We are in a sermon series called The Ministry of Jesus. We have been in that sermon series for about two years. I know it’s not an easy switch to go from what we just heard to a straight Bible lesson, but we’re going to give you one anyway. So if you have a Bible, you can turn to Mark Chapter 12. That’s where we’re going to be for today. Last week, we read and reviewed Matthew Chapter 23 and Jesus’s scathing rebuke of the religious leaders. That section of scripture we entitled the Seven Woes. And we listened as Jesus spoke of the sin of man, but also he revealed the heart of God, what God cares about was on display in that passage. In fact, hearing the things he detests in some ways is supposed to help us understand what he actually cares about. And we also learned to understand why he cares, because God loves people so much that he cannot stand them to be abused by religious broken systems. And so we saw that last week, the compassion of Jesus for those who have been abused by the Jewish system. And it feels like in every passage we look at, we have been seeing this.
Jesus challenges religious people, and then we see his love and compassion drive that correction. And today, we’ll be no different. In Mark 12, we are looking at Jesus. He is still in the temple. It’s Wednesday, and he will arrested on Friday, tried and then persecuted, I’m sorry, then crucified. And all of that is fast approaching. He’s in the temple courts, he’s teaching a mass of people. And we’re going to get to verse verse one. That’s our starting point for the sermon. But I need to just set up the context by reading you Mark 12:38. This is a summation, Mark’s summation of the seven woes of Matthew 23. This is what it says, As he taught, Jesus said, This is the seven woes just summarized for the Book of Mark. Watch out for the teachers of the law. They will walk around in flowing robes and greeted with respect in the marketplace and have the most important seats in the synagogue and the places of honor at banquets. We talked about all of this last week, but Mark, by way of the Holy spirit, adds another detail that then leads us into the story we’re going to read today.
I want you to capture verse 40. They devour widows’ houses. And for a show, make lengthy prayers. These men will be persecuted severely. Now, again, we studied most of this last week, but I’d like for you to note in the Bible, what it says in verse 40, They devour widows’ houses. The word devour is to consume, to eat up, to leave no trace. Jesus is saying that these men, these religious men, suffer to look up the resources of the most desperate in society in order to enrich themselves. That’s what they do. And then, seamlessly, the Bible moves from this account to the account in verse 41. Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put, and he watched crowds putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts, but a poor widow came. And put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents. Are you familiar with this story? You read this story before. Many of us have heard this story. We’ve even preached from this text before. We’ve talked a lot about this text. It’s a story often where we highlight the great piety of this woman.
We talk about her great faith. It’s a story that we read when we’re trying to encourage giving. And certainly Certainly in every Bible story, there are layers. In every account in scripture, we can teach many lessons. The power of the Holy spirit is amazing. You can read a passage today and come up with a lesson, and tomorrow, come up with a different lesson, and the next day, come up with a different lesson. Each of them are equally important in God’s eyes, and certainly that is true for this text. But I want us to be great students of the scriptures. If we’re going to be great students of the scriptures, it means that we need to read the Bible in context, right? We need to note To get the context. What is Jesus speaking about? Devouring widows. They devour widows. These religious people devour widows. They eat up all of their resources. They suck them dry for their own desire to be rich and their own desire to be wealthy. And then Mark, without missing a beat, goes, Jesus sat down opposite the places where the treasury is, where the offerings were being given. And who does he come?
Who does he see come over to the treasury? A poor widow. Why is this text here? Why is this story here? What is this there to teach us? Well, I’m going to answer that question. But before we do that, I just want to set the scene a little bit. This is an image of what the temple might look like. You could see what they would do is they put the treasury. The treasury is a place of these horn-shaped offering jars. They would be in the temple, there would be 19 of them, each of them for a different purpose, one to collect for the wood of the temple and for the gold of the temple and for the insects of the temple and for some new construction projects and some other things. And it’d be these big vessels there. And what would happen is they would put them in the woman’s court. The woman’s court was the court that’s accessible for anybody who wants to come. So of course, that’s where they would with the offering trays. Anybody could come give their offering. And so they would come to these trumpet-shaped receptacles, and each one of them, again, having their special dues.
