Followership – Generous in Every Way is the stewardship stop in our series on being a follower of Jesus. I want to share a story with you.
The Wrong Bill
There once was a man who was away on business, but he found a church from his church body and he attended the Sunday morning worship. Back in the day they still passed offering plates, and the man opened up his wallet and put a $5 bill in the plate. The service concluded and on the way out the man was shocked as he looked into his wallet for lunch money only to find that of the two bills in his wallet – one a $5 and the other a $500 bill – the $500 bill was missing! He had accidentally put the $500 into the offering plate. Oops. Accidents happen. So he approached the preacher, explained what had happened. The pastor pointed him to one of the back rooms where the counting team was already hard at work counting the offering from the Sunday services. The man shared his story and sure enough, the team had found the $500 bill in the plate. He asked if he could have it back and the lead person on the counting team told him that he didn’t know the man, he believed him but that he didn’t feel comfortable taking money out of the offering plate. If the visitor wanted to take the $500 bill back he would have to do it himself. He stood there for a moment and then said well, I guess today God got a $500 gift. The counter said, no God actually got a $5 gift.
Faith in The Heart
The size of your gift doesn’t matter – it’s what’s in your heart. The writer to the Hebrews writes about Abel in the heroes of faith chapter. By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
It was by faith that the widow and yes maybe some of the rich folks gave an acceptable gift to their Lord. That’s what makes your gift acceptable too. Followers of Jesus are generous in every way.
Want to hear more? Watch this week’s message taken from Mark 12 Followership – Generous in Every Way.
Book(s): Mark
Series: Followership
Tag(s): Greed, Pride, Stewardship
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg