Mary Anoints Jesus

Good morning, everybody. Hey everybody that was on spring

break. Welcome back, students, parents

of young people. I was just telling someone this

morning. Everybody asked me what I did on

spring break. And as many of you know, when

you become a big kid, you don't get spring break anymore.

So I did nothing. I worked.

We are in the book of John today.

So go ahead and grab a Bible. There's some in the seats below

you. You'll see on the screen behind

me the verses we're in today as well as the page number if you

use a black Bible. And while you're flipping there

a story from my life. Today we're talking about PDA.

And so here's a story from my life.

The year was 2014. Gordon was 18 years old, just

graduated, had the first girl. I was going to bring the church

with me and we're walking into the church that I grew up in.

So I've got parents and grandparents and family and

people who knew me since I was little.

We're walking in and I was holding her hand and we got

within sight of people. And I do one of these like, oh,

hey, and then hands back in my pocket.

And so I got out of got out of anybody seeing me hold her hand

and on the way in the church. And when, when that's the kit,

what I was basically showing by doing that is I like you, but

how much I'm willing to show some version of love, but how

much and really what that communicates is how much that

person has impacted you. If someone's impacted you a lot,

like my wife, I will hold her hand and hug her and bring her

to church every day. When you've been impacted by

someone, it's natural and appropriate to give some level

of love or honor or service. The question is, how much?

How much would you honor them? How much would you love them?

How much would you serve them? The in the book of John so far,

through chapters one through 10, we've been seeing the ministry

of Jesus Christ and we've seen how much he has impacted people

by who he is and by what he's done.

If you've not been with us through the series, I would

encourage you go to our Spotify teaching listen to last week.

Josh gave a great recap of the 1st 10 chapters.

And now in chapter 1112, we're kind of transitioning into

really the last week of Jesus life.

But what we've been learning is about what Jesus has done and

therefore who he is, the Son of God and the Christ.

And if you've been impacted by who Jesus is and what he's done,

it is natural and appropriate to give him honor, love and

service. Would you agree?

How much? That's the question for today.

And so we're going to start. We're going to go through verses

one through 11 before we read from God's Word, we're going to

take a moment to pause and make sure our hearts are right.

If you come in with sin that you know of, that you've not asked

Him to forgive you of, don't try to listen to His Word until

you've dealt with that first. If you come in with anxiety, if

you come in distracted, if you just know I'm a little bit

apathetic or cold today, ask Him for help.

That we could get the most out of this teaching today.

So brief time to sit and quiet. Then I'll read the text and

pray. John 12, starting in verse 1-6.

Days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where

Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

So they gave a dinner for him. There Martha served Lazarus was

one of those reclining with him at the table.

Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from

pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with

her hair. The house was filled with the

fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his

disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, why was this

ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

He said this not because he cared for the about the poor,

but because he was a thief, and having charge of the money bag

he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Jesus said, Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day

of my burial. For the poor you always have

with you, but you do not always have me.

When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there,

they came not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus,

whom he had raised from the dead.

So the chief priest made plans to put Lazarus to death as well,

because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and

believing in Jesus. Father, thank you for this story

that's been like held for us, for us to remember and from us,

for us to learn from. We pray we would do that today,

that we would learn from this. I pray Jesus that you would let

us be free to give you much honor and service and love.

We pray all these things in Jesus name, Amen.

So what I want to do is just give quick overview of the

story. John is just one of the four

gospels, and then you look at Matthew tells the story too,

just from a little bit different vantage point.

And Luke or Mark, Mark, I'm checking 'cause there's one

story that's very similar. It's in Luke, but it's different

stories. Matthew and Mark tell the same

story and add a few different details.

And it's interesting when you ask three different people what

they remember about a scene. It's really interesting when you

see different variants 'cause it was especially impactful to

them. And so John has a few things in

here that he remembers that you don't see in the other accounts

and vice versa. So basically, first I want to

touch on the context or remind us Jesus is deeply impacted

Mary, Martha and Lazarus main characters in this story.

