Psalm 26 this morning. Psalm 26. We good? There we go. Little blessings in our life. This has absolutely nothing to do with the message. But Brother Charlie's smiling at me because he knows. I was stressing about something the last couple of days. I thought I was going to have to leave music. I don't mind doing just about anything. Music is not. necessarily one of those things that I love to do and I didn't really wasn't looking forward to leading music and so I had it all ready. I was ready to go and this morning James came into my office and he said about how he was leading music and I was like oh lord thank you so much. Just, yeah, you know what? Y'all should thank the Lord, too, for that one. I'm telling you. But it was just one little burden off of me that I'm quite happy about. All right, let's go to the Lord in prayer this morning. Father, I do thank you for this time that we could come and open your word. And Father, I do ask now that you set me aside. I pray that you just help me to only say what you have for us this morning. I pray that you just use me this morning to get across what you have for us. Father, I pray that you help us not to just hear your words this morning. Help us not to hear the message from you, but help us to take it and apply it to our lives. Help us not to just leave. leave church and leave the message here. Help us to take it and actually have it change our lives. Father, again, I do ask that you just be with Pastor and his family. I pray that you just give them comfort. Father, if there's anything between you and I now, I pray that you cover that under the blood. Set me aside and help me to speak for you this morning. In your name, amen. One thing I did forget to mention in the announcements is, please come back tonight. Pastor is going to be live streaming again. He has a special message that he wanted to share with us tonight, and I think I'm not gonna say because I I'm not a hundred cent sure I read it right what he said but he does a special message that he wants wants to share so please come back tonight and Be with us at 6 what's not 6 o'clock tonight. Sorry 6 o'clock tonight All right. Let's let's be in a front Psalms 26 verse 2 it says examine me O Lord prove me try my reins in my heart and Now a couple, am I really loud? Is it kind of echoing in here? Is it all right? Okay, because it seemed really echoey up here. As I was reading this psalm recently, I got to verse two, and it made me stop and think for a minute. I had to reread it a couple times, and I sat there asking myself, would I be able to ask this of the Lord? Even more so than would I be able to ask this, would I want to hear the answer? Let me reread it again. It says, examine me, O Lord, and prove me. Try my reins and my heart. And so I looked at this and I thought, you know, examine me, O Lord, prove me, try my reins, my inner parts, my inner thoughts, my heart. Now, I want each of us to keep this verse in our mind this morning. We're going to come back to it in a minute. And my question to us this morning is, would we be able to ask this of the Lord? Is there something in our life that we would say, Lord, am I holding this back from you? Is there something that I'm holding back from God that I just won't let him have? This morning, I want to start by looking at a story. It's probably a pretty familiar story to most of us. We're going to come back to Psalms in a minute, but if you can turn with me to the book of Mark. We're going to be in Mark 12. Mark 12 verse 41 is where we're going to be this morning. It says in verse 41, it says, 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 that which hath cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all, and she had even all her living. So we've probably heard this story before, we've seen this story. In verse 41, we see Jesus is sitting by the treasury, and he's watching people cast in money. And he's noticing that all these rich people, these wealthy people are coming in, and they're casting in what would seem, on the outside, as quite a bit of money. And on the surface, that's what it looked like. You know, you have them putting in a lot of money into this treasury, and he notices, verse 42, it says, and there came a certain poor widow. And she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. Now, this widow woman, she cast in two mites, which make a farthing. And so I looked up what this is. And mites were the smallest copper coins at that time, not hardly anything. And so I said, well, then what's a farthing? Well, a farthing, from what I was able to find, is a fourth of a penny. And think about how little that is, a fourth of a penny. It took two mites to equal a fourth of a penny. Now, back in Connecticut, we had something I really didn't like at all, but we had a recycle program. And so when you bought a bottle of water, or you bought a can of soda, or you bought whatever plastic bottle or can, you paid a tax on it. for a nickel and you could return it, you can get five cents back, you get your five cents back. Most people didn't bother, they would drink in their soda as they drive, throw it out the window, whatever. I could literally walk down the street, I could find an empty soda can, I'd go to the store, I could cash it in and I could get more money than what this widow had in her possession at that time. She had less than a penny, I could get a nickel back from a can. Now, my son Eric collects coins. And right before I moved here, he got some coins in. And one of the coins he decided to buy at this time was actually a mite. It's a widow's mite, obviously