Extravagant Love

Have your Bibles, turn with me to the Gospel of Luke chapter 7, and we're going to look

Luke 7 · chapter mention

at a passage that's one of my favorite in the New Testament.

Great, great story.

And I want to preach this morning on the subject of extravagant love.

Extravagant love, Luke chapter 7, verse 36 through 50.

Luke 7:36–50

So if you have your Bibles, turn there, and we'll begin our reading in just a moment.

There are a number of times in the Scripture you get a picture of what worship looks like.

I don't think you'll ever find a picture that is a clearer picture, more graphic picture

of worship than you're going to see this morning as we think about extravagant love.

Look with me to Luke chapter 7, and we're going to begin our reading in verse 36.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

Then one of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him.

He entered the Pharisees' house and reclined at the table.

Now, from the very get-go, this story is just a little bit unusual if you're familiar with

the life of Jesus in the Gospels.

We see Jesus often eating with sinners and publicans and folks that were considered the

lower echelon of those living at the time.

Jesus often was criticized for that.

But you seldom see Jesus going into the home of someone who has a lot of money and someone

who's prestigious and someone who religiously was a Pharisee because the Pharisees often

positioned themselves as the enemies of Jesus.

They were the most critical voice against Jesus throughout his earthly ministry.

But even as we read that, we see Jesus goes to this home, and we read something that to

our Western mind seems a little bit unusual.

They're reclining.

They're lying on the floor at this meal.

And that was pretty much the custom of the day.

They didn't have these long farm tables like we have now.

We can put eight or ten or twelve folk around the table.

They just simply had a large area, and they would lie down on the ground and would lay

on one side and eat their food in that fashion, have conversation perhaps in a circle of friends.

And there's more than just Jesus and Simon here.

There were some other folks, as you'll read this story, you can tell, who were present at

this engagement.

Well, look at the very next verse, verse 37.

And a woman in the town who was a sinner, and it seems a little strong, that designation

that Luke uses, but you'll see why in just a moment.

And a woman in the town who was a sinner found out that Jesus was reclining at the table in

the Pharisee's house.

She brought an albaster flask of fragrant oil, verse 38, and stood behind him at his feet weeping

and began to wash his feet with her tears.

She wiped his feet with the hair of her head, kissing them and anointing them with the fragrant

oil.

Now, this woman, as you're going to see in just a moment real clearly, is obviously not

on Simon, who we're later going to find is the name of this Pharisee who has invited Jesus

to his house.

She's not on the A list.

She didn't get an invitation in mail or a verbal invitation, why don't you come to the house

and Jesus is going to drop by and we'll just have a grand old time of it.

She didn't get an invitation to come.

She heard Jesus is going to be in the house.

And for Luke to designate her as someone who was a sinner, and then what you're going to

read in just a moment is even more shocking and more graphic than that.

I'll just let the cow that back right now.

The commentators all agree, this woman, almost 100% sure they are, that she was a prostitute.

She's a lady of the evening, right?

She's a woman with a sold reputation.

And because of who Simon was, a Pharisee, because of their outlook on life, it goes without saying,

if you know anything about the New Testament at all, she knew she wasn't welcome in Simon's

home.

In fact, as you're going to see the text unfold in just a minute, Simon can't believe she comes

there.

He thinks it's completely inappropriate.

And her actions he deem as completely inappropriate.

So going there, she takes this alabaster jar of perfume.

She's got something in mind or she wouldn't have brought that with her.

She's acting deliberately.

She's acting intentionally.

She has a plan.

We don't know yet until we read this last verse what that plan is.

But she has a plan in mind.

She's going to anoint the feet of the Lord Jesus with this precious perfume in this alabaster

jar, right?

She also knows he doesn't want her there.

She's not welcome in his home.

Let me just ask you.

Have you ever gone somewhere you had such a desire to be in a certain place?

Maybe something was happening to somebody you really loved and you cared about, but you

knew when you got there, there would be folks who wouldn't welcome your presence.

And so you felt a little bit out of touch.