If you were here a few weeks ago, you saw Jesus knew this

family well. And when he gets word from the

sisters, he whom you love is ill referring to Lazarus.

So there's deep friendship. Jesus waits a couple days, goes

Lazarus has been in a tomb for four days dead, and he raises

them from the dead. And this is this is today a

response to what Jesus has done to this family primarily 6 days

before the Passover. Jesus therefore came to Bethany,

where Lazarus was, and they gave a dinner for him there, the way

it reads. So they gave a dinner for him

there. This is a dinner held, an honor

for Jesus. They're throwing a party for him

to celebrate him and thank him because they've been deeply

impacted by what he's done and who he is.

One of the other accounts adds that it's Simon the leper who's

hosting this party. Now, if a leper was hosting a

party where many Jews were coming into the same house, that

means he wasn't a leper anymore. And so Jesus is healed all.

He's raised the man back to life and they are holding a dinner

and honor for Jesus. And if I now just jump down to

verse 9/10/11, what you also see in the scene, what's going on

outside of the house is that there are many people that are

coming to see. They might not have been invited

to come into the party, but they want to see this Jesus and they

want to see Lazarus. Lazarus alive is proof that

Jesus is resurrection. And life, which he's promised.

And so the chief priest, the leaders that we saw a few weeks

ago, especially last week, they have made their choice about

Jesus. They're not interested in him.

They believe he should be condemned to death, really to

suit their own purposes, so that their life isn't messed up.

They can keep their place. They now want to kill Lazarus

too, which if you think about it, Lazarus is evidence.

They are intentionally trying to bury evidence.

They are being false witnesses. They want to corroborate the

details or they want to mess up the details to keep the many

Jews who are going away and believing in Jesus.

And so that's going on outside the house.

Then back inside the house you've got verse 3.

Right before Martha serving, Lazarus was sitting at the

table. Mary therefore took a pound of

expensive ointment made from pure nard.

This is like any ladies use essential oils.

OK, the costliest essential oil out there, 300 denarii is the

equivalent of a year's wage. How much do you make in a year?

OK, the a mean or average based on the data I found around

$50,000. Kate basically burned, poured

out. You can't get it back and

worship to Jesus. She pours out this, this

fragrance of perfume on Jesus, the other accounts say on his

head. And so picture her going up,

breaking the flask so it cannot be put back.

She's not interested in keeping a little bit or any of it.

She's pouring it all out. She breaks it, the other

accounts say on his head first to anoint him and then she gets

down low and wipes his feet with her.

This caused such a reaction out of Judas especially.

But before you paint Judas as the only bad guy the other

accounts say, and many others or the disciples, they were

indignant at this. Judas is the one probably that

just piped up and said something, but they were all

just really thrown off because this would be countercultural.

For Mary to take her hair down, For Mary to do the job of the

housemaids to get down low and wash his feet.

For Mary to pour out something worth $50,000 all gone in a

moment. This was countercultural.

This offended Judas pipes up. Why was this ointment not sold?

You could have done so much better things to serve Jesus and

His Kingdom than this. Jesus then in the later verses

commends Mary, I love there's a line in one of the other

accounts where Jesus says, why do you trouble her?

She has done a beautiful thing. And Jesus goes on to say

wherever the gospel goes in all of the world, this story will be

told in memory of her. Isn't that incredible?

Mary gets memorialized. This goes down in history.

The proof of that statement is here today.

Wherever the Gospel goes, this story is told in memory of her.

How special, how honorable, Like how much is Jesus honoring her

through her first honoring him. Jesus says the poor you always

have with you. You don't always have me.

This is a special moment that Mary won't get again, but she

takes advantage. She's free enough to give it to

him in this moment. And so that's basically the gist

of the story. And there's three things I want

to highlight about Mary and her display.

You could say her PDA, her display of love, service, and

honor to Jesus, and all of us would agree.

If you've been impacted by somebody, they deserve a level

of honor, service, and love. But how much?

