What will you do with your two mites?

Mark's Gospel, please. The Gospel of Mark. Mark's Gospel, and we'll read, please, at Mark 12, Mark 12 and 41.

I've been thinking about things that are hard to value, and there are things. I took my car in to get the tires changed a couple of weeks ago, and they gave me a free appraisal. No wonder it was free.

Certainly wasn't what I thought it was going to be. We live in a day when things like silver, in spite of its artistic beauty and its skill, people don't want it. It has very little value.

Fine china just isn't so fine anymore, it seems. Books, I had real trouble when we were moving because I had books I treasured, and I couldn't take them with me. It was hard to, for the most part, discover that most people didn't value my books at all.

These days it's hard to place a proper value on many things, even the tangible things like your house or building materials. And when you think about values today, they're changing so quickly. But I wonder, when you think about values, do you think more in terms of money value or some other values? Things are hard to value when it comes to the spiritual realm.

Excuse me. That's what I was afraid of after speaking to the kids. I might not have a voice at all, but anyway, I stop and think oftentimes in my own soul about things that I know I should place the highest value on.

And sometimes I wonder how I do when it comes to my brother in the Lord, or when it comes to children and their tremendous potential. I just sat with those kids in their Sunday school, and I looked at them. I thought of all the rich, mighty potential that was there before me, and the privilege of being able to try and impart something to their young hearts.

I wonder what we see and what we understand when it comes to the real values of things. Now let's just read, please, in in Mark's Gospel, chapter 12 and verse 41. Mark 12 and verse 41.

And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people, the multitude, cast money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much. Now what measure, what value was that according to what scale? Many that were rich cast in much. We get a little look at the divine scale in a moment.

And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in, she cast in two mites, which make a farthing. Literally, not much. And he called unto him his disciples.

He wanted them to understand that there was another value system that he was using. He called unto him his disciples and said unto them, verily, here's the truth I say unto you, that this poor widow has cast more in than all they that have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

Two mites. It was her all. I don't know whether you ever stop and think about your standing in whether monetary terms or other values, whatever they might be, your effectiveness in the assembly or your testimony in the gospel.

All of those things, of course, are values that are from a different scale. But if this was her all, her riches were related in today's term as abject poverty. In today's terms worth about an eighth of a cent.

And if you look at the representations of those coins that were used, particularly by the Jews, you would have said they looked like they weren't worth that either. Just so very little. Tulepta would not even buy a single sparrow.

How about us today? What do I have in my pocket? What do I have in my life? What do I have in my sphere of influence? Things that are hard to value, but worth valuing nonetheless. I'm reminded of a lady who lived in Georgia. Her name was Johnellen Andrews.

She was age 60. She was planning a trip to Europe and she purchased insurance from a company called, excuse me, yeah, Squaremouth. Weird name.

But anyway, she wanted to make sure she had the right kind of insurance and she read through 17 pages of a contract. And she discovered a little phrase. It pays to read.

And she read that if you contact a certain email address connected with that company, you would receive $10,000. Of the 73 contracts that day, she was the only one who responded. And the next day received a gift of $10,000.

Pays to read. And so when we read our Bibles, how do we read our Bibles? Do we read it carefully? Do we read it with not only understanding, but appreciation for what it's saying? Now, I don't know the education level of this dear poverty-stricken widow, but I do know something. She knew something about God.

How about us today? We might well search in our pockets and find far more than she ever had in her whole life. It says it was all her living, and I don't know what your net worth would be, and it's not my business to know. But this woman turned over everything to God.

We might well ask, I mean, why not? Why? Why would she do this? Well, obviously what she had was not going to buy much, but here's a woman who felt like, I need to give my all to God. That's serious business, you know. I don't know most of the younger folks here today, but I do know you've got a lot more, not only materially, but a lot more in your abilities, and the value of it is precious to God.

And I can tell you this, that heaven would be pleased if you were to turn your all over to God, over to the God of all grace and mercy. What are you going to do with your two mites, two mites of strength that could be used for God? Two mites of life, and who knows how long that might be, but just two mites that could be used for heaven's glory. What will you do with your two mites, two mites of praise? Some of us are so reluctant to rise on a Lord's Day morning, to summon our courage, so to speak, and to try and give back to God something that he has so graciously abounded towards us today.

And the wonder of a love that passes all understanding, the wonder of such grace as has met your need in time and for all eternity. Two mites of life, of time, of days. What will we do with them? Here's this woman, and she surrendered her all.

When we ask why she would do this, we could explore that, I'm sure. We could ask ourselves questions as to what else could she do with it? We could ask questions. What could she hope that it would do once she cast it into the treasury? How would she value it compared to the mighty gifts that were being given? Well, we don't know the answer to any of those questions.

But what I do know, and what you know, is the Lord was looking on. And it was the Lord who called the attention of his disciples to what that woman had done. And it seemed as though the Lord had an appreciation for it in a big way.

