03/02/2025-Pastor Cody Harlow - Mark 12:38-44 Who are You Pleasing

Jesus sees their hearts. And secondly, as we look here, the second sign of a of a heart that seeks man's approval is that they speak righteousness, but they lack true obedience. Scribes made sure that everyone thought that they were righteous through their prayers and through their teachings. They would have these big long drawn out public prayers. And they would pray that way, not because they privately prayed like that, but because people would go, "Wow, look at those words that he's using." Can you imagine praying like that? It's, you know, maybe maybe you pray in an old King James. I don't know. I never talk like that, so I struggle with that a little bit. But it's like Cloud Froolo. You guys know him from the Hunchback of Notream. Oh, that's a little darker than I thought it would be. Right. This is one of the best bad guys in all of Disney history. In the opening scene, he is trying to get rid of all the gypsies in France, right? And so he accidentally kills Quasimoto's fro mother. And as he looks at Quasimoto, he's about to take the baby over into the well to drop it into there and destroy the child. And, of course, he's caught by a priest there in Notraam. And, he's like, you know, you need to stop this. God sees you. He sees everything that you were doing. And this man, the judge Froolo, he claimed to be righteous. He claimed to be devout. But his actions were motivated by hatred, by oppression by lust. Shows his true heart. And he was trying to justify his horrific actions under the guise of serving God. And things don't

Change do they? The scribes, they would teach the true things of God. In other words, they were right in what they taught and they knew all the answers, but what they taught only resided in their head and never worked its way down into the heart and therefore it never impacted their actions or their lives. That's why we teach at the end of all of our sermons, head, heart, hand. It's because what we know must impact what we believe and what we believe should impact our actions. This is exactly what Jesus tal or James talks about in chapter 2 verse 24 when he says that you see a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Now as someone that holds very dearly to the five solas I read that and I wrestle with that. But the question there is what does he mean by justified? How does he use that? Isn't that he's talking there about salvation in its ongoing process. We cannot say that we are saved if there's never been any impact, no difference in the way that we live our lives. I've used this sermon illustration several times. Imagine for a moment that I was on my way here and let's say that's about 9 oh let's say 11:10 11:15 you guys have been waiting for me to get here and I come in and I walk up and I say you know I'm I'm so sorry I wasn't able to be here on time. On my way in, I got a flat tire and as I was on the side of the road and I was changing my tire, a logging truck came by and just ran me over and I got up and I dusted myself off and I said, "Okay." Got my tire changed and I got here as quickly as possible. I'm very sorry that I'm late. What would you say to me? Yeah, right. Thank you. Thank you. You would think that I'm a liar. Why?

I don't see any tires. Yeah. No tire tracks. Yeah. Yeah. Like, where's the broken bones? I mean, if you get hit by a logging truck, there should be something there. Horribly mangled at least. But the fact is that there's no evidence of that. And I would argue with you that a logging truck is much more powerful than the sovereign God of universe. If there's no difference between your life before Christ and after Christ, where's the evidence? Where's the evidence that you know God? Jesus, he said in Matthew 23, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses's seat, "So do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice." See, you can know all the answers. You can look the right way, whatever that is. You can use all the right words and know the Christianes and the theological words, but if you don't know and love God, what's it all for? John Calvin, he said, "There is no worse screen to block out the spirit than confidence in our own intelligence." What are you trusting in? Do you know of God or do you know God? Do you just have second knowledge of who God is or do you have firsthand experience with his presence? You know, there was once a lighthouse keeper that warned day and night, "Watch out for the rocks, everyone. Watch out for the rocks." And he would yell as loud as he could. And day after day, there were shipwrecks right outside of his lighthouse. See, he never made sure that his light was on. His words didn't match his actions. How on earth can we say come to Christ, repent, and believe the Gospel if our lives don't match it? The next sign is burdening others

