SPEAKER_00: Today, as we finish out this week, we hear what might be Saint Paul's final words before his martyrdom.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that.
SPEAKER_00: A man who had spent his life preaching Christ, crossing the Roman Empire, being beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, mocked, and persecuted, knows that his earthly life is coming to an end.
SPEAKER_00: And what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Not, well, I wish I had done something else.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I'd been more successful, I wish I had more things, I wish I had more money, I wish I would have been appreciated more.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Instead he says, I have competed well.
SPEAKER_00: I have finished the race.
SPEAKER_00: I have kept the faith.
SPEAKER_00: What a magnificent sentence.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of life, Paul measures success differently than the world.
unknown: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the world's gonna ask, How many how much did you earn?
SPEAKER_00: How many followers do you have?
SPEAKER_00: How much influence do you accumulate?
SPEAKER_00: Paul asks, did I keep the faith?
SPEAKER_00: And that's the question.
SPEAKER_00: One day every single one of us will stand before Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The diplomas will not matter, the titles will not matter, the promotions we didn't get or did get not matter.
SPEAKER_00: The applause will not matter.
SPEAKER_00: The question will be, did you remain faithful to me?
SPEAKER_00: And notice Paul's warning to Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: The time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but following their own desires will accumulate teachers and stop listening to the truth.
SPEAKER_00: If there was ever a verse written for our time, it is that one.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a time when people often choose teachers the way they choose restaurants.
SPEAKER_00: They look for someone who tells them exactly what they want to hear.
SPEAKER_00: If a teacher challenges them, they move on.
SPEAKER_00: If the gospel demands conversion, they look elsewhere.
SPEAKER_00: If Christ asks for sacrifice, they'll find a more comfortable message.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says this is not new.
SPEAKER_00: Human nature has not changed.
SPEAKER_00: We all prefer affirmation to correction.
SPEAKER_00: We all prefer comfort to conversion.
SPEAKER_00: We all prefer a God who agrees with us and our plans.
SPEAKER_00: But the gospel is not given to us to confirm our opinions.
SPEAKER_00: It is given so that we may transform our lives.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Paul tells Timothy, proclaim the word whether convenient or inconvenient.
SPEAKER_00: The truth remains true whether it is popular or unpopular, and every age needs men and women willing to speak it with courage and charity.
SPEAKER_00: Now if we turn to the gospel, Jesus watches people placing money into the treasury.
SPEAKER_00: The rich come forward and make large donations.
SPEAKER_00: Then comes a poor widow.
SPEAKER_00: She drops in two tiny coins, practically nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Most people would not even notice, but Jesus notices.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says something astonishing.
SPEAKER_00: This poor widow put in more than all the others.
SPEAKER_00: If you're listening to that, you would say, How can that be?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because God measures differently than we do.
SPEAKER_00: We measure the size of the gift.
SPEAKER_00: God measures the size of the sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: The rich gave from their surplus.
SPEAKER_00: This widow gave from her poverty.
SPEAKER_00: They gave what they would not miss.
SPEAKER_00: She gave what she needed.
SPEAKER_00: Suddenly the gospel becomes very uncomfortable because it is not really about money, it is about surrender.
SPEAKER_00: The widow becomes an image of discipleship itself.
SPEAKER_00: She does not give God part of her life.
SPEAKER_00: She gives all of her life, everything.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what Jesus himself will do.
SPEAKER_00: Within days of this gospel, Jesus will give not two coins, but his entire life on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The widow is a preview of Calvary.
SPEAKER_00: She places everything she has into God's hands.
SPEAKER_00: Christ places everything he is into the Father's hands.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the challenge for us.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us are willing to give God something.
SPEAKER_00: An hour on Sunday, a few prayers here and there if I remember, a charitable donation, maybe from my surplus, some volunteer work if I have the time.
SPEAKER_00: But the gospel asks a deeper question.
SPEAKER_00: Have I given God everything?
SPEAKER_00: My plans, my future, my fears, my wounds, my ambitions, my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is not looking for contribution, he's looking for a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: And that brings us back to Saint Paul.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of his life, Paul could say, I have finished the race.
SPEAKER_00: Because years earlier he had already placed everything on the altar, his comfort, his reputation, his safety, his future, everything belonged to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The widow and Paul are teaching the same lesson.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life is not about giving God leftovers.
SPEAKER_00: It's about entrusting him with everything.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the beautiful irony.
SPEAKER_00: The widow appears poor, but she is actually rich.
SPEAKER_00: Paul appears defeated, sitting in prison, waiting death, but he's actually victorious.
SPEAKER_00: Because in God's kingdom, the people who surrender everything lose nothing.
SPEAKER_00: They gain everything.
SPEAKER_00: The world says, hold on tight.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel says, trust God completely.
SPEAKER_00: And in the end, the people who trust God completely discover what Paul discovered.
SPEAKER_00: A crown of righteousness awaits them, prepared by the Lord Himself, the just judge, for all who have kept the faith.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.