not this widow's mite. But supposedly, he bought it from a reputable coin dealer. And it's supposedly authentic. It's dated from 103 to 76 BC time period. And he showed it to me. He says, look, I bought this mite. And I'm looking at this. And I'm like, I don't know what he paid for it. But it's this little tiny, like a scrap of metal. It's so small. And you look at it and you would probably, if you saw it, you would think it's absolutely nothing. It's insignificant. It's something that we would just, we just, you know, probably would never even look. If we saw it on the ground, we'd walk right over and never even give it a thought. And I thought about how tiny this was, but how important it was. And we're going to see why. It says in verse 43, It says, Jesus 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 cast into the treasury. Now, on the surface, obviously, most people say, well, how could that possibly be? You know, all these people, these rich people are throwing in lots of money, and this poor widow, she only threw in this little tiny bit of money. It really wasn't anything. But we see that it was the attitude, it was the heart, and so she gave everything she had at that time. And with other people just giving a little bit of the extra that they had. I think a lot of people would probably be standing there, maybe there was other people standing there thinking, Well, I threw in all this money, but she gave this little tiny piddly little two mites. It's nothing. Trying to make themselves look better, trying to make themselves feel better about themselves. But really what it came down to is it's not the much, it's the how. See, they gave a lot. But she gave all. It's how she gave. She gave with her whole heart. She put everything into it, verse 44. It says, and they did cast in their abundance. It was just extra. It wasn't a sacrifice to them. It didn't really matter. But she, of her wants, did cast in all that she had. She gave everything. It says that it was even her living. It was all that she had. You know, I think about what that must have meant to her as she stood there and she had those two mites trying to decide, this is my living. This is everything I have. You know, here's an interesting thing. What did she have? She had two mites, right? She could have put one in and kept one, right? She could have been like everybody else. She had two. She didn't have to put them both in. But she says, you know what? I'm going to give with my entire heart. I'm going to give all of what I have. She had the same choice that everybody else had. But she gave everything. She gave with her entire heart. Now, if you look at that, talk about sacrificial giving. Gave up her entire living right there. Listen, I'm not, I'm not talking about money. Actually, I am talking about money, but as an illustration, just as an illustration, I'm using money. But it's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about what are we holding back from God? What is that thing that we hold back? You know, maybe it is our money. I don't know. Maybe it's our time. You know, God, I can't give you all my time. Maybe it's our talents, our kids, our family, our job. What is that thing that you hold back from the Lord where you don't give him 100%? You know, does he have 100% of you? This lady, this poor widow, she gave everything, two mites. It was all she had left, her entire living, and she gave it to the Lord. You know, one thing I found interesting, I was thinking about this story. By her giving everything, she had no choice anymore but to count on God to provide for all her needs. You realize that? See, when we hold on to something, when we hold on to that thing, whatever it is, we're not fully trusting in God. She had no other choice at that point. I gave my all to the Lord. Now, Lord, it's up to you to take care of me. Lord, it's up to you to take care of everything I have, every need I have now. We'll look at another story, somebody else who gave it all. If you're right there in Mark, turn over a couple chapters or a couple books to the book of John. John 12. Another familiar story to us, most of us in here. John 12, verse 1 says this. We still got some pages to turn, I'll give you a second. John 1 12 says this, this is in Jesus. And Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus, which was dead, had been raised, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and Martha served, and Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment, of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor? This he said, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had held the bag and bear that which was therein. So we see again, we see somebody that's giving something. We see in verse 2, we see Martha. Martha's preparing the meal. She's giving of her time. She's giving something for the Lord. She's preparing this meal. But I want us to look at Mary now. We know the story. We look at Mary and it says that, I think Mary gave all. She had a pound of spikenard, very costly. Judas says that, why didn't we sell it? We could have sold it for 300 pence, 300 denarii, which was about a year's wages. We could have sold this. We know Judas was just being greedy. But the cross-reference to this part of the story I want to see is Mark 14.3. We won't turn there, but it says that she broke the box. She broke the box. So she had this box of ointment. She broke it and she anointed Jesus with this. It doesn't say that she dabbed her finger in and put a little bit on. It doesn't say she sprinkled a little bit on here. It says she broke the box. Once it was