Instead of serving. Jesus, he goes on into this in detail in Matthew chapter 23. He says this, "They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with a finger." Later on in the chapter, he says this, "But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of God of heaven in people's faces, for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel across sea and land to make a single procelite. When he becomes a proelite, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. Many churches, they put barriers in the way of Christ. Instead of offering the free grace that's available through repentance and belief in Christ, say you need to repent and believe the Gospel and insert the teaching there. The truth is that salvation is a free gift to whosoever would come and you are a whosoever and Christ has made payment so that you don't have to do anything that humans say but rather what does Jesus say to the Jews and to the Greeks repentance a testimony of repentance toward God and of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. These men instead of choosing to serve widows were devouring widows homes. They were taking advantage of them and their loneliness in order to build up their bank accounts. I heard a story on local news about a dance instructor that he would he would target widows and he would say, "Come and be a part of my class. You'll you'll find connection, you'll find closeness, you'll find friendship. You know, you can dance close and it'll be great. And so all of these women were joining his dance instructing class. The problem was is that cost hundreds of dollars every single month.

And he actually went to a home of a of a widow. And she said, "I'm sorry. I just cannot afford that." And he said, "That's okay. I'll drive you down to the bank so that way you can take out a second mortgage on your house. That way you can be a part of this." You see, God, he has a special place for people that are all alone. For the widow, for the orphan, they are among the most vulnerable. And God, he cares deeply about them. And yet the scribes, they would go to these vulnerable widows homes and basically convince them, if you are truly righteous, then you will give away all that you have. If you really have faith, things really haven't changed much have they? Also, they're driven by pride instead of humility. The greetings in the marketplaces were full of titles like rabbi and master, father. The Talmud states that a person must greet one who is greater than he in knowledge of Torah. This is what Jesus says. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. Whoever exalts himself will be exalted. This is what Jesus said because Jesus is the greatest example of humility. Instead of asking others to wash his feet, he stooped down to wash theirs. Instead of telling others to pay for their own sins, Jesus Christ, the son of God, came and he was laid bare and he drank the full cup of God's wrath on our behalf. Jesus, he earlier warned the disciples against the levven of the Pharisees and the levven of Herod. That's a warning against pride, against greed, against the corruption that the scribes had which leads to them being condemned by God. Their hypocrisy is a strong judgment leads to a strong judgment from Jesus. Listen what Jesus says. He says,

"You serpents, you brood of vipers. How are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore, I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom of whom you will kill and crucify, some you will fogg in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that you may come so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachchariah, the son of Veriah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Can you imagine being a scribe and hearing that in the temple? You might say, "That's not very nice." That's the 11th commandment which is added by man. Thou shalt be nice. These teachers, they were charged by God to teach the law as teachers, but they were expected to obey the law, being part of God's chosen people. They weren't concerned with people knowing God. They weren't concerned with people serving God. They were concerned with people following the law and their desires. And as a result, their condemnation is harsher than others. And that's a warning for myself, for elders, for Sunday school teachers, for missionaries. We are held not to a different standard. We are held to the same standard in a tighter way because God doesn't have different standards. Next, let's change it up here, okay? Because this has all been pretty heavy. But let's take a look at the heart that seeks God's approval. You see, the scene changes from Jesus pronouncing judgment and woes on the scribes to Jesus being near the temple treasury which was in the court of women so that anyone would be able to give. The temple treasury. It was the national bank of Israel and there were 13 places bronze bins pretty much where people would be able to give their donations. Giving to the Lord was

Established shortly after Israel was delivered from Egypt. The people of God, they were told to give lavishly for the construction of the tabernacle. And so they brought gold and silver and skins and dyes and wood and oil and spices and all sorts of stuff for the worship of God. And after the tabernacle was built and all the outfits for the priests were made and everything was done, God he continued on and he gave rules for tithing for the people of God. Most of the tithes were grain because it was an agrarian society. Grain, oil, livestock, things like that. But for those that live really far away, well, you know, what was allowed was for them to actually sell that livestock off, to sell off the grain and the oil and things like that and to bring that silver or gold in and give that as their offerings. And those gifts are what supported the Levites and the priests. It's what empowered even Jewish ministry to continue on there in Israel. And the people, they participated in this joyfully. They willingly came forward and they gave lavishly. And I love I love what Thomas said is that he's not Jesus doesn't condemn the people that are giving out of their abundance. But what he does is he emphasizes the heart of the widow there. The heart that is seeking God's approval. And what does she give? She gives two small copper coins and then she slips away. She slips in, drops it in and goes away. See, God, he sees every single thing that you do. And he sees the heart behind your actions as well. And there's a few things that we can learn from our widow friend here about the kind of heart that seeks God's approval. Firstly, they give with a sincere heart. God is not concerned as much with the amount as he is with the heart behind

