Understanding Friendship

Welcome to Sharper Sword, the publication ministry of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.

Lighthouse believes that individuals can reach their potential for the Lord as they grow in Christ.

We want to hear our Lord say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Let's join Pastor Doug Fisher as he preaches another important biblical message from the Word of God.

Tony has preached here many, many times, and uh I've uh preached with Tony quite a few times.

And to be honest with you, uh I've never heard him uh miss the mark as far as scripture.

And uh he always gives something practical in a way that uh I wouldn't think about it.

It's uh cultural because he grew up in a different place than most of us grew up, and uh he likes that uh kind of that uh mountain flavor, if you would.

And I think you'll enjoy that a great deal next Sunday night.

Uh, you're in John 11.

Also pick up Mark 14.

Mark 14.

I want to give you one other thing.

Ed O'Dell has been a little bit sick, and he's been trying to get past the sickness, and and I know everybody's got their home cures and remedies.

John 11, Luke, uh Mark, John 11, Mark 14.

Uh, he's been doing the chicken soup and the vitamins and the oils and the everything.

But uh he's still a little sick, and uh he's critical this week to everything getting done.

I'd like to say this: if you're a man and you've worked with Ed in some way, shape, or form, you might want to text him and said, Can I help you with anything?

Anything uh I can do.

We'll need some lead people to show up to do certain things.

We have a multitude of tasks still to do, and we're not talking about just getting ready for conference, we're talking about upgrades on the property that we're doing.

So please, uh, if you know Ed, if you worked with him, give him a text and say, hey, what can I do?

And let's all pull together and get these uh items done for our Lord.

John chapter 11, Mark chapter number 14.

John 11 · chapter mention

In John chapter 11, uh, God uh puts something in parentheses that we need to take note of.

John 11 · chapter mention

John chapter 11, verse number 2.

John 11 · chapter mention

The Lord did not have to put this in here, but he did.

It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and watts wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

God wanted to highlight the fact that Mary, in the next chapter, in chapter number 12, was going to do something in the way of her worship.

And it was something that she did because I believe she understood something that most did not understand.

And she was gonna come and she was going to sacrifice something in a great way, and the Lord took note of it, and I want to say this uh not many people in the New Testament would the Lord say, they did this, and wherever the gospel is going to be preached, that's gonna be talked about.

It was a highlighted event.

Take your Bible now and look over at John chapter 12, and I want you to know in John chapter 12, uh, please get the setting.

John 12 · chapter mention John 12 · chapter mention

It's uh it's just before the Passover.

It's the last Passover that the Lord will have with the apostles before he uh is crucified.

It's just a few days before that.

They're in Bethany.

Uh Bethany is just about a mile and a half or two miles from Jerusalem.

So many of the people from Jerusalem had come over to Bethany.

It was uh the fellowship was at Simon's house.

And uh, if you would, they had come because Lazarus was there.

And Lazarus had been raised from the dead, and so many people came not just from Bethany, but to uh from Jerusalem.

In verse number one, Lazarus there had been raised from the dead.

Verse number two, Martha is servering.

Lazarus is one of them that sat at the table.

So here's this uh brother of Mary and Martha, and he was in there.

And may I say to you, if I knew a guy was uh going to be at a certain fellowship, and it was at uh a place where I was allowed to come, and um this guy had been raised from the dead after being dead for a number of days.

I don't know about you, but I'd like to go see that guy.

And then I would say this, especially if the guy who raised him from the dead was there.

And Jesus was going to be there also.

And so there was this huge crowd there that night.

And verse number three, Mary comes in and it says she takes uh a pound of ointment of Spikenard.

Uh Spike Nard is a very, if you would, uh significant part of Jewish culture.

And notice it says it's very costly, and she kneels down, if you would, and she wipes the feet of Jesus with her hair, and the ointment fills the house with the odor.

I want to emphasize something in Mark 14.

I'm sorry, yeah, Mark 14 and Matthew 26, it's uh spoken about the alabaster box.

Now I want to listen, I want you to listen tonight.

The alabaster box is something very, very precious and very special that Mary's going to utilize that day, and she's gonna use it with understanding.