broken, that was it. It's not going back, it's done. I'm gonna have to use all of this now. She was committed, she gave her all. Not only did she break the box and use that costly ointment to anoint the feet of Jesus, but she wiped his feet with her hair. Not a rag, not a towel, herself. Her person, her hair. She held nothing back. So again, my question to us is, what are we holding back from the Lord? What keeps us from giving everything we have to God? You know, I said it's not about what we do, it's about how. I think it comes down to this. We know Proverbs 3, 5, it says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lead not to thine own understanding. You know, my question to us is, is it because we haven't given the Lord all our heart this morning? Is it that He doesn't have our entire heart? Because listen, if He had our whole heart, a hundred percent, He'd have everything else too, wouldn't He? See, we hold back because we haven't given Him our entire heart. You know, but Lord, if I give my tithe, if I give my money, then I only have 90% or I won't have all of it. You know, can I can I remind us this morning? God doesn't need our money He doesn't need our money. He spoke the world into existence Why do we think God needs our money? He doesn't he wants he was part of a fellowship with him. He wants it He if you look at 2nd Corinthians 2nd Corinthians verse 9 2 Corinthians 9 verse 7, it says, every man according as he hath purposed in his hearts, so let him give, not grudgingly or out of necessity, but for God loveth the cheerful giver. God doesn't need us, he wants us, and it shows where our heart is at. Lord, what is my job? I can't give you my job, Lord. I can't give that part up. You know, I'm gonna be honest with you, I can relate to this one. When I decided to come here, it was very hard for me not to lean to my own understanding. I'll be honest. I was like, Lord, in my minds, I'm going to take a pay cut. Lord, I have a 401k, Lord. I have nine weeks of vacation time. I have holidays off. And so it's everything you do to try to fight. And listen, I'm not saying that in a bragging way. I'm saying that as I understand it's a struggle sometimes with our job. You know, Lord, I can't go Sunday night because I got to work. I get overtime, I get time and a half on Sunday. Lord, I can't make it. Are you giving him your all? Does he have your whole heart? What are you holding back from God? Is it your job? Is it your time? Lord, I'll give you Sunday morning, Lord. Sunday morning church, I am there, I am faithful. Sunday school, Sunday school's a little early. I gotta sleep in a little bit. Listen, if anybody needs extra beauty sleep, it's me, and I can make it to Sunday school. Listen, Lord, I can't come back Sunday night. Well, I could as long as my team's not playing football. If my team's playing football, I'm not gonna make it Sunday night, Lord, but I'll get you next week. Listen, does the Lord have our time? Because He doesn't have our heart. Does He have our kids? Lord, I'll give you my kids, I'll give you my family, but Lord, I don't want them to be a pastor or a missionary somewhere. You can have my kids as long as they stay right close to me. As long as they stay right here, Lord, I don't want them to have to go far away. Maybe the God just wants them to be a good carpenter, a good plumber, a good electrician, a good nurse, whatever. Just a good Christian. He's not necessarily gonna send them away to Africa. That's always the first thing we think. If I dedicate my kid to the Lord, he's gonna send them to Africa, I'll never see him again. Let me remind you, you know what, if that is where the Lord has them to go, it's gonna be the best thing for them. But we wanna hold on to it. We want to hold on to that, whatever that is, our talents, whatever it is. What are you holding back this morning? What is that thing where you say, you know what, Lord, I'll give you some, but Lord, I can't give you all. I can't give you my whole heart this morning. If I do, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to give up. my money, my job, my time, my kids, my family. I'm gonna have to give that up. Does the Lord have your whole heart this morning? Go back with me to Psalms 26. This is where I wanted to be. You know, keep in mind those stories, that lady, the poor widow woman that gave all she had, those two mites, and Mary that broke that box, she was holding nothing back, it's all gonna be used. Psalm 26, verse two. This is why we started this morning. I told you when I read these verses, I had to really stop and I had to really think, Lord, if I was to ask you this, If I was to ask you these questions here, if I was to make these statements, Lord, do I want to hear the answer? Examine me, O Lord. Prove me. Try my reins and my heart. I see three statements here, and I want to look at these three statements more, and I want us to each ask, can I ask this of the Lord, and what will the answer be? Here's the first thing. Examine me. This is a hard statement to ask the Lord, isn't it? I mean, really think about it. I'm not asking, Lord, Lord, will you take a little look here? Lord, just take a peek, a little glimpse, just let me know maybe. No, it says examine me. Examine, to examine. is to inspect carefully with the view to discover the truth or the real state, to search or inquire into facts and circumstances by interrogating, to look into the state of a subject, to view all its aspects. Now, I'm sure we've all gone to the doctor for an examination, right? Examine, why is it that nobody wants to ever go? because it's not a fun