Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
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Anger
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Analytical
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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Today, I want to give you my two cents.
In fact, we just did.
You should now be holding in your hands two pennies.
They actually came out of our coin jar at home, and don’t worry, we still filled our baby bottle for the PRC.
Pennies are funny things, aren’t they?
There has been an outcry for years over the cost of making pennies, because they are actually more expensive to make than their face value.
In 2016, it is reported that the penny cost on average 1.5 cents to make.
In fact, they are worth more melted down and sold than they are if you spend them whole.
However, there is more in those pennies than you realize.
They are now more exp
Most of us have pennies shoved in our car seats and in the dark recesses of our couch cushions.
In fact, the actual cost to produce those pennies in 2016 was around 1.5 cents, so they are
We hear them rattle around in the dryer when we forget to take them out of our pockets, and we rarely give them a second thought.
We find them
Yet, as we see Jesus nearing the end of his life and ministry on earth, he took very special notice of two small, basically worthless coins, because they came from an incredible heart.
This morning, we are picking up our study through Mark in .
As we read this brief but powerful account of Jesus’ teachable moment with the disciples, we are going to glean one main truth: great gifts aren’t measured in dollars; they are measured in dependence.
This morning’s message is going to be a little different.
There isn’t going to be a series of bullet points to track; we are just going to walk through the passage and see what Jesus saw and said.
Let’s back up just a bit, though, and pick up some context.
Mark has slowed down over the last few chapters to highlight the conflict Jesus had with the religious leaders in Jerusalem.
The tension is getting worse and worse as the leaders keep trying to trip Jesus up, and every time, he shows himself to be wiser than they are.
Just before Jesus’ observation in the passage we are focusing on, he points out just how hypocritical these leaders are.
Instead of being kind, gentle, spiritual shepherds, they were arrogant, manipulative jerks.
Look at verses 38-40.
He doesn’t have kind words for the spiritual snobs in the mix.
That sets the scene for the encounter we are focusing on this morning.
Read it with me, and then we’ll go through and break it down more.
Read .
While he gets a break from the public teaching, Jesus and his disciples sit down across from the area where people would come and give their tithes and offerings.
Some of this was the temple tax that all the men had to pay, and other gifts were simply freewill gifts and offerings.
The offerings were poured into trumpet-shaped receptacles (NAC).
Rich men, as they came, made sure everyone knew they were making large contributions, just like Jesus said they did in verses 38-40.
People in those days made the same assumption we are guilty of sometimes: we assume that someone who has wealth, and who even gives a lot of money, has a heart right with God.
However, they were simply giving out of rote, tradition, and show.
There was one giver that day who caught Jesus’ eye.
She was probably overlooked by just about everyone else.
After all, look at how she is described in verse 42.
She is a widow - when a man died, it was his estate and his children who took care of his widow.
If he didn’t have any money and they didn’t have any kids, there was no way this woman could earn a living.
That’s why we also see that she was a poor widow.
Evidently, she had outlived the resources her husband left her and her kids weren’t there to take care of her, so that left her poor.
Out of her poverty, she dropped in two tiny coins.
Mark had to explain how much they were worth because these were the least valuable coins in the Roman Empire and weren’t even used everywhere in that day.
However, it was all she had left.
Let me ask you: do you ever feel like that?
Do you ever feel like you are absolutely at the end of your resources, and there is nothing left for you to give?
Maybe you are there financially, which is certainly the most direct application of this passage.
It isn’t the only way this applies, though.
You may be here and feel like you are just about out of time to give.
You have so much going on that you don’t know how you could serve God and still get everything done, so you don’t want to sign up to help somewhere.
You may feel like you don’t have gifts like other people, so you can’t do anything worthwhile for the church.
You can’t stand up and lead the singing like Karen and others, you don’t teach well, and you really don’t like babies in the nursery, so what can you do?
Whether we are talking about financial giving, giving your time, or using your talents and abilities, let me remind you that great gifts are not measured in dollars; they are measured by dependence.
Isn’t that how Jesus viewed it?
Look at verse 43-44.
What made her gift great?
It wasn’t the monetary value of the gift, it was the heart behind it.
This unnamed, unknown widow who the world overlooked, by putting in her two cents, gave more to the kingdom than any of the rich men who gave thousands of dollars that day.
By giving the last two pennies she had, she put her very life on the line.
I am afraid that reality misses us, because most of us have more than we need.
There was literally nothing left for her at all.
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