How Do You Want to be Remembered? | John 12:1-11

All right, well, hey guys, why don't you go ahead and turn to

John chapter 12. Going to give you a little bit

John 12 · chapter mention

of a background here on Jesus is we try to time these things

perfectly. Last week we talked about the

resurrection, but that kind of just flows into this week.

But so, so far, Lazarus, he died and then four days later Jesus

rose him from the dead. The religious people are

beginning to not like that. They're losing a level of

control to Rome. They're going to lose their

position. Rome's going to kick him out and

they don't they're not happy about that.

So they're ready to try to trap Jesus.

And there there's a conspiracy to kill him.

And we find that in Chapter 11, verse 47.

And then Caiaphas he, he under the inspiration of the Holy

Spirit, he's a not a nice man. He's an evil man, religious guy

that does not know God, but he just he loves control.

And what he said it says here we'll pick it up in in Chapter

11, Caiaphas who is the high priest of that year said and

they would have a prophecy each year.

And he said this, you know nothing at all.

They were all arguing and how to what to do with Jesus.

And he says, nor do you take an account that is expedient for

you, that one man died for the people and that the whole nation

not perish. That's a pretty sweet now from

our angle, right? From from our point of view,

we're like, wow, that's pretty amazing.

That's actually what happened, right?

Jesus died in our place so that we wouldn't not have to go to

hell and die, right, but that we would experience life because of

one man. It's called a substitutionary

atonement. Maybe some, if you've heard of

that, it's a big word, right, for Easter Sunday.

But basically somebody died in your place, All right?

His name's Jesus. And so that's not what Caiaphas

was talking about. He was talking about, hey, look,

if we could get rid of this man, then it would be good for us.

The whole nation would not perish.

That meaning a political nation would not perish and we would

regain our control back. That's what he was talking

about, but it's crazy, as a theologian once said that even

though you don't know God, right, people that don't know

God, God could still use them and use them powerfully.

There was a prophetic word there that did end up coming true,

just not in the way they thought.

All right, so I want to give you guys, there's five, and in this

chapter, chapter 12, there's five reactions towards Jesus.

And I believe it really doesn't capture all 5 reactions that we

see today. There's five reactions if you

look at the person of Jesus as we've been beholding Jesus

living undivided, undistracted for his glory.

We started that series back in the fall.

And one of the things that we wanted to do is in the series is

lift up Jesus. And because if when we lift up

Jesus, we become what we behold, right?

We, when we, if we look at him, it says in 2nd Corinthians 3, it

says that when we look at Jesus, we go from glory to glory.

And so we're in it for one thing, right?

The the 1355, I'm not going to go through all those, but that's

our vision, right? The one thing like, if you can

narrow it down to like one thing that we're after, it's

transformation. I think they were saying it

multiple times. I mean, we were praying it in

the back. Ricky had mentioned that.

Obviously we're seeing songs about that.

And then Cole talks about transformation as well.

And you see Phil and Jade, the same thing.

This church is all about transformation.

But there are 5 reactions from chapter 12 that we want to look

at. And I think you can find

yourself in one of those categories and we'll narrow in

on one of them. So why don't we pick up with

chapter 12, verse one says this. Jesus, therefore 6 days before

the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus was, who Jesus had

raised from the dead. So they made him a supper there

and Martha was serving, but Lazarus was one of those

reclining at the table with him. So just pause there for a

second. Lazarus, this is that this is

that what we call a thank you party.

So Jesus is heading towards Bethany, was heading towards

Jerusalem actually, and by way via Jerusalem, he went through

Bethany for a little bit for a little stopover for a thank you

meal. So Simon the leper, he got

healed. And then Lazarus also, he didn't

just get healed to get rise from the dead.

But as you imagine, they're like just hanging out at the table,

right? There's a there's about 17

people there at this party. Martha's still serving, which is

great. And they're all basically

talking about their stories. If you can imagine, Lazarus is

probably saying, all right, I'm sorry, Simon the leper is

probably saying, hey, you're never going to believe this.

But you know, I used to have to cry out leaves that depart from

me, depart from me because, you know, if you get close to a

leper, you know what happens? I mean, you're going to get

leprosy. And so he's like, you're never

going to believe this. I don't have to shout that

anymore. Jesus healed me.

My like, I have my eyebrows, I have my hair, I have my skin.

It looks normal. And then Lazarus turns and says,

you're never going to believe this.