So let's start with honor. If we look at the story, there's

some specific things we see that communicate honor to Jesus.

And so first they're throwing a party to honor Jesus.

You know how much energy goes into throwing a party?

Any of you hosted before? Any of you done a big party?

This is a big party. You've got people serving to put

this on. You've got people that are

attending the party, OK, preferring this over other other

things they're saying. I want to put this first.

To honor someone is to show them, to show the significance

of what they're worth. More than myself, more than

other things, more than tradition.

They're they're throwing a party and making Jesus their honored

guest. Presumably there's a big table,

and who's at the head of the table?

Presumably their honored guest. And Lazarus is sitting there

enjoying his company and many others other things you see in

the story. It would have been common to get

like the regular anointing oil to anoint an honored guest.

Mary doesn't get the regular anointing oil, she gets the good

stuff. Which again shows the

significance of what Jesus, their honored guest, is worth.

Mary goes over the top for an over the top person in an over

the top way. This all communicates honor,

even by Mary getting low. OK, before we talk about her

actually washing his feet, just the nature of getting low and

being at his feet is giving honor.

It's that of bowing to someone more significant.

In the store, you see different versions of honor.

You see Simon the leper hosting, and you see other people

attending. But how much?

Mary's the one that pushes the line way back in what she's

willing and able to and free to do in order to honor Jesus.

And so question, what is your line with Jesus?

How much would you do to honor Jesus?

And I'm just going to, I'm going to try to inch you and challenge

you. Where's your line?

Where would you say I wouldn't do that?

I'll hold her hand when no one's looking, but I won't hold her

hand when I go to church. Would you attend a party or an

event to honor Jesus? You're doing it now.

So yes. The reason why we have a Sunday

service is to make much of our honored guest.

Would you come regularly? Regularly.

Would you Orient your life in a way that would let you be here

regularly at this event to honor Jesus?

Would you come to a worship night?

How long of a worship night? One hour.

Would you come if it was 2? Would you come if it was a three

hour worship night? Would you fill your home with

worship? Would it?

Would it be in the house every day?

What would that tell your kids about how much you honor Jesus?

Would you put energy into serving to help put on that

event for the honored guest? How much would you honor Jesus?

Mary's gift was costly too. It wasn't the good, wasn't the

common stuff. Would you give your money to

honor Jesus? You know, there's a study.

Barna says 21% of Christians donate 10% or more to Jesus.

Only 21% of professing Christians give 10% or more.

And so will you give the common amount that the common or

average of the Christians give? Will you give 10% a tithe?

Would you give 15? Would you give 20?

Would you? Would you go over the top for

the over the top guest? Would you make counter cultural

choices? OK again to let your hair down?

To do something that would offend tradition or others

opinions? Would you do count?

Make countercultural choices to show the significance of Jesus

and what he's worth over what's easy, what your preference is,

what other people think is normal.

Would you honor Jesus when you bump up against something in the

Bible that countercultural? Would you honor him with what he

says about marriage? Would you honor him with what he

says about holiness? Purity.

Would you pay 2 rents until you got married?

Where's your line? What would you do to show that

Jesus is worthy of all honor? Or would you keep your hair up

and get the common oil? There's a verse in Malachi where

God is speaking through the prophet Malachi and God says a

son honors his father and a servant his master.

If I then, if I then am a Father, where is my honor?

If I am a master, where is my fear?

Says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise my name.

These were priests who were Christians in name only, OK?

That is the literal definition of nominal, OK?

They profess to be believers, and yet they are giving him

polluted sacrifices. They they are, they are not

honoring him with his whole, with their holiness.

And by doing that, they are dishonoring God and God is

rebuking them saying, where's my honor?

You say, now I'm bringing it back to us.

You say that you're a Christian, which means I have been so

deeply impacted by what Jesus did on the cross to forgive me

of my sins and give me new life to make me a son.