You felt a little bit at ill ease.

You just thought, man, this is not going to go good.

They don't want me there, but I've got such a desire.

I've just got to go.

So if you've never had that experience, you've not been a pastor.

I just want to tell you.

Because if you're a pastor, there have been moments in your life where you knew you're

showing up something.

You need to be there, but they don't want you there, right?

You're the last person they want to see.

But you still know I've got to go and I've got to be there and I've got to see what's

going on and I've got to participate in this event, even though you know you're not welcome.

And that's how it was with this woman.

So when she gets there, she simply stands behind Jesus at his feet.

Imagine that Jesus is laying on the floor here in front of us and he's facing you.

Simon's over on that side and he's looking at Jesus.

There's some other guests and they're gathering around in a circle.

She just walks up behind Jesus and she stands there.

And as she stands there and looks at Jesus, Simon no doubt is wondering, what in the world

is she doing here?

Who let her in?

Who invited her?

She's not welcome here.

And as she looks at Jesus and listens to the conversation, here's what happens.

Pretty graphic scene.

The tears just simply began to roll down her face and onto his feet.

Have you ever gotten so emotionally choked up about something that you couldn't fight back

the tears?

There have been times in preaching or praying where I've just been so overwhelmed with emotion.

In fact, to be honest, the first time I saw that video in the first service,

it just broke my heart and I wept.

I tried to pray in that first service and just couldn't hardly even get the words out.

I didn't want to cry because I want to be in control.

And that's how most of us are all the time.

We want to be in control of our emotions.

We don't want to publicly cry in front of others.

And this woman, no doubt, is trying to choke back the tears.

But her heart won't let her.

And her eyes just continue to pour tears.

And as they fall, they fall on Jesus' feet.

Now, you need to understand the bottoms of his feet are covered with sandals.

But the top of his feet are open.

Probably a strap like sandals that some of us wear today.

And they're strapped to his feet.

And his feet have walked probably miles that day.

And he hasn't had the luxury of walking on asphalt or concrete.

He's just walking dirt roads.

There are no paved roads anywhere.

And so he's walking.

And as he walks, the dust settles on his feet.

And it's no big deal, really, because everyone there is in the same situation.

They all have, any of these guests who've walked to get to Simon's house,

they all have dust on their feet, right?

But this dust is not so apparent because it's spread out.

It's not wet.

You don't notice it until the tears begin to fall.

Have you ever seen dust on pavement or dust on something?

And a drop of water from a hose or a drop of water from rain,

it hits a pavement where there's dust?

You know what immediately happens?

It makes those little circles like a dime.

It's like a small explosion occurs.

And the dust is shaken up.

And it leaves a spot where now it's clean,

but the dust has been pushed to the side.

And if enough rain falls, if enough tears fall, it begins to puddle up.

It begins to make little places where there's mud, visible dirt on the feet.

And so this woman stands there, and she weeps,

and her tears are falling on Jesus' feet.

And she just naturally, without thought, just drops to her knees.

And she does something that's pretty unthinkable when you consider it.

Her hair must have been long, and she takes her hair,

and she begins to wipe away the dirt and the dust,

now moistened by her tears from Jesus' feet.

She uses her hair to do that.

I'm going to guess there's not a woman in this room

who would probably normally have thought to take their hair

and to wipe Jesus' feet.

Boy, hair, Paul says of women, is their prize and their glory, right?

My wife stands in front of the mirror.

She's not vain by any means, but she stands in front of the mirror every single morning,

and she wants to make sure every hair is in place.

She kills the ozone by spraying that hairspray, you know?

Right?

Because we're in particular about their hair.

I mean, if anything's going to look right,

they want their hair to look right.

But she just naturally, so naturally, just drops to her knees

and takes her hair and begins to wipe away the feet of Jesus.

I'm telling you, that's a moving scene.

If her tears have not brought you to tears already,

and she takes her hair and wipes his feet,

man, I'd have been a puddle of tears.

I could not have held out my emotion.

I wonder if John was there, the beloved disciple.

He was a pretty emotional guy.

I mean, he talks about his deep love for Jesus over and over,

and when he witnessed, if he was there and he witnessed this outpouring of love for Jesus,

well, I'm just sure that tears are flowing down the apostle John's face.

I even wonder if Jesus is crying.

Boy, folk come to him all the time, but they're seldom coming to do for him.

And I wonder what he's thinking.

I wonder how he looks.

If tears are flowing down his face, moved over how this woman has reacted.

But it doesn't stop there.

She takes that bottle of perfume she's initially brought,

and now she gets to the reason for her coming.

She pours it on his feet, and she begins to probably rub his feet,

to rub that oil into his feet.

How soothing that must have felt.

But she's still not done.

Get this now.

When she's through with that, she cradles his feet in her arms

and bends low where they are on the ground,

and she just tenderly kisses his feet.

If you've had a baby or grandbaby, you know what that's like.

Every one of us have held our children in our arms,

and we just smother them with kisses, don't we?

We just hold them so dear to us,

and we just kiss them on the head and the cheek,

the top of their head, their hair.

Because we just love them.

And that's the picture you've got of this woman.

Man, it's a graphic picture, isn't it?

I hope you never forget that picture.

I've been preaching here about seven, eight months.

If there's anything I hope you remember,

I hope you remember the picture that I'm painting for you this morning

of this woman holding his feet tenderly, kissing his feet.

Never forget that picture, because I'm going to tell you,

we'll talk about it later,

that's a picture of what real, genuine worship looks like.

You'll never see it clearer on this earth than that,

than when she cradles his feet and kisses them.

So what is the reaction?

Look back to the Scripture, if you will.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this,

he said to himself, underscore that.

He's not talking out loud.

You understand that?

He said it to himself.

We all have conversations with ourselves from time to time, right?

He's too polite to say this out loud,

but this is what he's thinking.

This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and, get this phrase,

what kind of woman this is who is touching him.

And then he concludes, she's a sinner.

You know what I have to believe he's saying in his mind?

My 12-year-old boy could look at that woman and tell she's from the streets.

I mean, she's lived hard and fast.

Well, when you've lived a life of sin, you just don't immediately lose that look, do you?

He looks at her and he knows.

Maybe he's seen her around town.

He's witnessed her in business dealings.

And he knows who she is and what she is.

And he's thinking to himself, this guy calls himself a prophet?

That's what a lot of people are saying about him, that he's of God.

Man, if he had any idea at all who this woman is, here's how he's thinking.

He wouldn't be allowing her to touch it.

You see, if that had happened to Simon,

if she'd come in and she'd start to put Simon affection,

well, he'd have pulled back.

He'd say, don't you touch me.

I mean, don't you dare touch me.

I don't want to have anything to do.

I'm not of the same ilk as you, and you just leave me alone.

You just get back.

Who invited you here?

That's how he's thinking about Jesus.

He's thinking to himself.

He can't be a prophet because he's not responding the way he would respond

if he knew who she was.

Jesus knows who she is.

He's not fooled at all.

He knows exactly who she is.

In fact, I think they had probably, whether they ever had conversation or not,

she's met Jesus before.

He may not even be aware of it, but she doesn't act the way she acts

unless she's had a prior relationship with Christ.

She knows exactly who he is.

So Jesus sees this.

Have you ever been somewhere and somebody doesn't say a word to you,

but you can just tell their body language says they don't like what just happened?

We've all been there, right?

Yeah, I mean, you don't have to be God.

You don't have to have supernatural powers.

We've all witnessed people who you just know they didn't say a word.

I know they don't like this.

So watch what Jesus says.

Verse 40.

Jesus replied to him, Simon, I have something to say to you.

Teacher, he said, say it.

He's warning you.

He's hoping he'll address this.

He said, make sense of this for me, right?

I don't get what you've just done.

A creditor had two debtors.

One owed 500 denarii and the other 50.

Since they could not repay it back, could not pay it back,

he graciously forgave them both.

So here's my question for you, Simon.