I got to top that one, right? I mean, sometimes you forget

that these things they, they're, you know, the Bible is, is set

in real times. I mean, like they actually had a

party, a thank you party and that's why they had this.

And so they're just thinking Jesus for like, for, for

literally transforming their life, like raising the guy from

the dead. You know, he's super thankful.

And there's the family there. I mean, just even Martha and

Mary, just they're probably so excited just seeing, I mean,

their brother's going to die again at some point.

But the fact of the matter that the family's all there.

They're all together. The disciples are there as well.

There's about 17 of them. And they're all basically saying

thank you to Jesus. And I, I love this Martha, if

you, if you look back at Luke 1038 to 42, I'm going to read

that. I, I know I referred to it last

week, but I love the power of transformation.

I love that Jesus transforms all of us.

If we want it, if we actually seek him, we can experience that

as well. And it says this, that in a

woman named Martha welcomed Jesus into her home and she had

a sister called Mary who was seated at the Lord's feet

listening to his word. But Martha was distracted with

all her preparations. This is who she was.

You know many I don't know how many months ago maybe it could

have been a year and a half ago or so because Jesus ministers

about 3 1/2 years and so she at one point this is the first

interaction that we have with her.

She was distraction with distracted and then yelling

basically at her sister and telling the Lord to to do

something about it. Say, do you not care that my

sister has left me in doing the serving all alone.

Then tell her to help me. She's frantic.

She's dealing with a ton of anxiety.

She's dealing with identity issues.

You do all sorts of stuff. We don't have time to

necessarily go through it. But basically what's happening

is that she's she's feeling all alone in the serving and Jesus,

she's asking Jesus, help me tell her to get in the kitchen with

me. But the Lord answer Martha,

Martha, you are worried and bothered by so many things, but

only one thing is necessary for Mary has chosen the good part,

which is not not going to be taken away from her.

And so you see, this Mary is, is at the feet of Jesus, right

where we all should be. And Jesus is not rebuking Martha

because she's in the kitchen serving.

That's who who she is. What Jesus did was transform her

heart so that she's not frantically serving.

She's not finding identity in that anymore.

She's not saying, look at me, look at me.

She's gladly serving this thank you party.

And it's pretty awesome to see that, yes, she's still serving,

but she's got a different heart. She's been totally restored, and

she's not just doing it for one guest, which was Jesus at the

time, right? But seventeen of them.

She's a transformed person. But as they were all sitting

there just enjoying dinner, hanging out, sharing crazy

stories, you got this woman named Mary, who then took a

pound of very costly perfume, a pure nard, and anointed the feet

of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.

And the house is filled with fragrance of perfume.

But Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples intending to betray

him, said why this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and given

to the people. Now he said this not because he

was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief.

And as he had at the Money Box, he used to pilfer what was in

it. So this is how she thinks the

Lord. Not everybody has means Martha

just decided this is what I have.

I have I I want to serve. I want to I want to be there to

serve and do the practical. It says in first Peter, right,

that some have speaking gifts, some have serving gifts.

This is her gift to serve Mary. She decides to give it all

right, and I want I want to I want to share with you guys.

There's, if you're taking notes, there's about two or three

things I want to, I want to note about what true worship is.

And I'm praying that, you know, we're doing a ton in our church.

There's so many amazing things. I mean, I, I was listening to a

few voice memos yesterday and there's a family outreach that

was happening in town just around the corner here.

And then there's young adult outreaches.

There is college outreach. I mean, I think they were there

to like at the bar outreaches to like 3 in the morning or

something. It was just crazy just seeing

what God's doing in our church. I mean, this whole entire week

is just full of people reaching out.

It's amazing. So by no means am I like I, it's

weird because like as I'm preaching this message, I'm

thinking we're doing it. I mean, we're actually like

living this stuff out. Like this is amazing.

Not everybody. I know that there's five

reactions. Some of you guys are serving

great doing that. You're, you're, you know, you,

you find yourself totally transformed.

You're not frantic. You're, you're not anxious

anymore. God's God has healed you and

strengthened you. And then there's this when

you're reading this, it's kind of like this is awkward.

So you're like, OK, do I have to find something that's really

valuable in my home? And then there's like, crush it

at the feet of Jesus and, and do the same thing.

No, no, no, you guys are you guys are doing that.