It. I recently saw Bill Gates sitting down with a late night host and he was talking about if he lost 99% of his wealth, he'd still have over a billion dollars to live on. Which is just astounding to me. I'm just I mean like if we took all the collective wealth gathered in this room, we wouldn't even make even anywhere close to a dent in that. That's just it's shocking to me to think that someone can have that much. But let's say that Bill Gates gave away that hundred billion dollars, right? Over a hundred billion. I think it's like 125 billion that he could give away without feeling it. And he gave it all away. Let's say they gave it to missions organizations and churches and all that kind of stuff. Let's say they did all of that. God is not impressed with that. It's not like God just, wow, that's pretty good because God is not impressed with what's given away if the heart behind it is not pure. The widow's offering was small, but it was sacrificial and it was full of love and trust and God, he took that little offering, that simple offering. And how many thousands of times has God multiplied that offering over and over and over again by her faithful example. And Jesus, he saw her act of obedience. He saw her love. He saw her devotion. And this is the kind of devotion that you and I are called to as well. She gave with sincerity. And you know, we've got wealthy people in our church. We got poor people in our church. We got people that give regularly. We got people that probably need to work on that. We got the point is don't look at what other people are doing or what they have. What you need to focus on is what is God calling you to do. Are you trusting God? Do you have a Godword view of your offering? Because that's ultimately why

We give. When you give, it empowers ministry here at FBC. When you give, it doesn't just go to pay for utilities. It goes to reach this community with the Gospel. It supports local ministries and mission work. It allows us to make plans and execute them to minister to our community. And you are called to give. But I want you to consider the heart behind your giving. Secondly, God, we learn this that she trusts in God's provision. And the heart that's ultimately God seeking God's approval is going to trust in his provision as well. The widow, she gave everything that she had. And I do not believe that Jesus allowed for her to go and starve. And I don't think that this is prescriptive for every Christian either. Okay? She followed the Lord. She obey obeyed him, relied on him. And in that same way, when we follow God and obey God and what he's leading us to do, he takes care of us as well. And you contrast that with the scribes, she quietly gave. They loudly proclaimed their righteous actions. Poor lady probably never wanted anyone in the world to ever notice what she did. And yet God saw fit to write it down in history for us to follow as an example. And she gave these mites that word might okay it's actually the Greek word lepa which means peeled in the Greek means like a really flexible thin piece of copper. It's a thin coin. It's worth about 132nd of a daenerius. That's a day's wage. So about 15 minutes of work manual labor. Enough enough for a small meal. Okay. From McDonald's or something like that. What she's doing is she's giving up her daily bread, her meal for the day in order to demonstrate her love of God. She's showing I not to anyone else, but she's just quietly showing God, I trust you to meet my needs.

Next, we learn that it's a heart that is all about seeking God's approval, is humble, and is not seeking recognition. She slips in unnoticed, slips away unnoticed. Only person that sees her or knows anything is Jesus. She's not seeking the praises of men, and she's not showing everyone how holy she is for missing her meal for the day. Jesus gives and slips away. And Jesus, he commends those that are humble and meek. Listen to what the Scripture says. The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. In our world today, you have celebrities. They get together for different fundraisers. They might sing for the fires in LA or they might try to support things for Hurricane Katrina or things like that. But you know what? What if the cameras weren't there? What if no one saw them taking a picture with a sick child at St. Jude's? Would they still give? What if they didn't receive a big bronze plaque for the amount that they gave? Would they still do it? Thomas Watson, the Puritan, he said, "Humility is the ornament of angels and pride the deformity of devils. Finally, we learn that the heart of a pleaser loves God above all else. Love God. Like it or not, your money shows where your heart is. Okay? We know that on a political level. We see where our budget goes. We're learning more about that every day. Shows itself in our business, how we conduct that. But it shows itself ultimately in our homes. The widow's actions shows a love for God and that it's about devotion not performance. God, he wasn't concerned about the amounts being given in their offerings. He cares about our hearts. And this lesson, it helps us to understand that for those of us that

