The Walk of Faith - Part 5 — Larry Ainsworth

Good morning. I was listening to you sing, and it thrilled my heart. I wonder if we paid attention to those words. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. I wonder if we believe that. Sometimes we get rather discouraged as we labor in our various fields, and sometimes we feel like laying it down and just going somewhere else, where there seems to be less conflict, less problems.

Sharing in Christ's Sufferings

But our Lord Jesus Christ, as He speaks through the Apostle Paul, He says that we might share in His sufferings. To do any work for the Lord Jesus Christ sometimes requires to suffer. But it will be worth it all when we see Jesus.

Life's trials will seem so small when we see Christ. One glimpse, one glimpse of His dear face, all sorrow will erase. Bravely run the race till we see Christ. May not be long. May not be long. This morning we're going to take up, in our continuation of our character studies, a woman that I think has a tremendous lesson for us.

I'd like you for just a moment to listen to a little prelude to our study. One morning, a woman arose from her bed, in her single room dwelling. She got up, and the morning air was somewhat chilly. She warmed up the fire to fix herself a little food.

She took the food, and started to eat it. She said, set it upon a table. And as she sat there eating, she looked across the table at an empty space where once her husband sat. She thought of all the times that they'd enjoyed together.

But he was gone now. His death had been a great obstacle for her to overcome. But there was one who gave her strength. The room was quiet. The children, now grown, had gone and moved away to other places.

The Widow's Journey to the Temple

But as she sat there, she thought of the words of the psalmist. This is a day that the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in Him. With a slightly quicker step, she arose and picked up her shawl, and she could hear the sounds of the city coming awake.

She took her shawl and her small purse. She clutched them to herself, and she stepped out into the street. There were many that were heading in the same direction as she, and she joined the crowds that were going.

The little purse that she clutched to herself was nearly empty, except for a couple of small coins. But yet it seemed that whenever there was a need, there was something always there. But she continued on.

And as she came close to her destination, the crowds grew greater and much more noisy. Then as she drew close to the entrance to the temple and to the treasury, the crowds were even greater. But as she neared the treasury, there was a strange feeling came over her, as if someone was watching her.

She looked around, and in the crowd there was nothing strangely different. And she continued on. She stepped up along with the crowds, but she was not making the same clamor nor the same gestures that they were doing as many who would bring their bags of money and lift them high into the air and pour them into the copper treasury.

Hearing the coins make a great noise, and the crowds as they would speak of, look at how much that person gave, or this person. She slipped up to the treasury. She had taken the last two coins from her purse, and she reached over the edge and let them slide down into the copper treasury.

She did not yet feel comfortable. There was still that strange sense that someone was watching. But there was something else she needed to do. And she continued her walk into the temple, for it was the hour of prayer.

Jesus and the Widow's Offering

Will you turn in your Bibles this morning to Mark, the twelfth chapter. Mark, chapter twelve. Mark, the twelfth chapter, verse forty-one. And he, this is Jesus, sat down opposite the crowd and began observing how the multitude were putting money into the treasury.

And many rich people were putting in large sums, and the poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. And calling his disciples to him, he said to them, Truly, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury.

For they put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on. One of the greatest parts of our worship of God in the life of faith is our stewardship.

Stewardship of Time and Resources

Now don't sit in your seats and begin to quake that I'm going to give you a lesson on giving of money. That is the least important of the parts of this lesson. All of you have been entertained with messages before, and have heard them many times about the principles of giving.

What I'm more concerned with is the entire act of stewardship. Money is just a very small part of stewardship, our finances. We have been called before God to give account not only of our finances and of our lives, but all of the blessings that he's bestowed upon us.

There is one resource of which we are to be stewards that every one of us worldwide has an equal amount, and that's called time. None of us have more than twenty-four hours in a day. None of us have less.

We all have seven days to the week. We all have the same sixty minutes to an hour. We all have the same time, and God calls us to stewardship not only of finances, but of all of our resources, and one of our greatest resources that we have is time, and we need to guard it well.