And now I'm your father. If you say that, where is my

honor? How much does your life evidence

or show that Jesus is your Lord, that he is your honored guest,

that he has deeply impacted you so much so that your life is not

the same? There was a story here at Vita I

was. One of my favorite things to do

as a pastor is meet with people about baptism because what

they're saying is I've been so deeply impacted by Jesus that I

want to stand up and tell everybody.

I want to honor him. I want to tell everybody that

he's my Lord now and I commit to follow him with the rest of my

life. So I was meeting, having one of

those meetings with someone. And at the end we're like, Yep,

you got to go ahead. You need to be baptized.

And he asked me, Gordon, could I wear a suit?

Because I think I was getting into like, wear dark clothing,

you know, like you're going to be wet in front of a bunch of

people, the normal stuff. And he says, can I wear a suit?

I was like, well, first tell, tell me why?

And he goes on to say, well, I've worn a suit on all of my

best days. You know, you like wear a suit

on your wedding day. Why wouldn't I wear a suit on

this day? It's like, yes, you can wear a

suit. Go for it.

Where's your line? How much would you do to honor

Jesus? What about service?

When you've been impacted by someone, it is natural and

appropriate to give them service.

How much? If someone jumps in front of a

bullet for you, wouldn't you be willing to serve them?

Wouldn't you be willing to do just about anything for them?

What wouldn't you do for someone that sacrificed their own life

for you? In the story, she washes his

feet. OK, She literally serves him.

She unknowingly serves him in a greater way because Jesus later

says she's not only washed my feet, she prepared me for

burial. Jesus knows that he's going to

the cross. So what Mary, if you think about

it, what Mary unknowingly does is she unknowingly helps advance

the gospel through her service. Jesus had to go to the cross and

she helped him get there. She helps helps advance the

gospel by preparing his body for burial.

And this is simply with what she had on hand.

And I say simply what she had on hand.

This was more than just an everyday household item.

This is what many Jews would have basically put their

inheritance into or their retirement into.

OK, if you don't have a bank to go deposit things to, then trust

them to hold on to it. Go get some really expensive

ointment, put it in a jar and put it on a high shelf and that

can be sold at any time if you needed it.

It's a rainy day fund, probably. She goes and gets that, and

that's what she uses to wash and to advance the gospel.

It is sacrificial service, not just any old service.

In the story, we see many people serving, right?

Martha's serving Lazarus in his own way just by sitting there

and enjoying his company. Host helping host him is

serving. There's many people serving, but

Mary just pushes the line. What are you willing to do?

How how much would you serve him now as a clarifier, the primary

way we serve Jesus today is by serving his people and his

church. OK, Jesus says if you give a cup

of cold water to one of these little ones, it's as if you're

you've done it for me. OK, He has dialogue with his

disciples where they're he's like, if you give a coat to me

or clothe me or feed me, like when?

When will we do That said, if you've done it to any of these,

it's as if you've done it to me. One of the ways we serve Jesus

is by serving his people. And Jesus has chosen the local

church as the thing that would advance the gospel after the

cross until the end when he comes back.

This is what advances the gospel.

This is what carries truth forward.

This is what tells the world around us about him.

This is what helps care for believers among us.

So when you serve his people or the church, you're serving him.

So would you serve him? And at a very basic level, would

you serve serve him? Would you serve in the local

church? Would you do it regularly?

Would you greet, greet in front of the door?

It's pretty easy. Would you scrub a toilet?

Would you give 2 hours a week, 6 hours a week?

You know, some of our worship team members, they came early at

8:00 AM today. They're staying late just to

practice for the worship night that many of us will get to come

to next week. And how about outside of the

local church? Because that's not all.

How about just going out and being salt and light in our

community? Would you serve others?

Would you serve other nonprofits that are helping make disciples

in our city? Would you give towards missions

to serve what people are doing across the world for him?

How much would you do? What has he given you?

What has he given Mary? Would she look across the shelf

and say, Nah, there's my line. I wouldn't give that.

What has he given you? And would you give it?

If he asked you, would you give it and service to the gospel?

Has he given you money again? Would you give a portion of that

back to Him to help serve His mission?

