2 MITES EQUAL
ONE BIG MIGHT?
MARK
12:41-44
This not going to be a topic about giving but giving
is part of it. This is not going to
be a topic about money but money is part of it.
This is not going to be a topic about the poor but the poor are part of
it. This is not going to be a
topic about participation but participation is part of it.
You may ask if it is not any of these things then what it is about.
Let me start first with a story:
There was a young adventurous man, who liked to climb tall hills and
mountains. One time as he was climbing and looking around, he slipped and fell
over the edge of a cliff. He fell only about 50 feet and luckily there was a
small tree growing out of the cliff for him to grab a hold of.
The edge of the cliff was smooth like glass so he could not climb back
up. The man started yelling for help. After several minutes he heard, “I am
here. I will help you.” The man asked who was it, and the answer came back,
“God”. God said to the young man, “Trust me and turn loose of the
branch.” After a minute the young man yelled, “Is there anyone else up
there?”
So
now you know this is about FAITH.
Faith
defined in the dictionary: 1.
Confident belief or trust in a person, idea, or thing. 2. Loyalty; allegiance. 3.
Secure belief in God and acceptance of God’s will. 4. A religion.
There
is not enough time today to fully cover faith, so I am going to cover a couple
of issues. In # 3 of the faith
definition, it talks about belief in God and accepting His will. Do we do this
on a regular basis and do we fully understand what that means?
James
talks about faith in James 2: 14-26 by saying faith without works is dead. We
know we show our faith by the things we do, good or bad.
I want to look at some scriptures that demonstrate faith.
In
Judges 7 it talks of Gideon and the battle against the Midianites. Most of us
know the story but I want to look at a couple scriptures. Verse 2 states: And
the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to
give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against
Me, saying, `My own hand has saved me.`
Verse
22 states: When
the three hundred blew the trumpets, the Lord set every man’s sword against
his companion throughout the whole camp: and the army fled…
God
is focused on us depending on Him and giving him the glory.
Let’s
look at Joshua 10 and see what it says about the sun standing still for a
battle. Verse 14 says “And there has
been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of
a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.”
In
Matthew 14, it talks about another’s faith. From verse 22 to 33, it talks
about Jesus walking on water. We know Peter called out to Jesus and Peter walked
on the water after Jesus’ command. I want to focus on verse 31:
“And
immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him and said to him, `O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Something we might want to ask ourselves is:
Is our comfort zone based upon what we can do/accomplish or what God can
do/accomplish through us? What
does our faith show? About 4 years
ago, this congregation had some deep concerns about what was going to happen to
us. We turned to God and asked for guidance, support and help. We asked for God
to open our eyes to His will and for us to trust him to lead us to where He
wants us to go. For those of us who
were here before that time frame remembers that was not the general mindset.
We are always going to have faith issues to deal with and our comfort
zones stretched. Four years ago we did not know if we were still going to be
here, now look at what God has done. We
have hired a preacher when a few years ago we did not think we could pay the
bills. We have a small 25 passenger bus to pick up small children and family,
when a few years ago we did not have hardly any small children. If God keeps
going we are going to need a bigger bus for starts and who knows what.
Are we
going to be like most of the pilgrims who came to this country? Most of them
made the hard journey across the ocean and came to a foreign land only to stay
close to the shore. Most did not want to venture farther into the land.
Where is God taking us? Some times it is unclear, but is that not what
FAITH is? We have lots of
things going on and we can not do it by ourselves.
God wants us to ask Him for help. If
we believe we can only do what we can afford, then where is the faith of the
widow, who gave her all to God? Are we looking at our financials like the man
with one talent? Are we afraid to take a risk? We need not set our limits on
what we are capable of doing but on what God can do. We need to be praying BIG
PRAYERS to God.
Philippians
4: 13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
In
Matthew 28, we have the great commission. In verse 20, we are told to teach them
to observe all things that Jesus has commanded. What are we teaching about our
faith when we are showing our faith in only what we are capable of doing?
How
we are giving, understanding whose money it is anyway, how we treat those in
need, and how we are involved in God’s work, demonstrates our faith to God and
others.
Our
faith is our great big might. Are we
using all the might God has given us?