And I want to make this uh emphasis tonight.

Once in a while, God might ask of us to sacrifice something very precious.

Something, if you would, that other people wouldn't understand what we're doing and why we're doing it.

The alabaster box is so significant.

Uh alabaster box, the alabaster is a white marble, and they would make this uh special box, ornate, if you would, and they'd put the sides on it, if you would, a top that usually has decorations in the bottom, and they'd put it together with uh wax, usually.

That way when it was broken, it would break easily, and so this white marbled stone would break, and it could never be resealed again, so everything in there had to be utilized.

Let me make this statement to you.

Once in a while, God might ask of us something that's very precious to us.

And with understanding, he says, I want you to give that to me, and once it's broken, you you're not gonna get it back again that way.

And I just sometimes I think God would have us to look at the alabaster box with this idea in mind.

One day Abraham was asked to take his son up and and and stick a knife in him.

May I say that his son was very precious to him.

Once in a while, God may require of us to do something that not everybody would understand.

That we would sacrifice something and give something to the Lord that not everybody would understand.

May I say that Moses one day decided no longer to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

And there was a reason for that.

He sacrificed something, but God had a plan for him.

One day Paul was going to give up somewhat of his Jewish Phariseeism, of his heritage.

And Paul knew what he was doing because of what God spoke to him on the road to Damascus.

May I say this carefully?

It's so important to know the Lord and understand the Lord.

So when he asked for something that nobody else understands why we would give it to him, or why we would give up something that God understands it as worship.

Please listen to me.

Tonight, God may be dealing with somebody here to give up something.

To give up something that's very precious to you, to give up something that's more precious to you than what people would know.

And please listen.

And that precious thing is something that God requires that you don't consult with anybody.

You don't really ask anybody.

You just know that God wants it.

This woman, I don't think she conferred with anybody.

I don't think she asked anybody's counsel.

I don't think she went and said, What do you all think?

I've got my special box of Spike Nard, which normally was safe for weddings or uh burials, if you would.

And I'm thinking about going in and just uh in the midst of this, just going in and breaking that open and just anointing Jesus with that.

What do you think?

I don't think she asked anybody.

I think she did it with a certain amount of understanding, though, because how the scriptures recorded it.

I want you to remind you that uh Mary was one that sat at Jesus' feet, and in a personal one-on-one setting while Martha was busy serving, Jesus taught Mary something.

And he said one thing is needful, and she was taught something that would not be taken away from her.

So, whatever he taught her, it was really special.

It was really precious, if you would.

It really gave her some understanding, and I believe it caused her to sacrifice in a way that nobody else understood what she was doing.

And so, in the midst of Simon's house, she comes in and all the men were sitting around the table.

Often in Jewish culture, you'd have the men sitting in one area and the women sitting in the other area.

And here are the men all sitting at the table.

The apostles were at the table according to Matthew 26 and Mark chapter 14.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

And may I say, when she came in, she didn't ask anybody any counsel.

She didn't say, Is this okay, Lord?

She didn't say, Is this okay?

Can I do this thing, Mr.

Apostle?

She just, if you would, burdened about what she was about to do, went in, took her alabaster box, very special, broke it open, and began to anoint his feet with a hair.

And the Bible says the odor filled the house.

The odor, if you would, no doubt seeped outside and penetrated the Jewish culture, if you would.

And somebody probably wondered, hey, somebody just broke open something precious that's either for a wedding or for a burial.

And somebody's uh, and they said this, why was the waste of this substance made?

This could have been sold and given to the poor.

Uh Judas said, uh, we could have sold that in 300 pence.

And may I say, the Lord didn't see it that way.

The Lord saw something that they didn't see.

The Lord saw a woman, if you would, sacrificing something, and I believe she had some certain understanding that those men sitting at the table did not have.

May I ask you to look at Mark chapter 14.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

Stay with me.

Mark chapter 14.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

In Mark chapter 14, watch and read it very carefully, if you would.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

Notice it says this in verse number three.

They were in Bethany, a few miles from Jerusalem.

They were at the house there of Simon.

And she brings out that alabaster box.

She breaks it open, it couldn't be resealed.

Verse number four.

And there were some that had indignation.

What is that?

Uh the word indignation means anger with disgust.

They were angry with her.

And they said this, there was disgust within themselves.

Why was this waste of the ointment made?

Please listen to me.

It's either waste or worship.

To those who didn't understand, it was waste.

To the Lord, it was worship.

May I say, you may give up something sometime when somebody will say, Why'd you waste it?

Why'd you waste your life?

There was a time when I uh left the Marine Corps and I was kind of being selected for uh uh special assignments, and and when I decided that God would have me to get out of the Marine Corps, uh there was someone that I knew very, very close that thought I had wasted my opportunity and my career.

I want you to know something.

It wasn't a waste, it was an open door.

I'm not saying everybody, some of you stay in and it's for life.

For me, it was time to get out.

I loved the Marine Corps.

When I drove off Paris Island, I cried all the way as I drove off the last time.

I was in my uniform, I knew it was the last time I'd wear the uniform on base, I'd signed the papers for military for medical retirement, and I knew when I drove off that base I'd never drive on again in uniform again.

And may I say I was crying all the way, cried all the way home, and there was some sacrifice in my heart going on, and I didn't know what I would end up doing.

My point is this sometimes God asked you to sacrifice something that even you don't quite understand what it is.

But he asked for something sometimes, and it's like, are you sure you want me to give that up, Lord?

I'm not saying leave your career, I'm not saying leave your home, I'm not saying leave your culture, but this woman was willing to give the alabaster box, and I think it might have been something that Jesus had taught her.

Why?

Well, notice what it says, stay with me.

He says, Why, verse 4, where was the waste of this ointment made?

And number five says, For it might have been sold for more than 300 pence.

A pence was uh a day's wage, so it was almost 300 days' wages, and given to the poor, and they murmured against her.

Why?

They didn't understand.

Verse 6.

And Jesus said, Let her alone.

Why trouble ye her?

She hath wrought a good work on me.

Please listen to me.

I'll guarantee you, while they were murmuring and thoughts were going on, Judas making a statement, somebody saying, Why wasn't this sold?

When Jesus said, Let her alone, I think it quieted down.

All the indignation and murmuring, nobody said a word.

Let her alone.

The Bible says that she hath wrought a good work.

But notice what he says in if you would, verse 7.

For ye have the poor with you always.

Whensoever ye will, you may do them good.

But me, ye have not often.

Always.

She hath done what she could.

Please note, she has come aforehand.

Would you underline the word aforehand?

She has come aforehand to anoint my body to the bearing.

Listen to me.

She has come aforehand to anoint my body to the bearing.

They were listening to that, going, what are you talking about, bearing?

You're going in Jerusalem to become king.

And Jesus said she had come aforehand to anoint my body to the bearing.

Please listen.

After his death, he wasn't in the tomb anymore.

When they put him in the tomb, by the time the women came on the first day of the week to anoint him with the spices, they made a comment who's going to roll away the stone.

When they got there, the stone was already rolling away and he was gone.

There was going to be no anointing.

The women weren't going to be able to anoint him.

But evidently, Mary might have had a little insight and said, I'm going to get this done.

What do you mean I'm going to get this done?

I wonder what the Lord taught her.

I wonder what the Lord gave her.

This is only speculation, but hold your place there and look at Luke 18.

Luke 18.

Three times the Lord had taught this, but they didn't get it.

Luke 18.

And notice verse number 31.

Verse number 31.

And then he took them.

Luke 18.

Everybody still alright?

Say amen.

Luke 18, verse 31.

Luke 18:31

Then he took unto him the twelve and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man, me, the Messiah, shall be accomplished.

For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, shall be mocked, spitefully entreated, spitted on, and they shall scourge him and put him to death.

He was speaking about himself.

And the third day he shall rise again.

And they understood none of these things.

And these sayings was hid from them.

Neither knew they the things which were spoken.

May I say to you, three times he taught in the book of Luke his disciples, I'm going up to Jerusalem.

They're going to put me to death.

And the third day I'm going to rise again.

And they were thinking, No, you're coming as the king.

I wonder what he taught Mary.

I wonder if she understood it.

What are you saying?

I wonder if he taught her about the death, the burial, and the resurrection, and she got it.

I wonder when she came in with that alabaster box, if she says, I'm going to anoint him right now.

You say it's all speculation.

You don't know.

I know this, she came in to worship him.

I know the Lord said she did this aforehand.

I know the Lord said she hath wrought a good work.

I know when they said that she wasted that, that it wasn't a waste at all, it was going to be a memorial to her.

What I'm saying to you is she came in with some kind of understanding that was not going to be taken away from her.

And when she acted upon that understanding, broke that box open, anointed those feet with her hair, God says, I'm taking note of that, and I'm recording that in my book.

Wherever the gospel is preached, that's going to be talked about.

It's going to be something that's not taken away from her.

It's going to be something that we remember her for.

It's going to be something, and may I say to you, uh, uh, I know Lazarus was there and he was raised from the dead, but it seems like the Lord was emphasizing Mary that day.

The Lord was saying, don't miss what Mary has done.

May I say to you, once in a while, the Lord may say to us, give something up.

Give something up precious.

Give something up that others won't understand why you gave it up and what you gave it up for.

But you give it up with the understanding that I'm God and I'm sovereign and I own everything.

And if I asked you for that, I want you to give that up.

I don't know what it's going to be.

I don't know if it's a person.

I don't know if it's a thing.

I don't know if it's a career.

I don't know if it's a plan you have.

I don't know, but he said this uh our life is his to live.

What do you mean?

Our life, we don't live our own script.

We live the script he decides for us.

We live the plan that he decides for us.

And once in a while on our journey, he changes the pilgrimage that we planned.

Come on, are you still with me or not?

Once in a while he says, I want you to give something up.

Nobody else is going to understand that.

Moses, when he came to age at 40 years old, he decided that he would no longer be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

Why?

Because it came into his heart, Acts 7, that he should deliver his brethren.

Something happened in his heart, and he knew he was going to deliver his brethren.

And he decided, I can't be the son of Pharaoh's daughter anymore, living like an Egyptian.

I'm supposed to go down and deliver them.

He didn't know there would be a 40-year delay.

Are you listening to what I'm saying?

He gave up his status as a son of Pharaoh's daughter.

He gave up his status as a mighty Egyptian.

He gave up his status.

And he went off into the backside of the desert, which some people think he backslid.

He didn't backslide, he went to the mount of God.

The backside of the desert was the mount of God.

And he was getting prepared out there for his greatest work.

What he gave up was nothing compared to his face glowing later when he was close to God.

What he gave up as a son of Pharaoh's daughter and his status and all the Egyptian stuff he knew how to do was nothing compared to what God had planned for him.

Abraham.

Take your son, your only son.

Take that alabaster box up and put a knife in it.

Put that which is precious on the altar.

Lay that sun out upon the top of the wood that he's carrying.

And raise that knife to kill him.

May I say to you, the book of Hebrews said, when he did that, he accounted that God was able to raise that boy from the dead.

Come on, is that right?

What do you mean?

When he lifted that knife up, he was thinking, I'm supposed to do this, I'm going to do this, but I know in this boy, he's supposed to multiply the face of the earth as far as carry my seed on.

So it must be that when I raise this knife and kill him, that God's going to raise him back up from the dead.

He had an understanding that he was willing to suffer.

His alabaster box, his precious son, if you would.

But he believed that God could do something supernatural.

By the way, never says that he told his wife.

What do you mean?

Never says that he told Sarah about this.

I'm not saying hide things from your wife, but not everybody's gonna understand.

This was the son of her old age.

This was a miraculous childbirth.

What are you gonna do?

Walk up to Sarah and say, Well, here's the agenda for the day.

The boy and I are going up to worship.

What do you mean, worship?

That's what he said to the men.

The lad and I are going up to worship.

We'll come back again.

He called it worship.

Sacrifice is worship.

Hey, may I say something to you?

A lot of Christians they'll never sacrifice the most important thing because they don't know God well enough to know when He's speaking to them.

I'm not trying to be unkind, but there's Christians out there that do not know the book well enough to know when God is speaking to them, to sacrifice something that's precious.

They know a few scriptures here and there.

They know a couple of songs, and praise the Lord for that.

And they are saved.

But I want to tell you something.

It's good to know the book.

It's good to understand the book.

You say, I don't know if she knew the death, the burial, and the resurrection.

You don't know if she knew it, and I don't know if she knew it, but I know this.

He said she's come to do this for my burial.

She wasn't going to the grave on the first day of the week to make sure anointed spices and all that.

She was going to get it done right there.

I don't know how it all worked, but I think she brought her alabaster box with her.

She wasn't in her own home.

She was at the home of Simon.

And she had this plan.

I'm going to go anoint him.

It's the Passover.

He's going into Jerusalem.

I wonder when she sat at his feet, if the Lord said, Let me tell you something, Mary.

Let me teach you something I've taught the apostles.

I'm going into Jerusalem.

And I'm going in, they're going to mock me.

They're going to spit on me.

Then they're going to kill me, and the third day I'm going to rise again from the dead.

You say, Do you think he taught that to her?

I don't know.

But I do know that she knew something about burial.

And the rest of them didn't know anything about his death.

You still with me or not?

Those that were mocking with indignation, saying, Why was this waste?

They had no idea he was heading for crucifixion.

They didn't know it was the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

And that was the Passover they were about to eat.

That was his Passover, and He was going to become our Passover lamb.

We look back and understand that and don't take that for granted.

You say, I know that doctrine, I understand that.

Half the world doesn't.

And half the world that are Christians don't understand that.

What do you mean?

They don't understand this book.

Or one day there was a situation where Paul, Paul on the road to Damascus, the Lord spoke to him.

And here's what the Lord spoke to him.

He accounts this in Acts.

He said, And the Lord at midday, O king, the Lord showed up.

He's what he said, For this purpose have I called you, and you're going to go and minister to the Gentiles, whom I'll send you to.

This was a Pharisee.

This was a guy who thought the Gentiles were dogs.

This was a guy who thought the Gentiles were nobody's.

And God showed up to him on the road to Damascus and said, Now, I'm going to blind you, but I've called you and I'm sending you for this purpose.

Hey, everybody else heard it.

It sounded like thunder, but God was speaking to him.

And Paul knew what he was sent for.

And he left, look up here, he separated himself from his mother's womb.

What does that mean?

He left his Jewish culture.

He left his Jewish tradition.

Come on, are you still with me?

And he became an apostle to the Gentile dogs.

What a calling.

You say, what a sacrifice.

For him it wasn't.

If you were blind on the road to Damascus and you heard a voice and you were blinded for three days until Ananias showed up, you'd go, no, something just happened.

You weren't there.

If you were there, you didn't know what the Lord told me about.

I know what God purposes me to do.

I know that I'm supposed to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

I know that's who he's sending me to.

And may I say something?

He counted it all dung, that's which he left.

Come on, are you still listening to or not?

I'm saying he had some insight that nobody else had for his own life because he had a personal encounter with the Lord.

I'm saying tonight that somebody may not understand what it is you're doing and what you're giving up, but as long as you can hear the voice of the Holy Ghost of God and He tells you what you should do, you may not be able to explain it to somebody else.

You may not be able to get someone else's counsel on it.

He may ask you to give a big sacrificial gift of money that you are saving for something.

You say you're after something tonight.

I'm after the right message tonight.

I'm after the right thing that the Holy Ghost wants us to do.

And whatever your alabaster box is, sometimes he might say, break it.

But that's for me.

No, no, no.

That box she had was for her.

She was saving it for something.

But she decided to use it on the Lord.

And when she used it on the Lord, it wasn't a waste, it was worship.

It wasn't something that, well, boy, that could have been sold and given to the poor.

No, no, no.

God says, no, what she just did, you don't understand.

She did what she could.

She took what she had, she gave it to me, and that became even more precious to me because she did it with some kind of understanding.

And you men may not understand what she's doing, and you may be mocking her, and you may be frustrated with her and mad at her and just disgusted with her because of what she's doing culturally at our little time of get-together, where she's entered into the man's room and she's doing this in front of everybody, not asking anybody's permission, but I want you to know something.