As we consider this lesson this morning, we are going to talk a little bit about finances, but I'd like to ask you a question this morning. Let's see if you're all awake and alive and well. If you aren't, Glenn has failed.

I have a hard time speaking. By the time I get up here, I'm about washed out. I have here in my hand a twenty-dollar bill, and I have here a quarter. Now, there's a considerable amount of difference between the two.

Do you agree to that? Okay, good. Somebody's awake. I heard a voice. You are alive and well out there, right? Now, I want you all to set aside your thoughts that you've had earlier today about the vengeance that's going to happen on the horseshoe courts, and Bill, I hope that I don't get a feeling that there's bad blood brewing here, but I've seen those guys out there.

Man, I tell you, you wouldn't dare walk in front of them. You did. But we have here a twenty-dollar bill. We have a quarter. Of which of these, of which, or of what? Well, if I was to give these to the Lord, what is God most concerned about?

What's God most concerned about? Is He concerned about money? Does God need a twenty-dollar bill? He may not, but I do. That's not our point. You're missing the point. Stay with the program. Somebody says, I wonder if he's going to give that twenty-dollar bill away.

Stay in your seats. What does God need? Vito, you've got the lesson down, Pat. You can go home now. You know, the Lord isn't concerned about whether I give a twenty-dollar bill or a quarter. What He's concerned about is me.

What's my heart? He would rather have me give a quarter and happiness before Him than to give begrudgingly a twenty-dollar bill. And the thing that we need to understand, thank you, brother. You're right on, Mike.

Thank you. I trust you're never planning to come back to Omaha. You will want to come back someday, Mike. Thank you. But see, the Lord doesn't need a twenty-dollar bill. He doesn't need a quarter. He wants you.

He's most concerned about you as an individual. Now we look at this story this morning about a widow woman. We might say, you know, that's kind of pathetic. Here's a poor woman by herself. Her family has gone away.

Her husband is dead. And all she has is a few morsels of food and two cents in her purse. And she puts it in the treasury. What's she supposed to live on? Doesn't God provide? I would challenge you to check your thinking against her thinking.

What was her motive that day? I think that she understood more than many of us do, and I know more than me, of what our Lord Jesus Christ, when He was here on earth, said as He spoke in the Sermon on the Mount.

Trusting God Rather Than Anxiety

Will you turn back to that portion in Matthew chapter six? We were there last night. I want to continue on with some thoughts from that portion. Now, I don't know whether this widow woman had ever heard our Lord Jesus Christ, but I'm sure she understood the principles that we find here in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter six and verse twenty-five.

For this reason, I say to you, do not be anxious for your life as to what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor for your body as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food and a body than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth more than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single cubit to his life span?

And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these.

But if God so raised the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more do so for you, O men of little faith? Do not be anxious in saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink, or with what shall we clothe ourselves?

For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. If I could, or if I would impose upon him, I know he would, if I had asked Dr. Jim to stand up and explain to you the amount of physical maladies that can be caused by stress and anxiety, I think we would probably use up probably the rest of our time.

We are all becoming, especially in the medical world, and we are too because they are finding it important to educate us, that anxiety causes many, many physical ailments. Through the boob tube we are giving a lot of information about upset stomachs, and is it the food we eat?

Sometimes it is, but a lot of the time it is nothing more than the anxieties that we have going on in our lives. We worry, we worry. I can't tell you in marital counseling how many marriages fall apart because of anxiety over finances, and how big of an impact finances has in all of the other aspects of marriage, the physical aspects as well as the spiritual aspects.

Anxiety. We live in an anxious world. The past few weeks, the world sat anxious wondering of the fate of the hostages of Flight 847. Will they kill them? Will they return them? What will happen to them?

We waited with almost like we were holding our breath. What's going to happen? Is this a prelude to something? People today are anxious about who is going to be the first one to pull the trigger of a nuclear device in anger.