And Jesus is sitting maybe on one of those steps, just looking and watching as a line forms for people to start dropping in their offering into these collection bins. It says that many rich people were there and they were dropping large sums of money. They’re not being stingy. They’re dropping large sums of money. It doesn’t say they’re being cheap. It doesn’t say that they’re not doing it well. It doesn’t say that they didn’t give a good offering. It just says they throw in large amounts. They gave a lot while they have a lot. And then over again Since that, Jesus sees a poor widow. He watches her. I don’t imagine that she’s old, just poor. A woman with nothing whose husband has died, and she is coming to the temple to worship. And as she gets there, she enters into that woman’s temple courtyard and she looks down at her money bag. It’s not fancy. It’s just a coin bag, maybe with just a couple of cents in it. She unties the string, she reaches in, grabs a couple of copper coins, and she throws in all she has. She’s poor. The word poor here is where we get our English word for destitute.
She’s destitute. She’s dropping in two small copper coins. That’s one 64th of a day’s wages. So for today, that’d be like, I don’t know, a buck or two. She’s throwing in nothing. This is all she has to live on. She drops them in that chauffeur-like receptacle, and Jesus is sitting down watching the offering. What does he say? Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. Why? They gave out of their wealth. He’s saying, Look, they have a lot of money, and they gave a lot of money. But what did this woman do? But she, out of her poverty, put in everything, all she had to live on. Note, he doesn’t degrade the sacrifice of others. He doesn’t say that they gave a lot and they were bad people. He just says they gave a lot. But you know who gave more? The person who gave everything. Here the widow comes. She has a little to give. In fact, it’s all she has to live on. Those who are watching don’t think it’s a lot, but proportionately, it’s 100 %.
A hundred % contribution. Bump the tithe. I give 10 times that. So the question comes, what is the point? How How does this little story about a poor widow fit into the greater narrative arc? Well, here’s what I want to just caution us about. Universally, this woman is presented to us as a model of dutifulness. She is a faithful giving against the ugly backdrop of a broken religious corrupt system. She has been talked about as a breath of fresh air to contrast the people who are not that way. She’s noble and godly who sacrifices is. And of course, that is true. She is trusting in God and all those stuff is wonderful. And there is a bit of the the Prophet Elijah and the widow of Zarephath in this story. There’s some trust. There’s some living in a way that honors God. And typically when we read this, our focus is on the idea that this woman trusts in God in a tremendous way. And then the response is, we ought to trust in God in that same way, and maybe rightly so. But I just want to make sure you know the main point of this text is not that.
The main point isn’t that this woman is some great hero, though she may be. The main thing in view from the context of this passage is not that the woman is a hero, but that she is a victim. How do we know that she’s a victim? Well, Jesus says one verse before, These men devour widows’ households. They take everything from the poorest in society to enrich themselves. Jesus sits down and says, Here comes a poor widow. Here she comes. And here she is being devoured. Her outward action is simply evidence of a system destroying a widow. She’s destitute. She’s got two cents left. She’s brought it all. Could we say, look, she’s an example of faithful giving? Certainly. But that’s not the main point of the text. The fact is these people, these religious leaders, are okay with the woman giving everything she has left to live on so that they can enrich themselves. That’s the sign of a corrupt religious system. You don’t hear a lot of preachers talking about this, so let me just stop for a second. People who perpetrate this con on television and on Facebook, and on they should be condemned.
That’s the truth. What they do is they take from the most vulnerable in society, and then they go, look, I’m going to sell you some healing water. I’m going to sell you a miracle. If you just pull out the seed of your faith and give us the last meal you have to live on, everything’s going to be okay. God certainly, I think, will bless the heart of those people. But the people who do those things are to be condemned. That’s the point of the text. This isn’t about giving. This is about taking. Taking from someone who the system was supposed to protect. The Bible tells us very clearly that widows are actually a higher level of care than everyone else in the church. I don’t know if you knew this, but James 1:27 says, Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this, to Look after orphans and widows in their distress. What should have been happening in this situation is that religious system should have gone, Widow, hold on. What do you need? How can we take care of you? How can we supply for your needs? But instead, they coerced someone to giving their last dollar all they had to live on.