Which one of them will love him more?

Now, we don't deal in denarii, but I'll just tell you this.

It was, in that day and time, a day's wage.

Don't even try to think about all the money and all that.

Here's the important thing.

What he's showing is this.

This guy, the one guy, has a 500-day debt.

The other has a 50-day debt.

It's a 10-to-1 ratio, right?

So it translates in any economy, in any money-type arrangement we have.

Let's suppose a man made $50,000 a year.

He owed $75,000.

The other man, one-tenth of that would be $7,500.

And Jesus just says, keeping it real simple,

hey, this guy who owed $7,500 and this guy who owed $75,000,

which of the two of them do you think loved the man the most

was the most appreciative for what had happened?

And I want you to notice what Simon says.

He says what any of us would say.

Simon answered, verse 43,

I suppose the one, he forgave more.

You have judged correctly, he told him.

Now, and watch this.

I love this.

Look up here and just let me read and you watch.

Turning to the woman.

You're not looking at Simon.

Turning here, he looks at the woman who's been doing this.

He says to Simon,

You see this woman?

I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet,

but she, with her tears, has washed my feet

and wiped them with her hair.

You gave me no kiss,

but she hasn't stopped kissing my feet since I came in.

You didn't anoint my head with oil,

but she has anointed my feet with fragrant oil.

Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven,

and that's why she loved much,

but the one who is forgiven little loves little.

Now, he takes it very politely,

but very clearly to Simon.

He says, Simon, you see this woman?

Have you noticed what she's doing?

I can tell you don't approve.

He doesn't say that,

but I can tell you don't approve.

But I want to tell you about this woman.

When I came in your house a while ago as your guest,

you invited me here.

I didn't just invite myself.

You didn't wash my feet.

It may seem a little strange to you,

but the custom of the day was,

if you invited somebody to your home,

you either washed their feet

or you had a servant wash their feet

because they'd been out traveling the road

if their feet were dirty,

and it was just a polite gesture of hospitality.

Jesus says, you didn't do that.

Neither did you come wash my feet,

nor did you have one of your servants wash my feet.

You have to wonder why you didn't do that.

You know what my guess is?

Just a guess on my part.

I'm speculating.

You just didn't see the need.

This is just Jesus.

This is not the chief priest.

He'd have done it for him, I bet you.

He's not the local rabbi.

He'd have probably done it for him.

He's not a big shot in town.

He's not a banker.

He's just an itinerary.

He's Jesus.

I'm being nice just to invite him to my home.

Nothing special about him.

Boy, he's special to this woman.

The tears just pour from her face.

Which is indicative of what's in her heart.

And then Jesus says, and when I came in, you didn't kiss me.

If you watch TV and see pictures of the Eastern world,

they often kiss each other on each cheek.

Custom that carries over until even today.

Jesus says, you didn't greet me with a kiss.

Today we'd probably reach out our hand and hug somebody and put our arms around them.

Somebody's close to you, inviting them into your home.

Good to see you.

Pat them on the back.

Jesus says, you didn't do any of that.

But I want to tell you something.

She has not stopped kissing my feet since I got in this house.

You didn't anoint my head with oil.

Something else they did on occasion for guests.

But she has anointed my feet.

Simon, I'm not getting on to you about anything.

I just want you to know this.

The reason she's acted the way she's acted is because she's the one with the bigger debt.

She recognizes her huge debt and she's acted accordingly as I have forgiven her sin.

But you, you don't even know that I can forgive sin.

And you don't think you have much to be forgiven.

Now, don't misunderstand as I'm sure Simon did.

Jesus wasn't saying, you don't have any reason to be grateful.

You don't have any sin to be forgiven.

What he's saying is, Simon, you don't recognize you have need for your sins to be forgiven.

So watch what Jesus does then as he brings this to a close.

But the one who is forgiven little loves little.

Then he said to her, your sins are forgiven.

Those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves,

who is this man who even forgives sins?

And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you.

Underscore that.

Go in peace.

Now, I want you to notice something.

Be clear about this.