time, right? If I can go to the doctor and I can walk in after waiting my five hours in the waiting room and I finally get into the thing and the doctor comes and he says, so hey, how you doing? I said, well, I'm doing pretty good. He says, all right, good, good to see you. I'll see you again in a year. And he walks out. If that was the exam, I'd be cool with that. I would go to the doctor. I have no problem with that. But no, he comes in, he says, well, you know, we need to do some blood work. We need about 50 vials. And so they stick needles all over, and they start sucking all your blood out. And we have to check your blood pressure, and we have to see how tall you are and how much you weigh. And then when he sees how much you weigh, he says, well, you know, you need to lose some weight. I said, no, I need to get taller. Apparently, that's not a thing, because he's stuck with the weight part. And he says, no, you need to start eating healthier. So none of this sounds fun to me, Doc. Why am I going to come back here for an examination if you're telling me all bad news? But examination, we understand, is details. It's really looking at those fine details. Can you imagine as Jesus was sitting by that treasury, sees the people coming, people coming and going, sees rich people come and they throw in a big bag of money, shakes his head. They held back. Somebody else comes, they throw in a bunch of money. She held back. They held back. She sees that poor widow woman come. She opens up her hands. Clink, clink. Two little mites fall into the box. A smile comes upon Jesus' face. She gave all. She gave all. Everything that she had, she gave it. If Jesus was to examine us, if the Lord was to examine us, we were to ask, examine me, what would the answer be? Does he have our whole heart? Are we holding something back? Is there something in our life where we just say, you know what, I just can't quite give this all to you, Lord. Examine me is a tough statement to make. I wonder sometimes if we miss blessings because we do hold back from the Lord. It's like, I had something for you, but you just wouldn't give me your all. I had something for you, but you just wouldn't give me that one piece. You wouldn't give me your whole heart. Examine me. Let me give you the second thing. Examine, prove me. Another strong statement. Now, you'll probably find I love definitions. And it's something I've just started really getting into a lot lately. And the reason I love definitions is because so often we'll read our Bible, so often we'll read something and we'll just kind of gloss over it. But if you don't understand what the word means, if you don't really look at what the word means, you miss an entire meaning of the entire section there so many times. Let me give you the definition of what it means to prove something. Prove me. To prove is to try, like as in a trial. To ascertain some unknown quality or truth by an experiment. To ascertain the genuineness or validity of, to verify. Can we ask the Lord this morning not only to examine us, but Lord, prove me. Show me that thing, prove to me, Lord. Verify that I'm not holding back anything from you. Show me the validity that I've given everything to you this morning, Lord. Now think about it, if you made that statement, one of the things I said was truth by experiment. A testing, a trial, something that proves, that actually proves that you're 100% genuine. I thought of somebody as I was looking at that thought of, prove me, would I be willing to say that? If you have your Bible, which I know most of you do, turn over to Genesis. Genesis 22, we're going to see somebody who I would say was proven. Genesis 22, we see here the story of Abraham and Isaac. And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, behold, here am I. And he said, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, And Isaac his son enclaved the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the place which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto the young man, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon his son Isaac, and took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went, both of them, together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father, and he said, Here am I, my son, and he said, Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a land for the burnt offering, for they went both before them together. So we understand the story, we know the story, we're gonna pick back up in verse nine in a second. So God tells Abraham, go sacrifice your son Isaac. And so Abraham knows what's going on, and Isaac asks him, dad, what's happening here? And Abraham says, God's gonna take care of it. And Abraham already knew what he had to do, verse nine. And they came to the place which God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hands, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called upon him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thy only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and beheld behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him a burnt offering instead of his son." So you say, prove me. Can you imagine to actually ask the Lord to prove you? What's the answer going to be? What is he going to show you? You know, I look at Abraham and I think, wow, I can't imagine being in the position that he was in. Talk about the Lord proving you. Abraham, I want you to take your son. I know you've waited forever for him. I want you to take your son, your only son, and I want you to go sacrifice him. And you see Abraham doesn't question. Abraham