Somewhere in the world, is it going to be a Gaddafi from Libya? Is it going to be one of the Arabs that is going to be upset and somehow get hold of a nuclear device and all of a sudden people are going to start throwing things from all over the world and we're going to be in the middle of a nuclear holocaust?

The world is anxious. We were sitting last night, in fact it was into the wee hours of this morning, discussing the plight of the American farmer. There's a lot of anxiety in the farming world and the agricultural industry over what's going on.

People today in the cities are in turmoil of anxieties because of the lack of being able to make a living income, to be able to provide for their families. In my line of business, it has been my sad misfortune on numerous occasions due to the effects of the business world to have to go and tell those that report to me, I'm sorry but that in one week from today will be your last day with us.

You're being laid off. I had a young man just a few months ago, a nice young man and a wonderful worker. Boy, I really enjoyed this young guy. He was just every supervisor's dream. Man, you could give him a job and you never had to worry about him.

He'd just go out there and he'd work his little heart out and do a good job for you. I had to go up to him and I had to say, I'm sorry, Steve, I'm going to have to let you go. You're on the layoff list.

275 people had to be notified that day in a plant of 4 ,000 people that were being laid off. The young guy almost burst into tears there in front of me. I said, Steve, you were told that when you were hired that there was a possibility that you might not be in long-term employment.

I said, yes, I know, but I passed a point here a few weeks ago I thought it was safe. He said, I just went out and bought a brand new car. He said, there's no way in the world I'm going to be able to pay for it without his care.

He says, I really like that car. And I could see the anxiety and the emotions that were going on within him. Now, we may think it's frivolous, you know, well, it's no big deal about a car, but to him it was important.

And maybe you had something else that we're anxious about. I know every time I walk across the parking lot at the University of Nebraska there in Omaha heading for the classrooms, and I know ahead of me lies an hour or so of a test, an exam, I can just feel like that large knot right in here, you know, am I going to be able to do good on it?

I'm sure all of those of you that are in the classrooms yet today, and I can say this to you as a little bit of counsel, if you're going to school, if you're thinking about going to school, do it before you get to be an old man, because it gets harder as you get older.

Because those anxieties never get any easier. The older they get, the more you're more concerned about them. We have anxieties of all kinds. And yet the Word of God tells us, be anxious for nothing. I don't know how many times over my life as I've walked across those streets there at the university praying this prayer, Lord, I've studied, I've done a good job, help me to recall those things that I'm going to need on the test that I might do well.

Not to bring honor to myself, to bring honor to you. Because I want to do those things which you said, whatever you do, do all to the glory and honor of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's important for you to do well in your job.

It's important for you to do well in the schoolroom. It's important for you to do well as a husband, as a wife, as a son or a daughter. In whatever capacity God calls you to serve, do it well and do it with all your heart.

But he also says, be anxious for nothing because the anxiety is going to do anything but shorten your life. I'm sure the good doctor would tell you that anxiety is all they do is have a tendency to shorten your life because they put a tremendous burden upon your heart.

Scripture's Teaching for the Whole Person

We need to learn the lessons from scripture. The lessons from scripture are not only those that speak to our spiritual nature but to our physical nature as well because God is concerned about the whole person.

And we need to learn that there are many things that God speaks to us in his word about, but we just kind of seem to gloss over them. And we've all said, you know, I can't help it. I'm anxious. I worry.

But you know, God understands. Of course God understands. But that doesn't say that he agrees with you. He says, I've given you in my word this promise. Be anxious for nothing. I care. I care. Do we believe that he cares about us?

He certainly does. He wants us to trust him for everything. Here is this widow woman, the last two cents. If we were put in the same position, what would we do? What would you do? You don't have to answer.

We're not going to have a time of confession here. It might be good for us, but we aren't going to do that. What would we do? The cupboards are beginning to be bare. The clothes aren't as good as they used to be.

And all I have left is two cents. And the voice of God speaks to a widow woman and says, give it all. Give it all. And with perfect consciousness and faith, she goes to the temple that day and takes those last two cents and puts them in the treasury.