How could he say what she has cast in of her penury is worth more than all they that have cast in of their abundance? Maybe you look around and you say there's people who have greater gift and ability than I. People who can stir crowds and help and lead people. And I feel so small, and like my place in the assembly is just not much. I'm almost afraid to open my mouth, because it seems at times I have so little.

But what will you do with it? Will you turn it over to him? Or some of you could do with a fortune, a work for God. Some of you could do with skills. Something that would triumph in the cause of God.

Some of you today could use your voice in a way that would honor the Lord. What will you do with your two mites? It may be this lady's life was nearly over. It might have been her last act, but she pointed her life in the right direction.

What direction is your life going in? Are you in the, let's amass what we can. Build what will please us. Establish our ways in the world.

Are you today at his feet, ready to cast in your two mites? I want you to think with me too of Mark 14, because in Mark 14 we have a matter of perfume. It was on the Lord's head. Chapter 14 and verse 3 says, and being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and she break the box and poured it on his head.

And there were some, there's always some of these, there were some that had indignation within themselves and said, why? Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold. There's the monetary value of the world. It might have been sold for more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor.

And they murmured against her, and Jesus said, see how he levels things out? See how he brings to light the values of another world? See how he gives us a different accounting system than anything here in this life? What's he say? He says, let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She had wrought a good work on me. You have the poor with you always, and whenever you will, you may do them good, but me you have not always.

You may not have long to use what you have for him. Me you have not always. Oh, how wonderful to hear the Savior said, say, she has done what she could.

Verse 9, verily I say unto you, wheresoever the gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she has done shall be spoken of in memorial of her. Notice this precious nard. Very precious, it says.

And it reminds me of praise, because it has a sweet savor. It's a material from an aromatic root. Actually, it's related, some of you will know the honeysuckle plant, but this particular one grows in the United States, in Nepal, and India, and China, and it's acquired by great effort.

And it takes time, and coming from a high place, it takes a perspective to go after it. So we find here that here's this woman again, and as I looked at this passage, thinking on things that we value, and how we value them, I couldn't help but think that I needed to ask myself this question. Am I more like Jesus in my perspective of things, or am I more like Judas? Oh yes, he had probably a very good estimate of the value of that gift, but he had no idea whatever of what it would mean to Christ.

We live in a world that has no understanding whatever of what it is for a life to be surrendered all for Jesus, given over to him. How beautiful this story is, as this woman comes and she crushes, symbolic perhaps, of everything that might resist in a life that deserved to honor her Lord. She crushes it.

There was no going back. It was all for him. How about it today? Am I speaking to anyone who understands from the Word of God what the Lord wants of me? The Savior says, follow me, and where are we to follow him? Where are we to mark his footsteps? Where are we to take the pathway that he sets out in front of us? We would learn that he lived according to a totally different value system.

They didn't see the Lord the way she did. Tell me this, how do you see him? What does he mean to you and me? Are we withholding from him something of such precious worth in his sight? This woman, of her it is said, wherever this story of the gospel is told, he says, this also shall be spoken of her. Oh, that every one of us would go in for that which is worth talking about, is worth telling over and over, is worth repeating to those around us.

We could turn again to Matthew's Gospel chapter 10, and in Matthew's Gospel chapter 10, the Savior talks about a cup of cold water given in his name. Oh, such a practical action. In some ways, it's almost a natural response.

Almost every table we sit down at, someone would say, would you like a glass of water? And it may be a very natural response, but perhaps it's so customary that we forget and think there's nothing good in it, or there's nothing that has benefited anyone. It's so little. Surely, it doesn't matter.

But our Lord Jesus says, in his eyes, a cup of cold water given in his name shall not lose its reward. We could turn on in the Scriptures to various parts and places. I think of that boy's lunch that we read of in John chapter 6. Andrew says, there's a lad here.

Thank God for a lad. A lad who had a lunch that he was willing to surrender. And the boy almost seemed forgotten in the story.

But we haven't heard the untold story yet. Perhaps the day is coming when that lad will be brought to our attention by the Lord himself. And we will realize that that boy's lunch was the very vehicle Christ could use to feed thousands there in their need.

I think, too, of what we might think or value in a life for God. Oh, to think of someone yielding their days, their time, their energies, their abilities, their skills, putting in his hand. What will you do with your two mites? I think about faith, and the Savior talks about faith even as a grain of mustard seed.

And the disciples had just asked, Lord, increase our faith. And the Savior reminds them that faith has more power than all the mighty bombs of earth. It does something in God's scheme of things that all the engineering couldn't bring about.

Then what about the souls of men? What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? But the sad part is that we can live our lives, put all our energies into the things of this life, and leave it all behind us someday. What about the souls of those around us? And what about a kindness, just to be kind one to another, just to show with a word, a little bit of encouragement to some who are down and weary? What about a visit? What does it mean to them? No, what does it mean to him? Our lives are before him. What will you do with your two mites? Trust that the Lord God will bless just these simple thoughts.

It's not a deep sermon, and I hope it surges our heart. What will you do with your two mites? It may seem so little, and it might mean everything to him.