goes and does what he was told. He goes willingly, ready to sacrifice his son. and God thankfully provided. He just wanted to see, Abraham, I need to see where your heart's at. Abraham, I wanna see, I wanna see, will you really follow after me? Can we ask the Lord this morning? Will you prove me? Will you examine me? Lord, what am I holding back from you? Do you have my whole heart or not? Back in Psalms, back in Psalm 26, Examine me, oh Lord, and prove me. Try my reins and my heart. My reins, my inner thoughts, my inner parts, my heart. I honestly believe the reason we hold things back from the Lord is right here. Our heart. We haven't given our entire heart to the Lord. If you were to ask the Lord those three questions today, prove me, examine me, Lord, is it my heart? Lord, is my heart what I'm holding back from you? Because if you have my heart, I know you're gonna have all of me. Is it your heart? I really think that that's what it comes down to. I really do. Lord, I can't give you my money because you don't have my whole heart. Lord, I know, I can't give you my time. I can't give you my everything. I can't give you my material stuff because you don't have my whole heart. Matthew 6 verse 21 and we're just about done. Matthew 6 verse 21. Matthew 6 verse 21 says, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. It doesn't say where your money is. It doesn't say where your time is, although those could be. It says where your treasure is. That's where your heart is. What is that thing that means more to you than giving it up to the Lord? It doesn't mean he's gonna take it necessarily. It means that he wants it so that he can use it. Where your treasure is, there's your heart. If he has your heart, he's got everything else. It's a package deal. If God has your whole heart, then you're going to want to give him everything else, all of you. But what are we holding back this morning? I told you, as I was preparing this, I had to do a lot of soul searching myself. That's three hard questions to ask. Examine me. Look at the deepest crevice. What am I holding on to? What am I keeping from you, Lord? What is that one thing that I have tucked away somewhere else that I hold on to? I've given you, I'll give you my money, I'll give you my time, but I'm holding on to this one thing. Examine me. Don't just take a peek, Lord. I want you to really look and let me know. Prove me. Lord, you show me what's that thing that I'm holding on to. Lord, what's that one thing, like Abraham and his son, what's that one thing that I'd have to really sacrifice to give up? Prove me, Lord. Try my heart. Lord, do you have my whole heart this morning? I told you, this is three tough questions. I sat there and I asked myself, Lord, if I was willing to ask these questions, do I really want to know the answer? What is it that I'm holding back? And I think if each one of us asked those same questions, I wonder what the answer would be. Lord, do you have my heart this morning? Lord, do you have everything? You have all of me. We're going to give an invitation. As the pianist comes, I want to read the words of a hymn to you this morning. I just want you to think about these. It's page 516. If you want to look at them, you can. Page 516 says this. The hymn is called As You're All on the Altar. Have you longed for sweet peace and for faith to increase, and have earnestly, fervently prayed, but you cannot have rest or be perfectly blessed, until all on the altar is laid. Think about Abraham, his son, his only son, Isaac, on that altar, his all was laid. Here's the chorus. Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid? Your heart does the spirit control. You can only be blessed and have peace and sweet rest as you yield him your body and soul. Does the Lord have your all this morning? Can you actually ask and say, Lord, will you please examine me, prove me, try my heart this morning? You know, maybe you're in here and you haven't even accepted the Lord as your Savior. You don't even know for sure that you have a place in heaven. That'd be a good place. That'd be a good place for you to start. You know, Lord, I'll give you my life this morning. I'm going to trust you. Maybe you're holding on to religion. Maybe you're holding on to, maybe that's that one thing that you hold on to. You're holding on to your personal beliefs in something. Be a good start to say, you know what? Lord, I'm going to just trust you. I'm going to trust what your word says. I'm going to give you my all today. I'm going to trust you for my salvation. The Bible says you can know for sure you have a place in heaven. Maybe this morning you say, you know what? I'm willing to ask. I'm willing to ask those three hard questions. I'm willing to ask the Lord to prove me and examine me and try my heart. My question to you this morning is this. Is your all on the altar? Have you given the Lord your entire heart? Because if He has your whole heart, He has your everything. Let's pray. Father, I do ask as we have this moment of invitation that if you've worked in hearts this morning, help us to do business with you this morning. Father, help us not to hold back. Father, help us to get things right with you so that you have all of us, not just part. Father, if there's any in here that don't know you as Savior, I pray that today is the day that they accept you as their personal Savior and trust you and you alone to get them to heaven someday. Father, we thank you for your word and we can go to you. Father, I pray that you take what was said this morning and help it to change our lives. In your name, amen.