I already taught her something.

I already gave her some insight.

She already sat at my feet.

She was there when I raised Lazarus from the dead.

And what she's done is going to be a memorial to her.

And I want to tell you something.

We get to heaven, don't be surprised when we find out that Mary is somebody.

Don't be surprised when you find out, you know, look, who's that?

I know in heaven neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, and I get all that.

But don't be surprised if God's got her something special.

Why?

She sacrificed something special.

She did it in the midst, and she didn't worry about what was said.

Brethren, I told you last time she was in the zone and she was not even listening to them.

This was her love for the Lord.

I'm saying God might be dealing with someone here tonight to give something up.

Nobody can counsel you about it.

Nobody can reason with you.

Nobody can understand.

You can't go to somebody and say, Do you think I should give this up?

Because somebody will say, That doesn't make sense.

That could be sold and given to the poor.

But he said, You don't have me with you always.

I'm getting ready to leave.

You know what she he was saying?

This is her last opportunity to do something on the earth before I'm carted away because I'm heading Jerusalem.

I'm going to do the Passover.

Then they're going to take me, then they're going to crucify me.

And then Joseph of Arimathea is going to take my body.

He's going to put it in the grave.

The women are going to get a few couple of spices on me then.

But when they come down the first day of the week to anoint me, which is cultural, they were asking who would roll the stone away.

Well, the stone was already rolled away.

And he wasn't there.

There was an angel or two sitting there saying, Who do you look for?

He's not here.

He's risen.

And tell your disciples he goes before you and he'll meet you in Galilee.

Oh, but he was going to meet him sooner than that.

He was going to meet them on the first day of the night of the week.

What?

When the doors were shut, he showed up, said, Peace be unto you.

And he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Ghost.

Then opened their eyes to the understanding.

And then they understood the death, the burial, and the resurrection.

Come on, are you still with me tonight?

The idea, brethren, is he may ask for something from you.

Like uh something this simple.

You plan on coming to leadership conference Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night?

Oh no, I got plans.

Really?

You're gonna miss a church event?

You're gonna mention something we do special once a year?

Yeah, but I got stuff going on.

I'm busy.

I got I got job, business.

We gotta get up the next morning.

Kids got to go to school.

You're missing something, man.

You're really missing something, and you're robbing those kids of something special.

Schooling the next day is not more important than something that happens here on a Monday night or a Tuesday night or a Wednesday night when the Holy Ghost shows up.

And they remember it for the rest of their life.

I know I'm busy.

No, we got this plan.

No, I, you know, I didn't know it was leader, and we got this plan, really.

Don't miss something in the alabaster box way.

Because you only get so many opportunities to be at these things.

And we've had things go on here that people who are regular members missed because something was on TV they wanted to watch.

Or some business meeting was going on the next morning, or some school was going on for their children.

I want to tell you something.

When it's important and you want to go to some amusement park or some trip or somewhere, you'll stay out late.

And we're gonna have two preachers a night, except for Wednesday night we'll have one.

And I want to tell you something.

I would not miss it with my children and grandchildren for the world.

You say, why?

Something might happen that changes their life.

A marriage might get healed, somebody might get called to something, the alabaster box smell, the odor might fill the room.

You say, Do you think people are gonna dance in the aisle?

No.

But if the Holy Ghost speaks to you about something in your life through a preacher or through a song or through something that someone says, or you run into somebody or you meet somebody.

Last year at our conference, there were preachers here, and there was a meeting on these steps out here between a preacher and a person he hadn't seen for 20 years.

They didn't even know they were both going to be at the conference.

And they met out on those steps and hugged it out.

Cried a little bit.

They told me about it later.

They got together after the conference and they've been in communications ever since.

You say what?

They hadn't seen in 20 years.

They had a little falling out 20 years ago.

20 years later, on the steps of a little church in San Diego, they got it right.

Why?

Because they were both where they were supposed to be.

Come on, are you still with me or not?

I uh you say you're scolding me like I'm not coming and I ought to come.

I'm saying Monday night, Tuesday, Wednesday night we're having church.

Well, we don't usually go to church on that.