I mean, in, in so many different ways, you guys are giving your

lives to the Lord. But I want to show you what true

worship is. If you, you know, sometimes we

can get in a rut or we can, you know, 5 or 6 months from now, we

can find ourselves not necessarily doing that.

We're, we're, we're starting to live again for ourselves

selfishly, but true worship does these three or four things that

I want to, I want to give you guys.

True worship gives our best. True worship gives our best.

It gives what is most precious to us to, to, to, to the Lord.

I mean, he knows, he knows our hearts, but he, he, I love this

that she walks. I mean, if you guys can just

picture this, you know, there's a long table.

They don't sit in chairs back in the 1st century.

They're on the floor. They're kind of like sideways

with her elbow on the floor and they're just eating and they're

enjoying a meal. And Mary's, no, she's not in the

room. Martha's in the kitchen.

She's bringing stuff out. The slaves, you know, there was

1st century slaves. They would, and I'll get to that

why that's important in a second.

But they were there, they were serving, they were taking,

taking care of everything, and Jesus and his disciples were

just having a meal. And Mary comes in and she brings

this alabaster jar, this vial, if you will, which is worth some

money to as well. This oil would have been worth

about $60,000 US, right? It's about a year's wage

average. So she brings us in and it's

this awkward moment. I mean, I would imagine maybe I

don't know if it was Lazarus turn to share a testimony or

what, but they're just talking everything and she comes in and

she does something really awkward that we can pick up the

some of the story and and Mark, if you want, you could just put

your finger there. Mark chapter 14 verses one

Mark 14 · chapter mention

through 6. But so he's in Simon the leper's

house. He's not in Lazarus house.

So they're in Simon the leopards and he's the host.

And so Jesus is is the guest, I guess, if you will, and she

comes in and they're all reclining at the table and, and

she's coming in and you can smell it in the air when she's

like, what is she doing? What is she about to do?

This is crazy. This is nuts.

And if you know, like those like a if you have like essential

oils or whatever, they have like this very small top.

And so when you pour it out, just one little drop comes out

and she's, you know, Mary's like, that's not enough.

I'm not going to do that. It's just she crushes it and she

brings it at the she starts with the head, it says in one of the

chapters. And then in the other chapter it

says she made her way down from the head to the feet.

And a lot of you like girls hair looks really well this morning.

It looks really nice, right? Some of the guys have long hair

too. But but really, it says in the

Bible that the, the, that the, the girl's hair is the glory of

a woman, right? And so you can imagine this is

it. It's not just she takes a paper

towel and starts to wipe off The Dirty feet of Jesus with this

very expensive perfume that she just now wasted all at the feet

of Jesus. She could have that was probably

most likely her inheritance. People think that or scholars

would say that, you know, because her she didn't have a

husband. This would this would be a way

that she could, you know, sell and and and make money in in

case, you know, she you know, she wasn't going to get married.

So this is this is her means. This is everything.

This is literally her whole life is in this in the palm of her

hands. And so the, the glory of a

woman, she takes that her hair and she starts to wipe The Dirty

feet. And you can imagine, like in the

scene, you can imagine the slaves, right?

The slaves are, are looking. They're like, why?

You know, what is she doing? It's it, this is even beneath a

slave to take, to take hair to take her hair, right, and to

wash the, The Dirty feet of Jesus.

Why is she doing this? If you if you look back at John

John 11 · chapter mention

Chapter 11 and even before that, he, he Jesus shared in her

sorrow. Jesus shared in, you know, when

at the lowest point of her life most likely is when her brother

had just died, was there for four days in the grave.

She was off mourning. If you remember the last

chapter, she's off and the house mourning.

The mourners are there. They're comforting her.

And so when Jesus raises him from the dead, you can imagine

if you ever, if you ever just have like a, you know,

something, you know, you're praying, maybe you're sick,

maybe you're, you know, waiting for results or whatever, You're

just, you're on edge. There's, there's a lot of

anxiety and you're wondering, is God going to answer this prayer?

And all of a sudden he comes through in this miraculous way.

It's like, wow, I, I didn't even know he can do that.

It's like you at that point, you just like, man, I want to give

everything to Jesus. He's amazing, right?

I mean, like he, he showed up in my life.

It's, it's, it's crazy. So you can you can imagine how

she's feeling at this dinner and she's she's taking this

alabaster jar and she's like, man, he shared in my sorrow and

now I want to share in his what is that sorrow?