Would you make a generosity budget in your budget?

Would you put a category for generosity just to be generous

to others, to give a cup of cold water?

Has He given you a business? Would you use that?

Would you leverage it for the advance of the gospel?

How much? How much profit would you give?

How much of its mission or purpose or DNA would you

leverage for Jesus, not for yourself?

How much would you give in service to Him?

Now, I know once once you're relatively free to give a lot

and service to him. You serve in a church, you serve

elsewhere, you give a tithe. You know how much I I know

there's usually then like these big questions that come like if

you asked me to go to China, would I If you asked me to do a

church plant, would I If you asked me to foster a child,

would I? And those are some of the

questions that I don't know, I think I used to ask it out of

fear not I think it's good to wrestle with.

Would you? If he asked you, would you?

You just can't have an assumption that he's going to

make you live the hardest life. OK?

Jesus has a good life prepared for you.

And if he asked you, would you trust that that will be good for

him and good for you? You know that song we sing a

lot? For his glory and my good, Those

things go together. Would you?

If he asked you to go somewhere, would you?

I think one of the stories that'll get me choked up more

than anything is someone that sacrifices much to go.

And I think it's because it's like at the very heart of the

Great Commission, go and tell and baptize and make disciples.

Would you, if he asked you, would you let me talk to those

of you that you're young, you don't have a wife and kids yet?

Now, if you have a wife and kids, you're not excused from

this question, but I'm I'm talking primarily to those

you're in the most flexible available time in your life.

OK, This would be the time to go big.

If he asked you, if you're considering, if your ears are

open, would you give up a summer instead of doing the prestigious

internship that'll give you the most likelihood for the job that

you want? Would you give that up if he

asked you to and just stay and serve or go do something

completely different to serve? Would you?

Would you after graduating, say I'm going to delay my dream job

and I'm going to give 2 years a very intentional ministry.

I'm going to take a job that's so flexible that I can just

volunteer so much time to serve Jesus and his people.

The Mormons do it, think about it, and they're compelled by

duty and a false religion. If you've been impacted by

Jesus, he's the only one that would go to the cross for you,

that would jump in front of a bullet.

What wouldn't you do to serve him if he asked?

I grew up in a house where my dad was a pastor.

My grandpa was a pastor. I loved serving in the church.

OK, I had a line, maybe further than most my age, but every time

people asked me, are you going to go in?

Are you just going to be a pastor?

That was my line. Nope, I'm not going to do that.

You can chuckle because I when I actually realized what I wanted

to do, I came here for college at UFI, started taking classes

in communication. I got a degree in videography

and as I got into videography, I'm like this, this is it.

This is what I'm passionate about.

I want to travel and make videos.

That's my dream. And I want to serve Jesus.

Yes, but I'm going to do it while traveling and making

videos. And then I get to two months out

from graduation date, I have an interview at what would be my my

preferred marketing agency here in town.

I had an interview set. I'm praying about it one

morning, one random ordinary morning, and I'm not excited

about it. And I'm confused because this is

supposed to be my dream job. This is what I want to do.

I want to travel and make videos, and here's how I can do

it. And I can stay in Gainesville

and serve in the church. And I was confused.

And so I just asked God again, what do you want me to do when I

graduate? And I swear to you, I had a

picture come flash across my mind, and it was a vivid picture

of an empty suitcase. And what do you think God was

telling me? You're not going to travel and

make videos? And the next question out of my

mouth in prayer was God, do you want me to work at the church?

Just work at the church. I was serving a ton.

I was on campus every week handing out invites, setting up

a table. I was here setting up chairs, a

leading a small group. Yeah, I was serving a lot.

I realized the church was growing and I had been honestly

very impacted by Jesus through this local church.

And so I asked, do you want me to serve at the church?

And again, I swear to you, a vivid picture crosses my mind

and it's a Lantern. And I knew in the Lantern it was

anointing oil and it was being tipped out over my head, which

if you know the Old Testament, that's that's setting someone

apart for ministry. And so I wrote it down in my

journal. I went about my day.