Don't have much, we can still give with joy and enthusiasm. And we can still give sacrificially and hilariously. We can pray as we give God the offerings and we can just delight. God, I know that it's not much, but it's all I have. Would you take it and do something great with it? And he will because he's God and he's good. I would say that a small offering delights God more when our heart is right than extravagant gifts that have an eye towards others. Generosity in the kingdom is measured by the heart. It's measured by, as Thomas said earlier, by our faith, not by the amount given in the plate. So let me ask you this. How is the posture of your heart in giving? Do you give grudgingly? Do you give joyfully? Is it something that you want to cling to or is this something that you have with an open hand and say, "God, what do you want to do with it?" 1 Corinthians 13:3 it says, "If I gave away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." God, he knows our motivations. What a comfort that is, but also what a terror that is. Where do you land on that knowing that God sees the motives of your heart? Couple of things that I think that we should clarify here is that God, he can do amazing things with tiny offerings. Absolutely incredible things. If there is love and sacrifice with that giver, there will be spiritual power in that gift. I truly believe that what churches need is more hearts like the heart of that widow. One that gives sincerely, one that is trusting in God's provisions, one that is humble and loves God above all else. We also learned that at the

Judgment, Christ, he's going to square all those accounts. Now, we don't know what happened to this woman. We don't know what happened with the scribes in this world. But the scribes that disobeyed God, they're held to a much tighter account and they were judged. This widow, she will also have her works revealed. Also, we learn that God, he shows no favoritism here. Rich or poor, M dived D, Charles Spurgeon or a believer in Papua New Guinea. God, he sees the heart. You know, some folks they serve the Lord believing that only their service is good enough. What does your service reveal about you? What does your giving reveal? What does your attitude when you're not being watched by others? Is it sharp? Is it judgy? Is it patient? Is it gentle? The whole point is that God, he wants us. He wants our heart. He wants all of us. And yet we cannot give ourselves to him apart from our offerings. So big question is what is your heart going after? Scribes, they live for applause and they were condemned. And you and I, we are called to live as followers of Christ with a godward focus. We're called to seek the things that are above and to set our minds on the things above. And if we're looking for the approval of men, we're not going to look for the approval of God. And if you live in such a way where you are more concerned with what God thinks than what man thinks, you can be sure that folks are going to think that you're pretty weird. The widow, she lived for God. She was praised by Christ. She gave all that she had to demonstrate her love for the Lord. But you know, we can look at the scribe and we can look at the widow and we can use those as contrasting

Examples. But the absolute best example of humility and of sacrifice and of giving of oneself is Jesus Christ. He emptied himself and he became human and subjected himself to being lied about, to being accused, by being beaten and mocked, murdered, and all because it was God's will. And all because of his great love. The word says, "I am the good shepherd." The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Later on in that chapter, I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my father knows me. Just as the father knows me and I know the father, I lay down my life for the sheep. He goes on to say later on, greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends. Jesus, he laid down his life and he made the greatest sacrifice and it wasn't filled with money. There wasn't enough money in the entire universe to pay us in debt. But it took the precious blood of Jesus Christ. What's your heart going after? Are you concerned with what others think? Are you concerned about what God thinks? And your answer to that question reveals a lot about the state of your soul. I pray that you would have a heart that seeks God's approval. It doesn't start with your actions, though. Let's make that clear. You can't obey your way into the kingdom of God. You can't say, "You know what, pastor, you're right. I'm just going to buckle down and do better." It's not about doing better. The whole point of the sermon is that he wants your heart. You must turn away from your sin. You must believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ day in and day out. God, he created us to know him and to glorify him. But we've all sinned. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. But because of our sin, we deserve God's judgment. But in his love, God sent Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man to live a sinless life and to die on the