And everywhere Christianity goes, this scam continues to follow. This should a warning to the contemporary preachers who pray on single women and single moms and older people who have their main contingency, who are the main contingency of these TV evangelists and those charlatans on Facebook. I want to give you my own woe. Woe to you who sell your miracle water to the destitute. Woe to you who become wealthy, you self-indulgent TV preachers who become rich on the back of the lowly and the poor and the disillusioned. Woe Woe to you who indulge in your 10,000 a night hotel rooms and claim revelation from God and spend $100,000 a month on a private jet, taking money from people who are desperate. Woe to you. Will you not escape judgment? Look, the Bible is super clear about this. The Bible is super clear about this. The poor in our midst should be taken care of by the religious system, not taken advantage of. And so what I did for you is ruin probably one of the most important giving passages in all of the Bible. And I want to apologize. And so that is really the text, right?
This is a passage about taking. That’s what this passage is about. And so I just like to recommend, and certainly you could talk about the faithfulness of this woman. Amen. But this isn’t the first giving passage you should look at. There’s other ones that you can look at. In fact, I don’t want to leave you feeling like, wow, God doesn’t think we should give, because that would be wrong also. And so for the rest of this time, I’m going to make a drastic turn. We’re turning here. Just follow me. We’re like a F1 car. There’s a corner. Turning, fully turning. We just study out the passage. You got it. I want to just talk a little bit about Christian view of money for just a little bit. Can you stay with me? Yes. All right. Okay. Christian view of money. Are you with me? So if that passage of scripture is not a great giving passage, then what is a great giving passage? Well, there’s about a thousand. There’s about a thousand that teach other things. And I want to talk about this because in our series, we haven’t spent a lot of time talking about money.
We haven’t, even though Jesus spoke more about money than any other prophet. And money is probably the best barometer of your spirituality because the way you handle your money is a great indication of your spiritual stewardship. You handle money all the time, right? You pay bills. I hope you do. You receive your paychecks. You save, right? It’s the only commodity that you can literally watch moment by moment. You can see if you’re doing well with it, you can see if you’re doing poor with it. And so it’s a good indication of your discipline and of your stewardship. And so I want to talk about the four ways that God talks about money. I’m going to do it quickly, and then I’m going to end with giving, and I promise I’m not going to use the poor widow as an example. Are you ready? Here you go. I want to talk about four areas. Four areas. How we feel about money. How do you feel about money? Question mark, question mark, question mark. How we earn How are we to earn money biblically? How we spend money, and then how we give. Okay? One, two, three, four.
Those two things. The total of these ideas, I think, speak to the stewardship that the Bible talks about biblically. I’m going to give you a lesson to chew on, to think about. You go home, you figure it out. Here it is. First thing, how should we feel about money? The Bible references money more often than almost any other subject. Let me tell you what it tells us. Number one, first Timothy 6:10. I’m not going to read the passages. I’m just going to reference them. First Timothy 6:10. Here’s what it says we’re supposed to do. It says, The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. First principle, how should you feel about money? Don’t love it. Don’t love it. Don’t love money. You know what love is? You want to be around things you love. You want to keep it close. You care about it. You’re like, Come on, baby, I take care of you. Whatever. Don’t do that. The way you act with your spouse, don’t act with money. You look into her eyes. Don’t look at your bank account like that. Don’t love it. If it turns its back on you, it doesn’t actually turn its back on you.
It’s just a commodity. Don’t love it. Don’t love it. Don’t desire its attention. Don’t try to pursue it. Don’t be like, Come on, come over to my side. Don’t love it. Don’t love money. Second thing the Bible tells us, 1 Timothy 6:17. Same thing. The Bible tells us to charge those who are rich not to trust money. Don’t trust it. Don’t look at the account and see $1,000 and go, I’m rich. It’s amazing. Oh, thank you, money. You helped me. Don’t do that. Don’t trust in your wealth. Trust in God. Money can’t do anything for you. It’s just a commodity. It comes in, it comes out, it comes in, it comes out. Don’t think that because you have a lot of it, you’ll be taken care of, and because you have nothing, you won’t be taken care of. That’s not the way you’re supposed to think about money. It’s just a commodity. It comes in, it comes out. And if God blesses you and allows you to be rich, then that’s a blessing from him. That’s his choice, not yours. And if God makes you so that you are relatively poor or you feel like you don’t have a lot, you are all the more prepared to trust in God.
