Luke 21:1-4

hey hey welcome to coffee and devotions this sunday morning it is october 18th this we're every weekday morning at 9 00 a.m and on the weekends before my kids wake up you and i we get together we have a little bit of coffee we get into god's word and we grow in our love for the lord together and this year 2020 we'll make it through all the gospels well this morning we are at luke chapter 21 just the first four verses luke chapter 21 the first four verses why don't we go ahead and have some coffee pray and get into god's word let's pray father we thank you so much for this day we thank you for your word lord we pray that you would let us understand what you would have for us in this passage we pray we would understand it in his fullness and that your holy spirit would apply it to our hearts in jesus name amen okay luke chapter 21 the first four verses here we go and he looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury and he saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites so he said truly i say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all for all these for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for god but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had that's it that's the whole of the passage we're going to look at this morning we need to ask ourselves what are these four verses say what what is about b what is the best verse that summarizes this section and c what are we called to do in response to this oh i just realized i hit my finger the other day while working on a lawn mower and that's pretty ugly well i'm going to go ahead and switch things up a little bit instead of doing a b c i'm going to do b a c i think the best first to summarize this section is verse 4 for all these out of their abundance put in offerings for god but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihoods that she had this is a this is an odd passage i've heard this passage jews jump straight to calling by pastors a whole bunch of times you know give out of your give out of your need give out and they they use it for an example of tithing and while that might be fine applications i'm not sure that's the application that jesus is getting at i'm not sure that's why luke gave us this passage and i think the context around this helps us to interpret and understand this passage better if we go up the next section what was the last thing that jesus had said about those scribes the people who would go in and they would they would they would you know have long prayers and and their they would love to wear their long robes and get the meeting the greetings and the in the marketplaces and the best seats what were they doing who devour verse 47 who devour widows houses and for pretense make long prayers their false religion their showy religion their outward religiosity was devouring devouring widows houses and then jesus looks around and he sees this widow giving and he's trying to put this contrast right i think what he's doing is he's saying here are these scribes of this false religious expression outwardly here come the rich and they have their religious expression they give out of their abundance but yet who is it who's the one who follows god and loves him with all of her heart it's this poor old widow is this woman who doesn't have anything great to offer to the kingdom where is this woman who who comes and she has two mites these are the two smallest copper coins available in the roman currency and she comes with what the world would see as oh this this woman's coming with with just this little you know like it's not really worth much but jesus says she's given more than everyone else why because it was given out of a heart devoted to god it wasn't it wasn't the surplus it wasn't what was extra it was her devotion under god that she was showing it was her love for the lord and dependence upon god that she was showing that she was seeking first god's kingdom not her own comfort first and then whatever god is left over she wasn't trying to take from the temple she wasn't trying to take from other people she wasn't trying to live off of other people but no that's not what she's doing hold on what is she doing she loves the lord and shows that she's utterly dependent on the lord and thankful to the lord and so she gives the lord out of her need jesus isn't getting at the at the you know what is the right way to tithe or something like that and i'm i've been really negative these last two days i don't know what's going on here but but it's not about rules for tithing or something like this what jesus is doing is he's comparing the false religiosity of the scribes as they're devouring widow's houses and their pretentious religion to this faithful woman who's giving to god out of her who's giving to god out of her need what is this calling us to do is our religion show or do we give out of our give out of our or need do we devote the best times of our day to the lord do we do we pour out costly devotion in small ways that people wouldn't see i remember one time i was with my father-in-law and we were talking about these big name pastors you know john mcarthur and harvesty sprole and they'd all come on this conference they come onto the stage and i was talking about how great these men were and he said you know i think it's amazing i i wonder when we get up to heaven if we're going to find out that we think these men were great but we find out the only reason why they had the ministries they had was because some old widow homebound shut-in was in her room praying that god would use that man in a mighty way and god listened to her prayer i wonder who it is that we overlook in the kingdom who's doing amazing work quietly in a devoted way completely trusting on the lord maybe we should be those people let's pray father we thank you so much for this day we pray father that you would let us have true religion caring for the orphan the widow and the poor father we pray that you would let us love you with all of our hearts that our religion would not just be outwardly that we would not let our right hand know what our left hand is doing but that we would seek your kingdom that we would depend upon you and give to you not out of compulsion but out of a thankful heart lord that our religion wouldn't be for show but it'd be for your glory please father let us be devoted unto you and into your glory in jesus name amen well may god bless you today and may he give your heart hope and peace in jesus christ enjoy this lord's day and i hope that you get to worship with god's people bye