Cross as perfect sacrifice for our sins. And Jesus, he rose from the dead, defeating sin and death. And now he offers salvation as a free gift to all who repent and trust in him alone. So would you believe in Jesus today? Head, heart, hand, head. I want you to know or God wants you to know that people pleasing is empty and leads to destruction. So don't be deceived by your works, by people's thoughts or opinions or comments about you. The only opinion that really matters is God's heart. God wants you to believe that he sees your heart and values sincerity over show. Your penny or your entire purse is secondary to your heart. God, he sees it and he knows it. Do you know where your heart is? A truly God-honoring person will reflect the heart of the widow and all that we've learned about today. In hand, God wants you to live in faith, generosity, and in humble devotion to God. Now, as is our custom on the first Sundays of the month, we are going to transition into a time of communion. And so, if you would bow your heads and close your eyes with me as brother Jim comes forward, to lead us in the partaking of the Lord's supper. So, God, we do love you and we thank you for this great day that you've given to us and we just thank you for your mercy and we just pray that we would know that we know where our heart is, where our faith is, where our trust is, God. Help us Lord to live sacrificially, to live generously, not for others to see our righteousness, but for you to be supremely loved in our lives. God, help us to walk with you, to know you more and more each and every day. We thank you for your grace and your kindness. And as our thoughts and our minds transition to your supper that you invite us to, we pray that's with great gladness u with

Joy and with great anticipation of your return God that we would partake in this supper together. We love you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, I wanted first to thank all the deacons and the men that are took the time today to prepare this for us as a body to fill the cups to prepare the bread and I appreciate your service to the Lord all of you. Let's begin with passing out the bread. And I appreciate your help in that, men. And as they do that, I wanted to look at Paul's context of in First Corinthians. You can go ahead and begin passing them out. And we're going to, as they're passing them by, I'll read Paul's context that immediately precede the passage that we use for communion each week. And it says Paul was given some warnings to the church before he went into the passage. And these are warnings that we can take heed of as well. He writes in verse 17 of 1 Corinthians chapter 11. But in the following instructions, I do not commend you. Because when you come together, it is not it is not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. That's a possibility that can happen to us today. That there could be divisions among us. The word division there is schisms. And it comes from the it's used of cloth when cloth was torn. When you have a old p a new patch sewn on an old garment that can tear and make the tear worse. So Paul's hearing that there are some divisions among you. And he said, "I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that," and this is important, "in order that those who are genuine among you might be recognized." It was the people who were divisive that actually illustrated the

Genuine people that were there for the right reason. And the people that were divisive stood in contrast to the people who were genuine and there for the right reason. When you come together, it is not for the Lord's supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What do you not have your houses to eat and drink in? Or do you not despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. Those warnings to those the people of Corenth, a church that had its own problems in that day, are warnings that sometimes we need to pay attention to as well. We're not above having or experiencing those same divisions or looking at ourselves rather than others if we have and they do not have. The church in Corinth had some things messed up. And then moving into our passage in verse 22, continuing on right where we left off, 23, excuse me. For I receive from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, he took bread and when he had given thanks, let's do that now. Father, thank you for this bread. Thank you that it represents your body, Lord. And it reminds me of that ram that was caught in a thicket when Isaac was laying on that altar. And that ram substituted for Isaac. It gave his that ram gave his life for Isaac. And Lord, you were our lamb. You substituted your life and gave your life for what I deserved, what we all deserved. Thank you for that gift. Thank you for providing redemption for us. Thank you for the future that we look forward to and thank you for the present we get to share with each other. Amen. And it says, he says after he prayed, he broke

It. And that's another illustration. The breaking of that piece of bread illustrates the breaking of Christ's body. Said he broke it and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of [Music] me. Now the deacons are going to distribute the cup. [Music] In the cups that you're about to take will be a red liquid that represents the blood that was shed on the cross for each of us. In Leviticus, Leviticus it says the life of the flesh is in the blood. God chose this symbol intentionally to bring to our minds as often as we do share in this meal that his life was in that [Music] blood. A life the blood that we deserve to shed ourselves but could not do could not accomplish what he accomplished. [Music] As you're waiting to receive the cups, take some moments and just thank the Lord for what he's done and what he has secured for every person who trusts in him. [Music] In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim, that is the evangelical, you proclaim the Gospel, the Lord's death until he comes. [Music] drink. Father, we just want to thank you for the blood that you shed, the new covenant that we have, the hope that each believer in this room has of seeing you

Again, and the confidence that our sins have been paid for and thrown as far as the east is from the west. And we've made been made positionally as white as snow. And we give you the thanks for accomplishing that in Jesus name. Amen. Cody