Well, when are you gonna give it all in?

When are you gonna break the box?

When are you gonna change your schedule?

When are you gonna decide this is important?

When are you gonna decide that the judgment seat of Christ is coming?

When are you gonna decide that there might be something there one of those nights that you need or your children need or your wife needs?

Are you still with me or not?

I I'm glad I've been in some of the meetings where God dealt with me later for hours and hours after meeting.

You say, Well, you're just trying to put a guilt trip on me.

I'm trying to inspire you.

I praise the Holy Ghost inspires you.

I'm just a man.

But I pray the Holy Ghost will wake you up on Sunday night and say, Why aren't you going Monday night?

And then I pray it'll wake you up on Monday night and say, Why aren't you going Tuesday night?

Then I pray you get no sleep on Tuesday night.

And drag yourself into the meeting on Wednesday night.

What are you saying?

I'm saying I pray that the Holy Ghost makes us so uncomfortable that we go to church.

The rest of us, we come to church because we want to be here.

Hey, I want to see what God's gonna do.

I want to hear what God's gonna have for us, I want to experience what God has.

And in the old days, they would call it going to meetings.

We're going to meeting.

It's kind of what they say back in the mountains.

We're going to meeting.

What do you mean we're going to meeting?

Yeah, we're going to have a meeting.

What does that mean?

We're going to have extra preaching.

We're going to meeting.

And by the way, in the old days they'd circle up the wagons.

They'd live there for a while.

I'm not saying don't bring your RVs down here.

I'm not saying that.

But in the old days of the camp meeting, they'd show up and they'd plan on staying and being a part of it.

We're so busy in our culture.

There's so much distractions on TV and uh and business things and uh social things and please look at soccer and baseball and all the rest of this stuff.

And I'm not against soccer and baseball, but if practice is more important in church, you ought to check it out for this week.

Well, my my my my my children play this.

Well, missus, skip a practice.

Oh no, we can't.

You can't skip a practice to come to Sunday to come to church.

Why are we so quiet?

Why isn't somebody saying that's right?

I'd rather have my boy in church than being on the soccer field that night.

I'm about to committed to soccer.

I'd rather have my boy in church than being on the soccer field that night.

One practice or one game is not gonna kill you.

Break the alabaster box and tell your son church is important.

It's more important than sports.

Well, but they're studying, they gotta go to school the next day.

You'd you'd keep them out for two or three hours if it was something important to your family.

Disneyland.

Come on, Magic Mountain, Knott's Bury Farm, Universal Studios.

How about church?

But it's gonna last two hours.

We gotta get up the next day.

Grow up, endure hardness, soldier.

This is an opportunity to do something that God might show up in and do.

And if this is making you angry on the inside, I want to tell you something.

I'm gonna ask God to help me to sleep tonight.

If this is getting you angry on the inside, like I don't like you challenging me that way.

Brother, I want to tell you something.

In the old days, this would be considered nambi pambi, what I'm saying to you tonight.

And I'm not gonna use sarcasm and put you down or anything like that.

I'm not trying to get a bunch of amens.

I want you to get to the meeting.

I want to go to meeting as a church.

This meeting is not for the churches that are coming only, it's mainly for our church.

We started it years ago for our church.

A few guys said we'd like to come.

Can we can we come and you teach us a little bit?

We had a few show up and we taught them a little bit about leadership during the day, and I don't remember everything.

And then we had a meeting at night, and they came and it was wonderful for them.

And I decided, that's it, done, no more.

One and done.

Glad it's done, glad it went well.

And they kept coming and saying, When's the next one?

When's the next one?

When's the next one?

I don't know what year this is, but I'm glad my children have been here.

I'm glad they've grown up in this, I'm glad they've experienced this, and we're not perfect, but I want to tell you something.

If the opportunity comes for you to break your alabaster box and you don't, please look, it'll be your fault.

It'll be your fault.

No excuses at the judgment seat of Christ.

Your fault.

You say, Well, what if the Holy Ghost tells me not to come?

I leave that between you and Him.

Make sure you're listening to the right spirit.

Make sure you're listening to the right voice.

Make sure you're not listening to your carnal mind.