By lunch, I'd already forgotten it and applied to other jobs.

And then later that afternoon, I had a meeting with our lead

pastor, Tony, just to catch up. We caught up for maybe an hour.

And at the end, there was just kind of this pause in the

conversation and I the IT was all coming back to me.

And I think still I'm being bothered by what that dream

meant. So I just asked him, Tony, how

do you know if a dream is from God?

And he asked me what it was. And I told him the first part,

the empty suitcase. And then I noticed he's just

bawling with tears. And he said, Gordon, the reason

we're actually meeting is because the board is met.

And today was to ask you if you would consider coming on staff

as a pastor. The same day that I had that in

the morning in prayer. And then then I start crying.

And I was like, you haven't even heard the second part of the

dream and I've not looked back. It was hard, honestly.

It was hard to grieve that other life.

And I remember it took those two months of finishing school until

I started. Since then I've never looked

back. Now what I want clear for all of

you is that full time ministry or going overseas is not what

equals maturity. Being willing does.

Would you be willing to if he asked a mature Christian, when

Jesus says, hey, I want you to do this if he compels you, a

mature Christian says, yes, Lord, I'll serve you this much.

And the last one, love, Jesus deserves love.

When you've been impacted by someone, it is natural and

appropriate. And here's the one that if you

if you get honor and you get service, this is maybe the one

that'll that'll challenge. She broke the jar.

She what she took her hair and wiped his feet.

Imagine that scene. That would be uncomfortable in

our day. That would be uncomfortable in

their day. She wipes his feet with her

hair. She breaks the jar.

That very expensive ointment. It's gone.

Why? Because she didn't need it back.

This was just a gift. This was a love.

This was Apda for Jesus, for love.

It's less about a particular action or behavior.

It's more about that internal feeling, which will look

different for everybody, OK? For Martha, we can't assume that

she wasn't loving Jesus. She was doing it in her own way.

That's what she felt compelled to do.

For Lazarus, he's sitting at the table loving Jesus.

Probably he just raised me to life.

I'm enjoying his company. I'm reclining with him at this

table. OK, love is internal and it

expresses itself differently, but but if he so compelled you

to do something that would be countercultural, radical, get

the judgment of the Judas and the disciples, would you, Would

you? Mary was free enough.

I think she felt compelled. I was trying to think about

where to fit this in, but let me fit it in here.

There's a word in here that was really bugging me.

It's in verse 3. Mary, therefore, any time I see

a word that like, you could take that word out and the sentence

would still make sense. So why is that word in there?

Now? This is just the result of

Gordon chewing. I'm not telling you this is

exactly how it went. But this is what I think the way

the story goes it, it places everybody in the scene and it's

Martha over here and Martha's serving.

And I picture Mary looking over and like, OK, there's Martha.

And then she looks over at the table.

OK, there's Lazarus. He's just reclining.

But I think Mary has this moment of being compelled to love Jesus

in a greater in a greater way. She looks at Jesus's feet.

Nobody's washed them. Why is nobody washing the King's

feet? Look at what Jesus is.

Don't you see what he's done for her family?

Jesus, life and resurrection. He's the one that's promising

eternal life, that we'll be with him forever.

He's the Christ, the anointed one.

Why? That's what the word Christ

means, the anointed one sent by God from heaven.

And he's here. I'm looking at his flesh.

Why is nobody anointing his head?

He raised my brother from the dead.

Why is nobody serving? Why Lazarus?

Maybe she's not judging Lazarus. Maybe he's doing absolutely the

right thing. But Lazarus, you're just sitting

there. There's got to be more.

And so Mary, therefore, therefore she took the ointment

and she said that this is the only natural and appropriate way

that I can think of to honor and serve and love Jesus.

And so married. Therefore, the question is,

would you be free enough to have that thought go across your

brain to have that compelling? Would you be free enough?

Or would you say, oh, but what's Judas going to think?