Don’t trust in money. Don’t have it change your attitude. Don’t get happy when you get a little bit more, and don’t get sad when you have a little bit less. Don’t trust it. Third thing, Matthew 6:24 tells us, You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God and money. Don’t serve money. Don’t serve it. Meaning don’t go out of your way to figure out how to make it so that it’s in a perfect position where it can’t be taken from you. Don’t treat it like it’s one of your children. Don’t serve your money. There’s one other thing the Bible tells us, and this is probably important for you to note, don’t hoard it. Don’t take it and then think, All right, this is all mine and no one else’s. ‘ Don’t be Schmiegel or whatever his name is. Schmiegel? That’s not his name. I forgot his name. Whatever his name is. Don’t do that. Don’t hoard it. First Timothy 6, a lot of these passages come from there. I’m going to read you the passage. Just listen to how convicting it is. Those who want to be rich fall into many harmful lusts. Don’t hoard it.
The goal isn’t to just keep it so that you have it forever. We should regard money. We should not regard money as our own. It’s God. We are simply stewards of it. Next, how do we earn money? First of all, we learn the scriptures. It’s actually a pretty important element of scripture. We learn the scripture that we are not to steal. You might think to yourself, well, that’s good because I never steal. Psalm 37:21, The wicked borrow and don’t pay it back. If you borrow and don’t pay it back, you are stealing. Don’t steal. Don’t steal. There’s a lot of ways to steal. In fact, Amós 8:5, Hoseia 12:7, the prophet talks about falsifying your balances so you don’t have to pay your taxes. You get money, You’re supposed to pay your taxes on it. Don’t steal. Don’t lie to the government because you found some loophole. Don’t do that. Now, obviously, you can talk to a CPA and they might help you with company, whatever, whatever, whatever. But the point is, I don’t know that stuff. Talk to Paul. But don’t steal it. Don’t take what’s not yours. So how do you earn it?
Well, you can receive it as a gift. You could be gifted. The Bible is very clear on the subject. In fact, Paul says, Look, all the money I got is a gift. All of his wealth is a gift. So you can be gifted money. I’m certainly a beneficiary of such things. In the Old Testament, people receive an inheritance without working for it. An inheritance is a gift. It’s fine to be gifted money. That’s a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful thing. Another thing you can do biblically, if you want to earn money is to inherit. I already said that. I meant to put the word invest here. You can invest. Matthew 5:27. Jesus rebukes the guy who doesn’t put the money on to get interest. He goes, Why don’t you at least put it with the banker? You could have got something. So you should earn money by investing. You should be wise in doing that. And the last way you get money in the most talked about way in the Bible is what? Work. Work. Six days you work, and on the seventh day, you rest. If you’re like, Look, I want to do a two day work week?
I don’t know if you’re following the biblical example. You’re laughing. I’m not. I’m just saying, work. You should be working. You should be working. Proverbs 28:17, He that tills his land shall have plenty of bread. The Bible tells us, If you do not work, you do not eat. You should work. Now, I know there’s many of you who say, Look, I’m disabled. I am retired. Look, that’s a bit of investment, right? You paid your Social Security and the government has given back to you. Amen. That’s wonderful. Or maybe you’re gifted because maybe you have a parent that has supplied you or a loved one that gave you an inheritance. Amen. Wonderful. But the vast majority of us should be relying on the income we receive that comes from our work. From our work work. Now, how should we be spending our money? That’s the next question. How should we spend it? Okay, first of all, we are to provide for the needs of our family and for the brotherhood. I want to read you a text. This is intense, serious talk. First Timothy 5:8. If a man does not provide for his household, he is worse than an unbeliever.
You know the unbeliever that you talking about how they’re condemned? Worst than that is someone who does not take care of their family. How should you spend your money? You should be taking care of your family, the needs of your family. And I actually think this is a progressive order, so you’ll see it as it comes. You also should be taking care of the needs of the brotherhood. The Bible says in 1 John 3, that if you see a brother that has need and you do not meet it, you don’t have the love of God. So you should be taking care of the brotherhood. If you see someone here that’s struggling, you should be thinking, Yeah, I want to figure out how I can help them. How can I help them? Now, should you be in a perpetual state of helping the same person over and over again? Maybe not. Maybe there’s some wisdom to not doing that. But the Bible does tell us that we should provide for our family and provide for the brotherhood. Do you want to see the next place we’re supposed to put our money? This is progressive. Are you ready?