There's gonna be sickness, there's gonna be headaches, there's gonna be uh uh problems that come up, there's gonna be cars that break down, there's gonna be all kinds of things.

But I want to tell you something.

I pray that I'm at church every night.

Headache or no headache, car or no car.

Uh you know, uh, whatever might come, I pray that I'm at church.

God get me to church.

You say you're the pastor, you're supposed to sit up there, brother.

All kinds of things can happen.

I want to be at church not because I'm the pastor, I want to be in the church because the church doors are open and I'm a member of this church.

Come on, are we still with me tonight?

I'm surprised you aren't saying more amens.

It's an alabaster box night.

It's a decision night.

It's not everybody that understands.

The neighbors are saying you're going to church again?

Your family, extended family, you're going to church again?

You're going to church again?

Where'd you go last night, Mr.

Businessman?

Went to church.

Didn't you go to church Monday night?

Yeah, I was there Sunday night.

Then Monday night?

Then Tuesday night?

Then Wednesday night?

What are you, a fanatic?

Yes, I am.

That's exactly right.

Yes, I am a fanatic.

If that means I'm committed, then yes, I am fanatic about it.

They would have looked at Mary and thought, what a fanatic.

What a fanatic.

Who broke that box?

Everybody smelled it.

It it permeated the whole house.

It permeated outside.

It was a pound of spike nard.

It was a pound.

It was not a liquid measure.

Spike nard can be made extremely thick and heavy, if you would, and they make it into a gummy type of substance.

And the gummier it is, the thicker the smell.

And this woman didn't care about her hair.

Well, I'm gonna get this all over my hair.

I'm gonna have this smell in my hair.

I'm gonna have this gummy substance in my hair.

Now, some of us could have not wiped it with their hair.

That would have been tough for me, amen.

But she didn't care about her hair.

She got down as har as far as she could go.

She sat at his feet.

When Lazarus was raised from the dead, she fell at his feet, and here she is, worshiping at his feet.

Getting her hair all messed up with gummy spike knard.

Got worship all over her.

Got that odor all over her.

And they weren't saying it complimentary.

The Lord said, There's the woman that did that.

Take note of her.

She had done what she could.

She has wrote a good work.

That which she's done wherever the gospel is preached, they're gonna speak about that.

She broke a box.

She gave it up.

I think I'm done.

The ball's in your court now.

If you're new tonight and you say, boy, that doesn't sound like very charitable.

You know what?

Provoking the love and good works.

It's something I'm supposed to do as a pastor.

Come on, is that right?

Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, we've announced the dates forever.

Yeah, but I I I got a business dinner that night.

Really?

You think you're gonna close the deal?

Yeah, I'm uh it's a big one.

I'm gonna make a lot of money off of that.

Really?

Really?

I wonder how much you'd make if you come to church instead.

I wonder what God might do instead when you sacrifice your plan.

Come on, we still all right?

I understand you may have the military duty or something like that, but I do know once in a while you can trade it.

At least you could in my day.

What do you mean trade it?

If you got duty Tuesday night, you might find to somebody and say, hey, can we trade the duty?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but they're gonna trade on a day, you know, they wanna they they I got I I don't want to give up a Saturday.

That's what they want to trade is a Saturday.

Trade them whatever they want and be in church.

Make it a priority because it only comes around sometimes once.

We miss it, it's gone.

What do you mean it's gone?

There'll be one next year.

The timing of our life, the timing of the message.

Well, I'll get it on CD.

I gotta tell you, sometimes it's not like being here.

It's not like being in the service.

You see, on the C D you can't smell the odor.

Send me that message.

Yeah, you should have been there though.

The odor filled the house.

See, if you're not in the house, you can't smell the odor.

You say, you mean no, I'm talking about you never know what God's gonna do because I don't.

Know.

Sometimes we've had movements of the Holy Ghost in prayer.

Well, send me a t send me a tape.

Send me a C D.

I'll get it that way.

Really?

You just won't quite get the odor.

Let's power hit.

Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Doug Fisher of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.

To learn more about Lighthouse Baptist Church, visit our website at www.lighthousebaptist.com or call 619 461 5561.