She knows something that the rest of the people at that table

do not know. And so if you, if you're picking

up in this verse, you know, there's the in Genesis 4, I, I

was, I, I'm not going to do the whole thing, but I was, I was

tracing, I was thinking about this.

It made this, this passage made me think more than than in a

maybe in a while. I, I would go out for walks this

week with the Lord and say, OK, Lord, what is it you want me to

give you? And I'll get to that in a

second. But Genesis four starts the is

the first if you're, if you're tracing the scriptures, if

you're going from Genesis to Revelation and you're looking at

moments of worship and you, you the first time I, I would hope

you see this right as you're going through Genesis 1

creation, Genesis 2 creation, you know, relationship with Adam

and Eve and then the, the fall of Genesis 3 and then Genesis 4.

There's these brothers, right? Cain and Abel.

And I don't know if that that's ever confused you as you looked

at that passage. Maybe you thought it was unfair

and you're looking at that you're thinking, what's the deal

with Cain and Abel? I don't really understand what's

going on. I mean, God accepts Abel's gift

and he doesn't accept Cain's and Cain gets angry at that and and

kills his brother. And this is horrible.

It's the first mortar that you see in the Bible.

But what is actually happening there?

It's some say OK has had to do with animal sacrifice and Abel

gave an animal sacrifice. It was blood that needed to be,

you know, atone our sins. And some say, you know, maybe it

was just a, you know, the heart was behind it.

Not sure really what's going on. I don't, I don't want to get

into a debate about it, but all I know was God accepted Abel's

gift of worship. Why?

It's his heart. Abel gave everything while Cain

just gave leftovers. It was a matter of giving

everything versus leftovers. If you remember in second Samuel

2424, like Mary is just like David here and he's saying this,

that, you know, there, there was a, a moment and it, the, the

temple is still there. But he had, there was no temple

there. It was just a big field.

And he goes up to this man David, right, King David.

And he says, Hey, I'd like to get this field.

Can you, can I want to buy it? And, and then the man said to

him, Hey, look, I'll give it to you for free.

I know who you are, David. I mean, you're, you're, I know

you're going to do good things with this.

Again, I want to build the temple there.

That's his intention. And so the guy said, Hey, just

you can have it for free. And David said, I'm, if I'm not

going to worship God, that which does not cost me.

So he gave everything and some of us, and I was thinking about

that this again, this, this, these, these passages, you know,

as I'm stunning, they make you think they're thinking, man,

what would you do in that situation?

What would you do right there? Would you would you be if you

were David? What would you do if you if you

were, if you're Kane Abel, what would you do if it would you

just get like whatever it is, like just the scraps I would

give God, you know, it counts, counts for something

religiously. I'm just going to go through the

motions. But David was like, man, I want

to I I'm not going to give to God something.

If this is my worship, I'm not going to give him something that

doesn't cost me something. And it's you have to see that

God doesn't really care about your gift.

He, he doesn't even really care what you give up per SE.

What he wants is your heart. And as I was thinking about

this, I was thinking like, as I was walking through my

neighborhood, I'm just like, man, Laura, what is it?

You know, like, because you think you're like, oh, is there

a, is there a numerical number on that?

Or is it something he wants us to give it?

Does he literally want me to sell my house and live in a

cardboard box somewhere in a forest?

You know, is that what God wants?

You know, because sometimes we can struggle with these

passages, right? We could say like, all right,

what is God really asking? Are we all supposed to literally

leave here, go sell our homes and just go live in the forest

somewhere, right? In a tent and even a tent, maybe

that's still something you're holding on to, right?

What is he asking for? What does he really want?

What does he really want from you?

Does he want? Does he?

Does he want your evangelism? Does he want you to go on

mission? Does he want you guys?

Is it really what is it about? What is it when it comes down to

it? What is this thing all about?

It's about your heart. That's it for Mary.

She's just like, man. This man shared in my sorrow.

I literally know who he is. He is worth everything.

It's in that moment we're like, man, he is truly worth

everything. You know, you heard Phil up

there. He's like, but he's worth it.

You know, sometimes, like, and I believe that he means that, you

know, but I'm just saying sometimes in those moments, you

can you can just kind of say that like you're going through a

hard time or whatever. You're like, yeah, you know, he

but he's worth it. And all I know is that when Mary

said it, she meant it. She actually meant it.

