How much does it cost to be a Christian? Playing a sport can be expensive: buying all the kit and then playing the match fees or hiring the court every time. Even supporting a team can cost a fortune in tickets and travel to away matches and all the kinds of things fans can buy. Playing a musical instrument is expensive especially if you are having lessons but even being a fan of a singer or a band can be expensive if you collect all their CDs or DVDs or downloads and especially if you ever go to live gigs or concerts. Some people spend fortunes on keeping up with the latest fashions or gadgets, never mind cars or foreign travel. And that’s only talking about money, never mind all the time and energy and emotion some people invest in sport or entertainment or their prized possessions. But how much does it cost to be a Christian?
One day Jesus was sitting in the Temple watching people put their offerings into the treasury. And he noticed two very different attitudes to giving to God. First there were the rich people. They were
Giving to God what they have to spare.
Those rich people were giving large amounts to the Temple funds. But Jesus said, “They all gave out of their wealth.” The Good News Bible makes the meaning clear. “For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches”. The New Living Translation puts it this way. 44 They gave a tiny part of their surplus.
There are some people who have this attitude to giving to God. They will just give what they have in their pockets when they pass the offering box. Giving God the small change. Giving God what they won’t miss.
Let’s be clear. This was not the kind of giving the Old Testament taught. Jews were expected to give a minimum of a tithe, or ten percent of their income to God.
Leviticus 27:30 A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.
The annual subscription to the temple was to be ten per cent. Then on top of that at the great festivals they were expected to give freewill offerings.
Deuteronomy 16 10 Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the LORD your God has given you. ….
16 Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the LORD empty-handed: 17 Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.
So the expectation was that every Jew would give a tithe of ten percent, and freewill offerings three times a year on top of that. Very different from an attitude of only giving what they can spare, what they wouldn’t miss.
But for some people that miserly attitude extends to their time as well – only giving to God what they can spare, what they won’t miss. Squeezing God in to odd moments, rather than making God the priority. Only praying or only going to church when there’s nothing better to do.
People who only give God what they can spare are living by worldly values. Remember what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount about treasures in Heaven.
Matthew 619 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Remember the warning in the parable of the Rich Fool.
Luke 12:16v And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Each one of us needs to make sure that we are “rich toward God.”
A.W.Tozer wrote, “In God’s sight, my giving is measured not by how much I have given but how much I have left after I made my gift.”
Only giving what we can spare, what we won’t miss, is unworthy of Almighty God who created us and redeemed us at the immeasurable cost of the life of His own Son Jesus Christ. C.S.Lewis wrote. “The only safe rule is to give MORE THAN we can spare.” It is very clear than God deserves and demand nothing less than the whole of our lives, total giving, total commitment. It is there in the first and greatest commandment.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart.
Mark 12 28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
Here is the prayer which every Jew will pray every day, the shema. It reminds them that there is only One God and that He is their God, the God of Israel. And this God deserves and demands total love, devotion and obedience. Loving God with all our heart, which in Jewish thought is the centre not of emotion but of thought and will and decision. Loving God with all our soul, the very centre of our being. Loving God with all our mind, with all our reason and understanding. Loving God with all our strength, all our physical capacities. Total and comprehensive love for God – this is the greatest commandment.
We show our wives or husbands or children we love them by spending time with them and doing things which make them happy and not doing things which make them unhappy. By putting them first and ourselves second. And we show God our love for Him by spending time with Him in prayer, by spending time in God’s service doing things that please Him and not doing things which would displease Him. We aren’t loving God with all our hearts if we are too busy for worship or prayer or fellowship or Bible Study or Christian service. We aren’t loving God with all our hearts if we only give of our money and of our time and of our energy what we can spare and wouldn’t miss.
God demands and deserves total commitment, and this is what that dear widow brought to God. She gives us an inspiring example of
Giving God everything we’ve got.
Mark 12 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

The Message puts it this way. “The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford—she gave her all.”
Here is truly extravagant love. The widow gave everything she could. Lavish generosity not measured by amount of cash she gave but by the amount of love in her heart. There is a second part to that quote from A.W.Tozer. “In God’s sight, my giving is measured not by how much I have given but how much I have left after I made my gift… Not by its size is my gift judged, but by how much of me there is in it.” That widow gave her all!
What a sacrifice! She didn’t think about what she would have left for herself, how she would eat or drink. No thought for her earthly future. She only had two tiny copper coins, a couple of pennies, and she gave them BOTH. We can so easily be tempted to keep back something for ourselves, to put something aside for a rainy day, but this widow gave everything. Total commitment.
But then, God didn’t just give what He could spare, what He wouldn’t miss, to redeem us. God paid the ultimate price for our salvation.
1 Peter 1 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
Ephesians 5 2 … Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
God has given everything for us and in return He deserves no less from us. Total commitment is not just a slogan for super-keen Christians but the Biblical pattern for all discipleship.
Total commitment means giving to God ALL our money and all our possessions – everything we have comes from God and belongs to God. We are just looking after it for a while.
Total commitment means giving to God ALL our time, not just our spare time, because all our time comes from God and belongs to God.
Total commitment means giving to God all our energy. Because God is worthy of everything we could ever give to Him – and so much more!
We may think we have nothing to offer God. We have very little money. We have no time to call our own and no talents and just living is using up all the energy we have. We may feel we have very little to give. But the amount doesn’t matter. The widow had only two copper coins, a few pence. What mattered wasn’t the amount but the love and the faith with which she gave them both to God, holding nothing back. Again, as Tozer says, “In God’s sight, my giving is measured not by how much I have given but how much I have left after I made my gift… Not by its size is my gift judged, but by how much of me there is in it.”
“The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford—she gave her all.”
How much does it cost to be a Christian? It’s been said that the entrance fee to heaven is free, because Jesus has paid it. But the annual subscription costs everything we have, everything we are! Here is a question for you. If God were to call you very clearly, undoubtedly, this morning to give up life as you know it and go and serve Him as a missionary somewhere, would you do it? Or to become a minister? Would you go? Would you give up everything you have, would you give up life as you know it, if you heard the call of God unambiguously, indisputably, this morning? I believe that very many here today would do what God asked them.
If you would do that – give up everything and go and serve God wherever He sent you – then what is to stop you giving up everything anyway? Handing everything you possess, everything you are, handing your whole life over to God? What is to stop you from putting all your money, all your possessions, all your time, all your energies, into God’s hands and serving God in total commitment right where you already are, in life as it is?
That is what the widow did with her two tiny coins. In faith and devotion that widow handed over to God everything she had! And Jesus praised her for it!