in and they wave at you. They can't see you through the glass, but you feel good about yourself. Now, once they're on the road, They're on their own. I have a limit to that. But the Bible says even people you don't know. Jesus says when you give a dinner or a banquet, don't invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors. Otherwise they'll invite you in return and you'll be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed since they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Your Heavenly Father sees everything you're doing. That day of accounting is coming. To what degree can I surrender my life today? What good deed can I do today? Do you ever wake up thinking that? I'd like to wake up today, what good deed can I do today? The old Puritans used to wake up saying that. What good thing can I do? What it does is it makes your sagging antenna kind of perk up saying, and you're more aware of situations. What good thing can I do today? It's a great way to live. Lord, I want to engage you. I don't want anything left behind. Another one is your presence. In our VBS instructions, one of the suggestions it had for the leaders was three words. Be all there. Be all there. It's giving 100%, in other words, get your head in the game. Do you ever, when you're on your computer, when it freezes up, there's this, now I'm not a computer geek, but I do know that when my computer freezes up, there's this little These two little keys all delete something that I can hit. And it brings up Task Manager. And Task Manager is this neat little thing that shows me where CPUs, is that right? How many CPUs are engaged in what I'm doing, probably what froze it up. And it tells me I've got a lot of percentage of use of these CPUs. I wish I'd have thought of an acronym for CPU. But when I see a lot of activity in one place, I can hit End Task. And voila! Everything shuts down, I can start over. I can be speaking with my wife and she can know that I have very few CPUs engaged in a conversation. It's like just the opposite. I don't know what it is, but she'll look at me and I'm going, uh-huh, uh-huh. And she'll go, you're not really here. Probably I had nine CPUs going. What she wanted was like 80, 90. Be all there. When you're talking to someone, do you ever talk to someone in a crowded place, and you're talking to them, and someone else goes by, and they're always going, and then someone else goes by, and they're telling you, yeah, I was in the dentist's office, and it was terrible. Hey, Joe, what's happening? Be all there. Even if it means you don't turn and look, keep your eyes on that person. If you do get interrupted, fine. that wasn't on you just say hey you know and sometimes a person will give you the grace and pull out but i would say whenever you're talking to someone especially if it's about something serious be all there there's actually a name for this uh... this idea of being there it's called the ministry of presence christian counselors will use it it's the idea of just your being there is a ministry did you know that uh... for someone that's great have you ever noticed when you come to uh... like a funeral where someone has lost someone and you know well the survivor. Have you ever noticed that all you've got to do is show up and that person breaks down in tears and just gives you a hug and there's a communication going on simply because of who you are? Isn't that true? Not a word spoken, but your presence breaks through all their barriers and they can feel what they're feeling with you. That's the ministry of presence. Prison ministry is the same thing. I often hear prison ministry volunteers say, you know, half this job is just showing up. It's true. God will use your just being there. Half this job is just showing up. God will do, by your presence, you send a message. Prisoners, even those who are against the scriptures, even those who are in some other kind of religion and are hostile to Christianity, there is in prison a begrudging respect for the fact that you came into that world. And I will say this, their religious leaders aren't in there, not as often as the Christians are. Just being there, a ministry of presence. You read in the paper, someone that you know is going through a hard time, show up. You say, well, it might be the wrong time. I say, show up. Just being there. The ministry here in Kinzers is going to be the same thing. Show up. Just be here. Another one is experience. That's the second half of Proverbs 20, 29. The first half was the glory of young men is their strength. Gray hair is the splendor of the old. So what do the gray-headed people bring? their experience, whether it was good or whether it was bad. If it was good, I'd say pass it on. If it was bad, tell them, don't do what I did. Either way, there's something to living 70 years. We've experienced a little bit of life. Now, one of our problems is we can tell you our experiences a little too long and a little too often. There's a time to speak and a time to remain silent. But I can say One of the most important passages in the scriptures that Gwen and I ever encountered in our marriage. I can say to a young married couple, don't let the sun go down on your anger. That simple verse was revolutionizing. We were not Christians when we got married and we were on the brink of divorce. And we just recently celebrated our 45th anniversary by the grace of God. Don't let the sun go down on your anger is something I would pass along. In other words, if you've been stewing all day long and you're both in bed together and one of you knows who's the wrong one, the other one just needs to extend the grace and wait. And it was usually me. Gwen would just wait. Finally, I would say, because that principle was there, I'd apologize. Because we were not going to, before the Lord, let the sun go down on our anger. Revolutionizing. What else would I pass along? That the sun shines most of the time. You will find difficulties in your life, heartbreaking times in your life, long seasons of sorrow, difficulty, frustration, maybe even despair, but I will say this. God, your God, is faithful, and the sun will shine most of the time in your life because his grace will be there for you. I would say don't worry about tomorrow, but trust that His grace will be there when you get there. One of the ways the devil eats our lunch is he has you worrying about something that isn't here yet. Did you ever notice, for those of you that struggle with anxiety once in a while, you're always worried about something that isn't here yet. You're thinking of, what if this happens? And the reason the devil eats our lunch is because you don't have God's grace yet, because you're not there yet. And I will also say this as a little bit of experience. 