Very important for a lot of us here. Pay debts. Romans 13, owe no person anything except what? Love. I’ll give you a verse that’s really interesting. This is second Kings 4:4, verse seven. You ready for this? It says, Go sell the oil and pay your debts. Go sell your oil and go pay your debts and live with the rest, you and your children. Pay your debts. The Bible is so clear about this subject, man. Pay your debt. I think this is progressive. Take care of your family. Pay your debts. Third, next thing, save it. Make wise investments. In Proverbs 30, there are four animals that are talked about as being wise. The badger, I think the crow. I forgot what the third one is, and the ant. And the ant. It says that they are small on the Earth, but exceedingly wise. Do you know why? They put food away in the summer for the winter. You should be saving your money. You’re smart enough to know that at some point in your life, you’re going to need it. So you should save some money. Save for the future. It’s a responsible thing. It’s a biblical thing.
It’s a wise thing. Ready for the last thing? Again, I want to say this is progressive. The last thing is it’s for enjoyment. You think, what? Did the preacher just say, I could enjoy my money? Yes. First Timothy 6:17. It says, Command those who are rich in this current age to be generous, not to put not to put their hope in wealth, but in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Is it okay to spend money to go on vacation? Certainly. You don’t have to be like, Guys, I’m going on vacation. I bought a new car. You don’t have to do that. It’s okay. If God has allowed you to have enough where you can do these three things, it’s okay to enjoy the resources that you’ve been given. It’s okay. But if you have a million dollars in debt and you’re going on vacation, I’m just letting you know that may not be something that God or Father is very excited about. Again, you are laughing. I am not. Okay, all this is a good barometer for our Christian life. How you handle money, just like how you handle everything else, just like how you care for your children, just like how you care for your spouse, just like how you handle every dimension of your life, your work.
These are good barometers. But I believe that the credibility of your Christianity is manifested in the handling of your resources. I know how you’re doing spiritually by how you handle your money. If you’re just swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, and you’re piled high in debt, I know that your Christianity, there’s something funky there. So I’m just saying it’s a good thing for you to get serious about this now. These are lessons that come from God. Now, the major issue in the scriptures is not how you receive it or how you spend it or how you earn it or any of that. The major issue in scriptures is about giving. What about giving? This is the dominant issue in scripture. And I mentioned this before, the widow’s offering isn’t the message. It’s not whatever you have, open your wallets right right now, everyone, dump it in. Let’s do it 100%, go for it. That’s not the message in the scriptures. I’m just letting you know. Also, it’s not 10%. It’s not 10%. That’s taxation. You know what I’m saying? It’s not like, give 10%, otherwise you’re not in this church. It doesn’t work. It’s also not give your last thoughts, your last fruits.
It’s not sell everything, it’s not that. So what is the biblical model? Well, I want to give you a passage of scripture. I was going to put it on the screen. Did I put it on the screen? Let’s see. I did. Okay. Exodus 25:1. Are you ready? The Lord said to Moses, he’s about to build the tabernacle. We say the Old Testament, you tithe, the New Testament, you don’t tithe, or something like that. But I want you to see what God is actually saying when it comes to giving. Tell the Israeli to bring me an offering. So there is a command for you to be generous. First Timothy 6 tells me, I should be, as an evangelist, telling you to be generous. Be generous. I should be doing that. God is telling Moses, Tell the people to bring an offering. You are to receive the offering for me, here it is, from everyone whose hearts prompts them to give. The job of the pastors, of the teachers, of the evangelists, of the elders, is to encourage you to have a generous heart. But at the end of the day, it’s anybody whose heart prompts them to give.
Those whose hearts are willing should give. How about giving? I could spend two hours on this subject. I’m not going to do it. Just trust me on this, or you could study it out yourself. Anyone who looks at the work of God and says, I want to be a part of that. I want to be a part of that work. Look, I see what God is doing, and I want to be a part of what God is doing. That prompting in your heart then should make you go, All right, I want to give. I want to be a part of what we’re doing. Now, I should be telling you, be generous. And you should be saying, Okay, I want to be generous because I’m so blessed by God in such a tremendous way that I want to be generous. You say to me, Well, how much should I give? How about whatever you’re willing? How about whatever you’re willing? And someone might say, Well, how are you going to hit your budget if you ask for that? That’s a stupid idea. I’ll say this, in Exodus 36, when this offering was collected, they had to tell people to stop Our giving.