I ask you now, do you really think the temple was that it was going to make a big difference to the temple that day? Whether or not they had those two cents? When you think of all of those rich ones that were standing there and you know how they did.

The Jews were great. You know, they bring in their money sacks and they break it down to the least possible coin they could. And, you know, they bring the big bulging sacks and they'd stand and they'd lift those sacks in the air.

And, you know, they want to make sure that everybody around was looking. And, you know, the temple treasury had the big copper funnels that went down into the box. And they'd sit there and they'd take those things and they'd dump them and the coins would hit that copper and brass drum and, you know, make all the noise you've all heard that.

Take a bag of pennies and throw them on a hardwood floor and multiply it times a hundred. Get the same effect. They'd dump that money there and, you know, they'd stand around with big smiles, you know, giving it all, giving it all.

Here it is. And a one woman, one woman. And, you know, our Lord Jesus Christ wanted the disciples to be so impressed with this woman that he called them from the various parts. He says, Come here. Come here.

I've got a lesson for you. I imagine they say, What's up? You know, what do you want? I want you to watch. See this woman? So? See what she's doing? She only put in two cents. I wonder what went through their minds that moment.

Two cents. He calls us over to show us a woman that put in two cents. What do you? What's the big deal? You know, the temple needs dollars, you know, lots of money, a lot of coins. You don't understand.

He says, Look at this woman. She has given more. She has given more than all of the rest of those that lifted their bags high. Given more. What do you mean? She's given more. She only gave two cents. Those other guys, they've given hundreds of times what she gave.

What do you mean? She gave more. He says she gave out of all that she had, not just of her surplus, but of all. I wonder if the Lord would ask us to give us all for us to give us our give him our all.

Would we be willing to do it? Would be we would we be willing to put in all that we own? That last two cents? I've often wondered, why didn't the woman walk up and let the two cents fall? I'm sure that people around her would have understood.

I'm sorry, but this is all I have at the two coins drop. I don't think she made any display. I think she walked up and did it very quietly. Just let them slide down into the treasury. Because you see, I think the point is that our Lord wanted us to understand the motive.

She didn't really care about the opinion of others. It wasn't her concern that day. She was more concerned about doing what God had told her to do, had laid upon her heart. Out of a pure heart and conscience, she gave all that she had.

Giving Without Seeking Human Approval

Well, you know, there was probably no doubt people have been there that said to her, why in the world are you giving your last two cents? Don't you know? Aren't you aware that charity begins at home? You should take care of yourself.

How do you have anything in the cupboards at home? Well, no, I don't. And you're giving your last two cents. Now, what are you going to do? Come around and beg from us and become a burden to us. Is that what you're working up to?

You want to get our sympathy? She didn't really care about the opinion of others. She did it quietly before the Lord. But so often we're denied the blessings of God because of the opinion of others and the influence they have upon us.

What would you have said to her? She'd have come to you and said, I'd like your advice. I have two cents. I don't have a lot at home. And the clothes I have are the clothes that I'm wearing. I feel that I should give these two cents.

What do you think? What would have been your advice to this widow woman? Think about it. What would have been your advice in the light of who you are, a child of God? Now, it's always easy to counsel someone else, especially about finances, and especially if you're in a position where you don't have to worry.

But what would you have done? What would have been your counsel to the widow woman with the two copper coins? Our Lord said that he wants us to give out of a cheerful heart, but he does want us to give.

Give of ourselves, give of our time, give of all of our resources, give them to him and he will use them. Giving, whatever it is, is pleasing to God. It's pleasing to him and he wants us to give with a happy heart and give back to him that with which he has blessed us.

We're not giving back to him. These are acts of worship. These are worship, acts of worship to the living and the true God. Thought about it? Give some time to the Lord. It's an act of worship. Give of our resources, give of our time to someone in need, for if we do it to his glory and honor, he considers it an act of worship.