She's like, he really is. Worth it is it is all your when

you think about like I'll just rattle off some your income.

Is it all his your banking account?

Is it your your time, your career, marriage, you know, some

of the college students like I don't have anything I don't

have. I mean, literally I don't I

don't have anything in my name. You know, I get it.

But is your is it, you know, your career, your school, your

marriage, family, possessions, self-image, the whole thing.

I mean, I could just keep going on and on and on.

I came across the story I thought was really good.

RG later. No, my kids go to their school

or they they did, they did some dual enrollment classes through

them. So I was just curious, like, who

is this guy? And I've never heard of this

Christian School. And I just, you know, as I was

doing a little bit of digging and research, he's the guy that

invented the earth movers. Do you know what those are like?

You can look that up online. But it's like these huge

machines that just move the earth basically moved.

And so he came, he has this huge construction company.

He was a believer. The company grew so large that

he, he, he told his wife, he's like, I don't want to lose my

love for God. I know where this is going.

And so he did what was called many.

I don't know. I don't think there's anybody in

the church that does this, but maybe there will be.

But he did what is called the reverse tithe.

He said, look, I'll live on. Instead of saying I'll live on

90%, I'll give 10. I'm going to live on 10%.

I'm going to give 90. And his wife's like, you're

going to do what they're having, like this casual conversation,

you know, over dinner, Like what's happening?

Like she's probably thinking we do not have to worry about

anything for life. You know, we're going to be

rich. And so for 50 years he did this

and he funded Bible colleges. He he funded like all these

seminaries and radio stations. In fact, if you listen to like

John MacArthur online or I'm sorry, on the radio or any, any

like Moody Radio, he funded all those.

I was shocked. I was like, I benefited from

some of these things. I was like, this is amazing.

I've never heard anything like that.

A reverse tide. I mean, have you heard of that?

I've, I've never really heard of that.

Some, some people may do that. I don't know.

But the people I walk with mostly in this church, I know

they don't do that. And I'm going to say you should.

I mean, that's great if you do. But people started asking him.

There was a friend that asked him this.

How come you keep giving all your money away and you keep

having more to give? Like I've been scratching my

head wondering what in the world like, how do you do this?

Like I've watched your life, how does this happen?

We said, I don't know. I'm not a really smart man.

All I know is this is that I have a shovel and God has a

shovel. I shovel what I can to the Lord

and the Lord shovels it back and all I know is that God's got the

bigger shovel and you can't out give God.

And they're like, OK, you know, I'm like, what in the world?

That's amazing. Some of you guys, even as I say

that, you're like, I know it's financial.

I know God's called me to give more.

Great, do that. No one's telling you like no

one's telling you what to give or how to give.

Like no one's telling you how to do that.

It just was in Mary's heart. Nobody from that dinner table

said, Mary, go get that expensive perfume.

It's time. No, they're like minding their

own business. They're eating Martha's amazing

food. It's just they're all hanging

out. They're just all hanging out

having having a great meal. Thank you.

Like, thank you, Jesus meal. And Mary's like, this is how I'm

going to show my gratitude. There's something different

about her. There's a man, a rich Roman man,

soldier, governor. Her name's named Cyprian.

He was so joyful that he that he found Jesus.

He literally liquidated all his assets and he laid it at the

feet of Jesus, not literally because he was.

A few 100 years later, after the resurrection, he said he's worth

everything. And he he's, people asked him,

why in the world are you doing that?

I mean, you have a great life under the Roman rule.

Why would you do something like that and become a pastor?

He liquidated everything and became a pastor.

He said. It delights me to not be

distracted by the things of this world because I know where I'm

going and I know where my treasures at.

There's just something different about these people.

What is different about these people?

Their lives have been truly transformed.

There's nothing that they can hold back.

There's what? What do you, what do you

honestly value most? What are you willing to give God

as an act of worship? It's not just financial.

It might be literally your time. It might be something you're

like, it, it doesn't it, it, it doesn't like, OK, this is going

to cost me something. I don't think, Mary, I don't

think Mary was trembling coming to the feet of Jesus being like,

is that at least that's not what I see in this passage at all.

I don't think she's like, I don't know, I could do this with

it. I, I think I could maybe do

something with this, you know, whatever.

I could be a great, I could be a giver.

I could keep some to myself, you know, like Ananias and Sapphira,

you know, keep some for yourself.