What are the disciples? This, this like it's not

cultural to do this. That's for the housemaids.

I'll let I'll let someone else do it.

I'll just go and I'll I'll love him by helping Martha in the

kitchen. I'll just stay where I'm at.

It's comfortable here. I'll love him some other time.

Or would you in a moment like this is the moment.

If Mary doesn't do it now, she won't get this opportunity

again. She'll look back on the regret,

wishing, wishing I had done this.

Would you be free enough when you have that to therefore to

therefore there is a Have you ever felt in a worship set where

the whole room is bursting? Would you be free enough to join

them? Would you therefore lift your

voice and burst too? Would you lift your hands?

Would you express or would you care about the Judases and the

other disciples? What would you be willing to do

to give Jesus the honor, service, and love that he

deserves? Let me talk to the the

professing nominal Christians in the room.

Maybe you don't know who you are, but there's a category for

this in Scripture. Those that honor him, those that

serve him, but those that don't love him.

This is the one that really sets it apart.

Love. OK, think about there's a

there's a verse in Matthew 7 where people come to Jesus.

They say, Lord, Lord, haven't we cast out many demons in your

name? Haven't we served in your name?

And Jesus says, depart from me, you wicked servant.

I never knew you. We didn't have relationship, we

didn't have love. This is the one that sets it

apart. You know the the story of the

rich young ruler He honored, but he had a line.

OK, Jesus, I've done all these things from my youth.

I've obeyed all these commands. And when Jesus tests him, he

pushes the line. Would you sell everything you

have and come and follow me? There's his line.

It's possible to honor him but not love him, To serve him but

not love him. Do you love them?

You think about the Marys. You think about the Abrahams in

the Old Testament. Who leaves his homeland to obey

God? Who would give up the child of

promise? Who would be willing to if God

asked him? OK, these are the ones that

honor, serve and love. What about you?

Where's your line? You know, Jesus had a line, was

tempted with a line. You know, Jesus in the Garden of

Gethsemane, and I think it's good.

I think it's right that we could do this.

But we could say he had us on our minds, us on his mind.

He's in the garden and the Father has asked him to go all

the way to the cross and to die an unjust death to pay for yours

and my sins. And Jesus is tempted with a

line, isn't he, Father, Not this cup?

Is there any other way? Is there any other way that I

could bring them in other than the cross?

And he's agonizing. He's sweating blood.

And then he says there's no line.

There's nothing I wouldn't do to honor the Father.

There's nothing I wouldn't do to serve him, Father, Not my will,

but yours, with you and me and mine.

Jesus does that, and he does go to the cross, and he does die an

unjust death, and he does endure the pain for the joy that was

set before him, which is that he would be lifted up and honored

in heaven forever, the everlasting King.

And we would be able to come in. And one day we're going to sit

at the table with them, reclining, serving, enjoying,

loving, all because of what Jesus has done for us.

If you've been so impacted by Jesus, what He's done for you,

and who He is, what will you therefore do?

What has He done for you? Has He forgiven you of all your

sin? Has He given you a new life?

Did He leave heaven so that He could come and relate with you

and all of your sufferings? Are all the promises for you?

What has He done for you? Who is He to you?

Is He your honored guest? If so, Christians.

Jesus is calling you to enjoy deeper relationship with Him

today, deeper relationship with Him.

Thus you will be satisfied, you are free to unhitch yourself

from the things of this world to enjoy the life you were intended

to live, that of giving Him honor, service and love.

If you're not a Christian, I invite you today to throw away

your life, to hate it so that you could get a life you could

never dream of. There's a verse later in chapter

12. We'll finish with this worship

team. You can go ahead and come on up.

We'll get to this in a few weeks.

But this is in verse 25. Jesus says whoever loves his

life loses it. Think of Judas and the

Pharisees. Whoever hates his life in this

world will keep it for eternal life.

If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there

will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father

will honor him. I invite you to lose your life

and to hate it so that you could have this life for eternity and

this life here that's free and as God intended.