Faithful Stewardship and R. G. LeTourneau

As I consider the principles that we have here, the Lord wants us to give in honesty. He wants us always to be true. He wants us to be consistent. I remember some years ago, sitting in Omaha on a Sunday afternoon, Billy Graham Crusade was in town and a little man got up on the stage and Billy Graham introduced him.

He says, I want you to meet R .G. Letourneau. I said to him, who in the world is R .G. Letourneau? Billy Graham says, have you ever driven down the highway and you come to those signs you just love to see?

And when we came down here, it seems like that's all I saw every few hours was road construction ahead. Proceed with caution. And you see the big machines working around on the highway. I remember some years ago, going across the state of Colorado.

There in the mountains, huge earth-moving machines. I mean, these babies were big. They looked like they could hold a couple, three of those semis and still have room to spare inside of them. They were chewing up the mountains to make a new highway.

I remember seeing on those machines, Letourneau. Billy Graham says, whenever you travel, you come across this guy in a variety of ways. He was the man that designed the huge machines that helped take a lot of the state of Florida and turn it from swamp into productive land.

Of course, that depends on who you want to talk to. But nonetheless, he's designed machines that have been able to do some magnificent things. R .G. Letourneau got up on that Sunday afternoon and he says, I want to tell you a little bit about my life.

He says, I'm not bragging. He says, I'm a multi-millionaire. He says, the Lord has blessed me far beyond my wildest expectations. But he says, I've been a multi-millionaire three different times. I said, three different times.

Pretty good. But he said, I've also been in bankruptcy twice. He says, when I first started making money, he said, I hadn't been a Christian too long. And he said, I understood the principle of giving to God.

And he said, I understood the principle of tithing from my earlier childhood training. And so he said, I said, okay, God, between me and you, it's 10%. All that you give to me, 10 is yours. And he said, so I gave him 10%.

He says, I felt very confident about that. But then he says, times began to get a little hard and the money seemed to be coming in not quite so fast. So I kind of reneged on my promise to God. And I used his money in other places.

And in the side of a few months, he says, I was flat broke in bankruptcy. He says, I came before the Lord and confessed. I have not been the faithful steward. I promised to you 10 and I went back on my promise.

But he said, with a broken and a contrite spirit, he said, I went before God and confessed my sin, not ever expecting again to be a multimillionaire or even to be a wealthy man. But he said, once again, from the ashes, God build up.

And he says, I again became a multimillionaire. And I said, it won't happen again. And 10 is God's. So, he said, for a number of years, it was always 10 off the top went to God and his work. And I know there are many around the world that can attest that R .G. LaTerno was a faithful giver to God.

But he said, you know, it went on for a few years and again, God tests our faith. And he tested my faith and the business became a little bit hard again. And he said, once again, I committed the same crime, the same sin against God.

I quit being a faithful steward. And again, he said, I was in bankruptcy. And he said, again, the lesson came to me and God is merciful. And he says, I had to repent and confess, God, I failed you. Again, he said, I never expected that God would ever bless me like he had in the past.

But he said, I purposed in my heart, God, I will return to you that which rightfully belongs to you. And he said, again, my business began to prosper. And he said, it prospered far beyond anything I'd ever been before.

But he said, you know, as my business began to grow, I began to think, you know, this all belongs to God. It doesn't belong to me. He's the owner. I'm just the manager. Who am I to keep 90 and only give 10 back to the owner?

He says, that's not good business. So I began to say, OK, God, let's work out some things here in finances. You teach me the lesson. And so he said to me, R .G., are you willing to go 20 -80? I said, sounds fair.

So I gave 20 to the Lord's work and kept 80. And he said, and still my business prospered. But then it came back. He said, the Lord again spoke to me. He says, R .G., are you willing for a 30 -70? What have I got to lose?

And it went on time and time again. When R .G. Letourneau went into the presence of his Lord, R .G. Letourneau was giving 90 to the Lord's work and he was keeping only 10 for himself. You say, yeah, when you're a multimillionaire, if he has $100 million, he's giving 90 million to the Lord and keeping 10 million for himself.