80% of the things I worried about in life never came to pass. Eighty percent, maybe more. And when it did come to pass, God's grace somehow got us through it. So don't be worrying about tomorrow. You've got enough to worry about today. And I have that from someone far, far more superior in thought and wisdom than me. Jesus said every day has enough troubles of its own. So that would be, I could obviously add more, but I'm going to heed my own advice and not talk too long. The last one I would say is knowledge of the gospel, the greatest gift of all. Peter and John, was it, approaching the temple healed that lame man and remember he thought he was going to get a gift from them and they said, silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I thee. Brothers and sisters, you have gifts that nobody else has. I see them in you, those I'm getting to know. Different gifts. The Bible says we administered God's grace in its various forms. That verse is 1 Peter 4.10. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. How many of you can remember who it was that shared the gospel with you first? I know, Ray, you did when sharing about that guy. Do you remember the people who shared with you? You always do. You bless their name until the day you die. We still think of Doug and Bev, this dear pastor and his wife. We owe them giving us the message. They didn't save us, only God can do that, but they gave us the message. Thank the Lord for the people who took the risk to speak the word of God into your life. You'll never know what sharing the gospel does with someone. You'll never know what your presence means. You'll never know what your kindness has done. You'll never know what the investment of your time has done. Does anybody know the name Edward Kimball? I think it was Edward Kimball. Yeah, Edward Kimball. Edward Kimball was a Sunday school teacher. in near Somerville, Massachusetts, just north of Boston. And there was a teenager showing up in his Sunday school class who didn't know the Lord and really wasn't showing a whole lot of interest. But he knew that that teenager worked for his uncle at a shoe shop in downtown Boston. So he took his lunch hour one day and he went down and found that child and started talking to him. And some of you are putting together who this is that he talked to. The young man's name was D.L. Moody, Dwight L. Moody. And he prayed to receive Christ when that Sunday school teacher showed up at his work one day. And D.L. Moody became one of the greatest evangelists in our country, not only here but in England as well. There was a guy named, a farm boy named Albert McMeekin. Does that ring a bell? He worked at a farm that was owned by his friend's father. And coming to a local town was a series of revival meetings for one week, being preached by a man named Mordecai Ham. Mordecai Ham. Now, we don't remember that, but do you know that in his day he was well-known nationally as one of the greatest evangelists? How quickly we forget. But Mordecai Ham was going to give a week-long series of evangelistic messages, and Albert McMacon, was a Christian, and he wanted to bring his friends, so he invited his friend Bill to come to this series of messages. And his friend was kind of laughing at the whole thing, he wasn't into that at all. But his friend Bill went to those evangelistic messages, and he listened to Mordecai Ham, and Billy Graham gave his life to Jesus Christ that week. And Billy Graham is a name we remember, right? We know that. Tom Phillips. He was actually not a farm boy. He was a CEO of Raytheon Corporation up in the Boston area. A high-powered friend of his got into some legal trouble, so he went and spent time with him and met with him regularly. The other guy was going to court for criminal charges of abusing his power. He gave him a copy of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, and the man that was that high-powered guy who's in trouble now had an intellectual bent, and so he read it, and through the reading of that book, gave his life to Christ. His name was Chuck Colson. Brothers and sisters, we don't know. Our names will not be remembered, but maybe the person that we share with will be remembered. And even if they aren't, they're being remembered in the most important place of all. Oh, and I'll close with this. We can give nothing away. We can never engage fully. Give it all. Whatever it is. We can't do all the things at the same time. But whatever activity it is that we're engaging, engage it with a whole heart. And you will receive a return. Not only in heaven, but here. Jesus says this, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age, homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields, along with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life. Gwen and I have met friends, some of them fathers, brothers, sisters through prison ministry that we would have never met otherwise. I really believe it's the reason I'm here today, isn't it? I got to know Chuck, Chuck got to know me. I'm here this morning because of really engaging my life in a ministry that isn't specifically here. You are part of the brothers and sisters. that God has given us. He sits us with the princes of his people, it says. And that's who you are. I love you, brothers and sisters. I know God has something powerful planned for you. And I would say this. Rather than the amount you give, look back and realize that it was all of it. I speak to myself as well as to you. May the Lord use us. Oh, Father, may you use us to engage you wholly with all our hearts. with all our souls, with all our strength, and with all our might. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.