It wasn't her act of benevolence and kindness toward Jesus that made Jesus suddenly say,

your sins are forgiven.

And he says that himself.

He says, your sins are forgiven.

Your faith has saved you.

She was saved before she ever walked in the room.

That's why I know she'd had a previous encounter with Jesus.

And Jesus had touched her life.

She'd heard him speak somewhere.

And she was moved by it.

And she'd repented.

And she embraced him and loved him.

And he had forgiven her.

But now she's coming as an act of gratitude for the forgiveness she's already received.

And Jesus just wants her to know, your sins are forgiven because you have acted toward me in faith.

Well, I don't know about you.

I love this story.

Do you?

Amen.

Is that a good story?

What a story.

I want to share with you four things about it real quickly and hurriedly.

And we'll close.

Here's the first.

This passage, I love it because it gives us a great picture of what worship and adoration really looks like.

I pastored Brushy Creek and Greer for 25 years and 15 years in Statesworth, Western Avenue Baptist Church.

You know something that used to always burden my heart?

I talked to pastors about it and staff about it and my family about it.

There were many, many, many Sundays I'd go home and I would wonder this.

Did we really worship today?

Or did we just entertain?

Music was good.

People said the preaching was okay.

I did my best.

But did we just entertain them?

Was it just an exercise in intellectualism where the Bible is our subject and we just make people more aware of what the Bible is saying?

And they maybe think, well, that's a cool idea.

Or maybe they embrace a truth.

Or maybe they even get convicted about something.

But did we really worship?

Because that's what we call it.

We don't call it a preaching service or a music service or an entertainment service religiously.

We say it's a worship service.

And for worship to take place, there has to be an object of our worship and that's God.

And for worship to take place, it's not just that I hear something or that I am delighted by it or I clap to it or I respond.

It's that I love the one that we're worshiping.

I adore the one we're worshiping.

And I'm telling you today, worship, in my opinion, never takes place if all that's involved is an intellectual act.

There is that thought of me learning something and using my mind.

It ought to always be present in worship.

I need to make sure what I'm doing is true and right.

But listen to me.

When we really worship, it involves my emotions.

I've got to feel something about that which I just heard.

Do you understand that?

There is never worship, in my opinion, that emotions are not involved.

That doesn't mean we cry crocodile tears.

It doesn't mean we all swing from a chandelier.

We speak in tongues or act foolishly.

But I'll tell you something.

Worship always engages me emotionally.

It's impossible for me to worship and not feel something about that which I'm worshiping.

Do you understand?

That's just an impossibility.

And worship is always heartfelt.

It is always sacrificial.

It cost this woman not just the perfume.

It cost her in terms of her ego.

She knew when she went there she wasn't going to be welcome.

She knew she was going to get the cold shoulder.

It's sacrificial.

It always is transparent.

Boy, she was as transparent as glass.

What she felt that day, they all saw.

Right?

She wasn't ashamed of it.

She wasn't ashamed to shed tears and to stoop and to wipe his feet because she recognized I'm beneath you.

You're greater than I am.

So it wasn't a problem for her to do that.

She made herself vulnerable.

And real worship always leaves us vulnerable.

We're always at the place where we say, okay, God, it's not what I want.

It's what you want.

I'm surrendering my will to you.

I'm making myself vulnerable.

It's always intentional or deliberate.

That's one of the things that troubles me.

I'll just share with you a page out of my personal belief system and philosophy.

I'm glad we worship every week.

We should worship every week.

But I'm fearful that because we do it becomes so routine that we stop being intentional and deliberate about it.

That's just we get in the car and we go.

We just sit in the same seat we always sit in.

We just do the same thing we always did.

And this woman, she left home with that bottle of perfume.

She had a plan in mind.

I'm going to adore Jesus today.

I hear Jesus is over there and I'm going to show up and I'm going to spend a few minutes anointing.

She didn't understand that the tears would come.

She didn't fake those tears.

It was just on the moment.

It was spontaneous and she cried and her tears hit his feet.