That's not too bad. I can handle that. But the principle is there. The principle is there that our Lord didn't haphazardly say it's difficult for rich man to enter into heaven. You know, when we become blessed by God in so many ways, do you ever notice?

Are you continually at His feet when you're prospering? Are you continually at His feet when you're in need? I don't know about you, but I'll have to confess to you. When it's abundant, I find the path to the throne of grace sometimes has more grass growing on it than when I'm in need.

Because when I'm in need, the path to the throne of grace is well-worn. I spend much time there. And that's a sad commentary. For you know, the path to the throne of grace, so often we only find time to go to the throne of grace when we're in need.

But you know, sometimes I think the Lord would appreciate it if we'd spend just as much time thanking Him for all the wonderful blessings that He pours out upon us. For every good and rich thing, every wonderful thing, cometh down from the Father, the Father of life.

And He blesses us in so many, many different ways. And yet, how discontent we always are. We learn the sin of discontentment in the life of Gehazi. And we would pray this morning that all of us would recognize discontentment in our hearts and set it aside.

Pleasing God Rather Than People

We learn some wonderful lessons from the widow. Here was a woman. She didn't have to worry about being encumbered by materialism. She could have cared less about the materialistic things. How many of us are really concerned about the materialistic things of this world?

I'm not too concerned about those things. But if we really get down and examine our lives, do we really care? You bet we do. You bet we do. We all want to have good images, don't we? We want to be pleasing to other people.

You know, the Apostle Paul gave us a little lesson. He was speaking about the ministry, but I think it's so applicable today. I turn in your Bibles to Galatians. And if you haven't looked at this verse, look at it.

Galatians 1 and 10. Am I striving to please men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. Now, Paul is speaking of his ministry in the gospel.

But I think a principle is here that is very important for us in the area of stewardship. For am I seeking the favor of men or of God or of myself? Am I seeking the favor of myself above God? Do I want the favor of men?

Now, there it goes. You know, when we go down the street, we like people to take a look at us and say, hey, there goes the guy that knows how to handle it. We want to hear the accolades that man pours out.

We want to have a few of those for ourselves. But Paul realized this. He said, am I seeking the favor of men or of God? Do I want to please God or do I want to please men? He says, for if I am striving to please men, I am no longer a bondservant.

A bondservant. Now, a bondservant was one who said, I will work for you. I will commit my life to you. I am yours. There was a bond that was made and it was for life. I no longer want my life to be my own.

I commit myself to you. Do I want to seek to please man or myself? For if I am striving to please men, I am no longer a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Here was a woman that was unencumbered by materialism.

Faith in God's Provision

She no longer cared. It wasn't that important to her. Another thing that we can see, another lesson we can learn from the widow woman, is that she believed God in who that he said he was. You know, when Abraham took Isaac to the mountain to offer him up as a sacrifice, I don't know the thoughts that could have went through that man's mind.

I know some of them. I don't know whether Abraham was anticipating that Isaac, after being offered for a sacrifice, would be resurrected by God or what. But Abraham heard that God would provide. He said he would provide himself a lamb.

And he did. He provided for Abraham that day. And Abraham called that place the place where God will provide. God will provide. And he did. That woman had a firm belief, a stand of faith, that God would provide for her in her every need.

She was not hesitant to take the last two cents and give them to God, for she knew that God would provide. For he had been providing all along in her life, and she knew it. And she recognized that by the walk of faith, he would continue to provide for her because he loved her.

You can see in her life, her life of faith, that she was a true woman of God, a woman of faith. She was purposeful in her acts of obedience. I wonder how many of us, if we knew it was the last two cents that we had to give, if we would be quick to rush out the door to head for the treasury at the temple to give our last two cents.

Or would we sit in that room by ourselves and agonize over the two cents? It said she went, she gave, and she prayed. For it was the hour of prayer. The activity of her life backed her faith. Her every activity showed forth her faith in God.