I hope we get to that point someday here, where I go, look, our budget is this. We’re so far over it that I can’t even… Guys, just give it to somebody else. I hope we get to that one day. I hope we get there one day. But I want to make a note that our giving here has been amazing. It has been amazing. You guys, everything you do, I don’t know if you know this, but our plan here has been to create a ministry that benefits everybody in every life stage, that we can show evidence of the gospel of Jesus Christ having an actual effect on people’s lives in a daily basis. And I think you guys have seen that. And so because you’ve seen that, you’ve gone, All right, I’m willing. Let’s go. Let’s give. And God has just blown… It’s been so encouraging. That’s really what we want. There’s no taxes here. Those whose hearts are willing should give. I want to read you one more passage. It comes from the Old Testament. It says this is Deuteronomy 16:17. Every man shall give as he is able. How should you be giving according to the blessings of the Lord your God has given you?
So if you go, look, I have been so blessed by God, then you should be thinking, how can I then multiply that blessing? That’s the way you should be thinking. Now, no one’s going to yell at you because we found some random percentage that wasn’t right. No one’s doing that. But you should be thinking to yourself, if I’ve been blessed, I should participate in that. It’s all a free thing, not under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver. I want to say this last thing Required giving is taxation, and we are not the government. This is the gospel, and we believe it’s free giving. It’s free giving. If you have been blessed, you should come and you should give based on what you desire. And I want to say thank you for your amazing generosity. Every week we hope to raise our budget is something like $30,000 a week for the ministry and for all the full-time stuff and for the fact that the lights are on and the doors are open and the property is managed and the internships and next generation projects. And there’s a million things that can go on and on and on and on and on Come and do it and be generous.
It’s an amazing thing, but it’s not under compulsion. God loves a cheerful giver. I want to say something lastly. Can I talk to this camera, Chevy? Yeah? Okay. If you’ve been watching us online for a really long time and you’ve been blessed by our ministry, we’d love for you to participate in giving here, too. If you don’t want to, that’s also okay. That’s it. Imagine Jesus watching the offering. He comes in here and he watches us. I hope that he does not see a single person under compulsion, dropping in the last two pennies they have to live on. I hope that he sees people who have been tremendously blessed by God, participating in the growth and multiplication of the Kingdom of God. I wanted to throw up just the giving slide for those who are new who don’t know how to do this. This is how we give on the church. Again, this is not some It’s a coercive exercise, I promise. You can go to the church website. There’s a little container in the back, or you can text this number. You can scan that QR code if you want to give. The difference between a widow who’s devoured and a free will giving is simply this idea that it’s not under compulsion because God loves a cheerful giver.
Amen? All right, let’s pray. Father, what an interesting service we had today. Lord, we heard We heard some amazing songs. We had a really awesome interview, Lord, and then we got to talk about giving. Father, I pray today. Lord, I feel like two profound thoughts. The first thing I feel, Lord, is that I want to… Lord, I pray that you would rebuke in every religious institution, including this one, anything that feels like coercion. Father, take that out of us, God. God, allow us to have out of us that system of just that broken system, Father, and then replace us with a system of generosity that comes by way of our heart. Father, you talk so often about giving. The first offering ever given, Cain and Abel. Father, you looked upon one favorably and the other one without favor. God, you care about what we give. That That is totally true, Lord. But I pray that it never feels like, Lord, that there is some taxes to be paid. God, allow us to really have that freedom to believe that we can give as you have given us, as you have blessed us, so that we’re not restrained by some percentage we came up with, but that we really can open our hearts wide to the work of your gospel.
Father, I also pray right now as we think about the communion, as we have this quiet moment of reflection every Sunday, I think I pray we can just think about what Jesus offered and how our love is so interconnected to our offering and how he’s willing to offer so much because he loves so much. Father, I pray that our love will catch up to the place you want us to be. Father, I pray that we’ll love like Jesus loved, truly. We’ll love our brotherhood, we’ll love our family, that we won’t love ourselves so much that it’s hard for us to see beyond our immediate needs. God, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for his sacrifice. Thank you for his sacrifice on the cross, for the blood that was spilled, and for the juice we drink as a reminder of that, and for his body that was broken, and the bread we eat as a reminder of that sacrifice. We love you, Lord. We thank you. It’s in Jesus’ name. Amen.