And then she acted appropriately by reaching down and wiping his feet with her hair.

But she hadn't intended to do that.

But she had intended to come with oil.

That was deliberate.

That was intentional.

And I wonder about you this morning.

Can I be honest?

Did you come to hear kids sing?

Or hear a guy preach?

Or hear a quartet sing?

Or did you come to worship the Lord this morning?

When you left home with your intention?

Today is the day.

Folks, I am so glad that today is Sunday.

And we can go to church and we can honor our God.

The one who made us all.

The one who is saving us if we've trusted him as our Savior.

I am here today to honor God.

To worship him.

To adore him.

To tell him how I feel about him.

Great, great picture of worship.

Secondly, I love this story because it reminds us that Jesus came to seek and save those who were lost.

It tells me he came for the likes of this woman.

He came for people who were known sinners.

People who sin out in the open.

Who don't cover up their sin very well.

They may try to, but they don't do a very good job of it.

I mean, folk who have a reputation.

Folk who sin in plain sight as it were.

But it also tells me this.

He also came to seek and to save people like Simon the Pharisee who don't sin in plain view.

Can I just be real honest with you?

That's most of us in this room.

See, most of us in this room, not all of us here today possibly, but most of us here, we're religious enough that we play by a certain set of rules.

We have established a standard and here's how we act.

And we don't let folks see us doing those things we might think are wrong.

We keep that covered from human eyes, right?

We sin in secret.

We have just as evil hearts sometimes as those who sin openly in public in plain view.

We keep it hid from folk.

But there's one thing, and I don't mean this demeaning of anybody in this room.

It's just the truth.

We're all sinners.

And none of us are as good as we appear on paper.

Isn't that true?

You as good as folk think you are.

I'm not.

If you do the scoop on me, I want to tell you something.

You wouldn't have me in this pulpit this morning.

There are things I'm going to hide from you as best I can because I'm out of work if you know the truth about me.

I'm just telling you, none of us are as good as we look on paper.

You're not as holy as you appear.

I hope you try to be holy.

I hope you do live as holy a life as you can.

Not demeaning that, but I'm just saying,

Lord, we've all got things about us that we don't want anybody to see.

Things that your spouse knows, that your kids may know.

You try to deny, but you know it's true about yourself.

And we all need the same grace that that woman needed.

So I'm grateful today when I read this story to know that he came for people like her,

but he came also to those closet sinners like me.

He came for those who sin in public view, and he came for those who keep it pretty well hidden.

And here's the third thing I love about this story.

It reminds me of my indebtedness to Christ.

I don't know about you.

The day I got saved, I remember it well.

I go back and rehearse it in my mind some.

I was 14 years old.

Sitting on the next last row of the Marines Heights Baptist Church in Anderson.

And I came for that day and gave my heart and life to Christ.

And I'll tell you, I felt so indebted to Jesus.

He died on the cross from my place, and I wanted to do something for him.

I just wanted to do something for him.

But all I need to do is to live obedient, to read his word, to find out what he wanted me to do in my life.

And that's the important thing that we do.

But we should all have that desire within us all of our lives.

It should never grow old to us.

What can I do for Jesus?

What can I do to just express to him, maybe with my words or my actions, that I love you?

I've got a dear friend right now in Greenville.

I've known him 30 years, love him to death.

He's dying of cancer.

And I was in conversation with him last night, and his wife let it slip out a need he has.

She wasn't asking for anything.

She just told me about something that they needed.

And I've been asking all of them, what can I do?

How can I help?

And I'm going to tell you, it so thrilled me to hear this.

I'm sorry he doesn't have it right now, but I'm so thrilled to hear about that need because I've wanted to do for him, but I haven't been able to do.

And I'm going to tell you, if God will let me live till tomorrow morning, I'm going to meet that need because I want to.

I want him to know.

Excuse me.

I want him to know I love him.

I want him to know he's important in my life.

And so this story, it reminds me of my indebtedness to Jesus.

Do you feel indebted to him today?

Something you want to do for him today?

Last thing, and I'll close.

It gives me an unforgettable picture of what extravagant love is.

What really extravagant love is.

I'm not talking about run-of-the-mill love.

I'm not talking about puppy love.

I'm talking about extravagant love.

Do you know the difference in the two?

Love just says, I want to do something nice for you.

But extravagant love says, I'm pulling out all the stops.

Because I really want you to know how I feel.

I went to pastor at Western Avenue Baptist Church.

Seems like 100 years ago now when I was 25.

And there was a guy who had left that church.

Who I became fast friends with.

He was there 15 years.

Great, great, great pastor.

Big, tall guy, about 6'7", skinny as a beanpole.

Had a wife named Bobby.

He loved her so dear.

Everybody in town knew how he loved Bobby.

He would joke about the fact he wasn't very handsome.

And he'd say, how in the world did I get Bobby to marry me?

He was a little on the gangly side.

And so he'd already left States when he moved to Salisbury, North Carolina, Faith Baptist Church.

And when his 25th anniversary came around, I'll never forget it.

He told me what he was going to do.

And then he told me what he did.

And then I heard about it after.

It was the neatest thing.

His wife worked at this school.

And he decided he would have a courier bring a gift to her every day on the hour.

I mean, excuse me, that day, every hour on the hour.

So it started about 8.30 that morning.

And, boy, teachers were talking about, did you see those roses that Jake sent Bobby?

And then at 9.30, everybody's amazed.

The courier came back, and he had another nice gift.

And at 10.30, another nice gift.

And by then, all the teachers were congregating down to that room to see what Bobby was going to get.

And the kids were saying, Ms. Honeycutt, what you got?

What you got?

What you got?

And somebody thought, we're going to call the paper.

And they called the paper.

And the little local paper came out and did a story about it and made their pictures.

Every hour on the hour and every hour after that, after she got home, she got a gift from Jake for the rest of that.

That's extravagant love, isn't it?

And I'm going to tell you something.

That's how we all love.

Don't you hate it when we just love enough?

Just enough.

It's enough.

As a pastor, I used to get 100, not literally, but a lot of them,

invitations to high school graduations.

Some kids, I knew some kids I didn't even know.

And so I would sit down with Gene and say, what can we do on this thing?

I want to be nice to them.

But, man, we got a bunch of these invitations.

What are we going to do?

And you know what we do?

We do enough.

Enough.

Enough that it was okay to give it.

It wasn't too cheap to give it to them.

But not so much that it was going to break the bank.

Now, I know y'all don't know anything about that.

You don't do that kind of thing.

Showers and weddings.

What's enough?

That's a lousy way to live and a lousy way to love, isn't it?

You can't love everybody extravagantly, but I want to tell you something.

You better love some people extravagantly.

I've sat by the bedside of a lot of dying people.

I've never heard anybody say, man, I wish I hadn't been so extravagant.

I wish I'd been just a little cheaper.

I wish I got her a smaller ring.

I wish I had gone, you know, over to, you know, Traveler's Rest instead of Hawaii.

Really?

Really?

Do you love extravagantly?

Do you love your spouse extravagantly?

Do you love Jesus extravagantly?

Now, I haven't been here a long time, but I've been here long enough, eight months to know this.

You're not the kind of people who just step out in every invitation and come and kneel at the front and pray.

But I want to tell you something.

There ought to be moments in your life where you just say, Jesus, today I have a real need to love you extravagantly.

I want the world to know that I love you.

Maybe it's just right there in your chair while others are standing.

You just sit and pray.

Or maybe it's to fall out on the floor and kneel right there beside your chair.

Or maybe it's to come here and all around this altar just to kneel and take just a minute and say, God,

I just want everybody in this room to know how pleased I am that you saved me, that you have come and died for me,

and that you live in my heart.

You've given me eternal life, and I'm just indebted to you.

And I just want to leave today without somehow worshiping you.

Would you do that as we stand and as we sing?

However God moves in your heart, you let Him know you love Him today.

Would you do that?

Don't leave without worshiping.

Let's do that.