Give some you know, it didn't really work out for them by the

way, but but they but there's Jesus is not giving us a script

here. He's not saying this is what you

need to do this, this and that. He's not giving us an amount.

He's not giving us an amount of time amount of money.

He's not giving us anything here.

Jesus doesn't what he wants is our is our hearts.

He wants our hearts and I just love RG laterno, I just I don't.

There's just something about that story that just makes me

smile because there is nothing. Jesus didn't show up to this man

in a dream and say you need to do this.

Jesus wasn't asking for his 90%. Something in his heart said I

want to make sure that I'm always giving to God.

I'm always he's got my heart and this is what made sense to him

and he was never I don't think the man obviously lacked

anything. Number two, true worship is self

forgetful. It actually humbles us.

We only care what God thinks, not what others think and he I

love this that you know when she was washing the feet of Jesus.

It was then that was it was then that her worship was then

criticized right. You see this Judas was saying to

his disciples who's intending to betray him, right.

Wasn't this perfume could be sold for 300?

Which is crazy to think about that the dude in the next

chapter is she gonna betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver

and had nothing to do nothing to do with caring for the poor,

None of that. He didn't really care about any

of that stuff. But true worship is self

forgetful. She just totally forgot herself.

She doesn't really really care about what others people other

people thinks. You know what I was thinking

about that, like I was thinking about our worship just as far as

like in our expression, you know, of worship.

So many people, you know, I love that when they're standing up in

the front here, they're worshipping the Lord and

hopefully they're not doing it to gain attention or anything

like that. I don't think that's the case,

but God knows our hearts and I love that they, they, you know,

some people, you know, lay prostate, some people kneel,

some people are jumping up and down or whatever.

It's just giving our worship, not caring what anybody else

thinks. It's a cultural moment, right?

This is who we are as a people. This is why you, when you come

in, you're like watching people and maybe you're new or

whatever. You're like, man, why are they

doing that? That's crazy.

Because there's something in their hearts that's like, man, I

want to express my love to Jesus and I don't care what other

people really think about that because God knows my heart.

Maybe some of you guys are like, man, I don't really know.

I don't, I'm not sure if that's biblical.

I don't really know. I think I just want to lock in

on the words and just sing the words.

That's great. However you worship, I'm, you

know, God's fine with that. As long as you're worshiping him

with your whole heart. That's really matters more than

anything else. But there's something about when

whether I see my wife or my kids or whatever, when, when they're

going for it, There's just something about that.

And it's a, you know, is a, is a dad who's, you know, wanting,

you know, one day my kids to be married.

I'm looking out for, for people who, who give themselves to

extravagant worship. You know, I, I want our, I want

our family, our people to, to, to belong to people that are

like extravagant in worship. They just don't care.

They don't give a RIP because of all that God's done in their

life. And I'll show you this, that

and, and let's, let's look at this together in Luke Chapter 7.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

It's not the same story. Maybe some of you guys are

figuring out that the first time, but it's not.

It's so Simon the leper that Simon the leper's house, but

Luke Chapter 7 there at Simon the Pharisees house.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

And you guys know this story, It's a pretty famous story,

right? It starts in verse 36.

It says now one of the Pharisees was requesting Jesus to dine

with him and he entered the Pharisees house and reclined at

the table. And there was a woman in the

city who is a Sinner. And when she learned that he was

reclining at the table in the Pharisees house, she brought an

alabaster vial a perfume. So same deal, same like this

woman also had an alabaster vial, a perfume as well.

It's not Mary when standing behind him at his feet and this

is early on in Jesus ministry. That's this one in John chapter

John 12 · chapter mention

12 we're studying today is later on towards the last week of his

life. So standing behind him at his

feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with tears and kept

wiping them with her hair of her head, kissing his feet and

anointing them with perfume. Now when the Pharisee who had

invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a

prophet, he would know who and what sort of person this woman

is who is touching him, that she was a Sinner.

So scholars believe that Sinner is, is a prostitute.

Most likely she was. And Jesus answered him, Simon, I

have something to say to you. And he replied, say a teacher, a

money lender who had two debtors, 1 owed 500 denarii.

That's over. Obviously we know 300 is about

60 grand. Maybe this is about 100 or so

and the other 50. And when they're unable to

repay, he graciously forgave them both.

So. So which of them will love him

more? Simon answered and said, I

suppose the one whom he forgave more.

And he said to him, you have judged correctly.

Turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this

woman? I entered your house and you

gave me no water for my feet. But she said she has she, But

she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her

hair. You gave me no kiss, but she,

since the time I came in, has not since ceased to kiss my

feet. And you did not anoint my head

with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume.

For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have

been forgiven. For she loved much, but he was

forgiven little, loves little. And then he said to her, Your

sins have been forgiven. Those who were crying up

reclining at the table with him began to say to themselves, Who

is this man who even forgives sins?

And he said to the woman, your faith is saved.

You go in peace. The reason why people

extravagantly worship God, give go whatever it is you know, is

because they realize, wow, this man has changed my life.

He is worth everything. He's he's totally transformed my

life. And as you think about your

life, if there's if you don't notice any transformation,

you're just like, Hey, I believe in this Jesus who forgives sins.

It's much different than those who really believe in the

gospel, right? In what the stories of the

resurrection believe that Jesus died on the cross, but they

actually tasted for themselves transformation.

Big difference. Have you ever met somebody who's

just like when you go up to them, you say, oh, are you a

Christian? Yes.

And then you realize later, maybe they're a Co worker or

maybe they're a neighbor or something.

You're like, wait, are they a Christian?

Why is that? Do you know?

There's a difference between intentions and desires.

You can have an intention like good intentions, like I want to

go to church, you know, I want to read the Bible, I want to

follow God. There's good intentions, but if

your desires are not changed, you won't do it.

You only do what your desires want.

You only have like, that's why he says like if you desire to

come after me, if you desire to follow me, if you desire to

follow me, then what do you have to do?

Deny yourself, pick up the cross and follow him.

He didn't say those who intend to follow me, those who kind of

want to follow him, right? Who will do that?

No, no, no. It's like whoever desires,

whoever has that internal desire that God has transformed, they

will do it because God has transformed their hearts.

So there's a big difference between intentions and desires.

But our worship will always be criticized and analyzed by

different people. You know, passionate people get

rebuked by religious people all the time, right?

Is that true? Have you ever been that person?

Like maybe you just had a really bad week and you're just like,

what is that dude over there so excited about?

You ever do that, right? You're just like, you could tell

your heart is getting a little bit more calloused and hard

because of life and circumstances and God knows that

and you might be a genuine believer in Christ and like I, I

don't doubt that at all, but you just have those moments, right?

You just kind of start getting a little religious and you know,

you're controlling heart. You're just kind of, and you're

looking at that dude. There's like prostate on the

floor and they're all like giddy and excited and let's go, you

know, and you're like, what is up with that guy?

Like, doesn't he know how hard life is?

Doesn't he know how, like, I mean, or a trial is going to

come that dude's way at some point and he's going to be like

me standing over there with his eyebrow up.

You know, David danced and it's just always so awkward to read,

right? In Second Samuel 6, David danced

before the Lord basically in his underwear.

I mean, or maybe I don't know, less than that, I'm not sure.

And his wife mocked him. And he's like, man, I if I was

even, I would be even more undignified than this because

the Lord has transformed my heart.

And not only that, but then you got you got Daniel right.

He's he's like praying three times a day.

The cops are after him, so to speak, like don't pray three

times a day. And the dudes like it doesn't

matter. I'm doing it so much so that he

gets thrown in the lion's den. David continues right second

Samuel 623. There's finds out that his wife

because of her hardness of heart and is unable to have kids.

And that doesn't always happen. That's not what always happens.

But in this case, in this particular case, God is showing

us that when you find fault with people who genuinely worship

God, when your heart is full of religion, there's a sense of

barrenness in your life. And that's there's a, there's a

sense of like man, like, and God's saying like man, whether

it's physical or not physical, it doesn't matter.

But just there's a, there is a barrenness in our life when we

don't recognize how much God has transformed us.

And Judas with his hard heart is just like man.

We could use this, you know, to benefit the poor.

And he has no desire to really do that.

Not only that, but so true worship gives our best.

True worship is self forgetful. And also true worship unlock

unlocks insights and revelation and discernment in our life.

She knew that Jesus was going to die.

Do you know she was the only one at that party that knew what's

going to happen in the next week?

That's pretty remarkable considering that Jesus had 12

disciples, including Judas, including Peter the rock star,

right? They, they were all together

with him for 3 1/2 years. And this is the last week that

they're with Jesus and they're like and if you notice in a

look, look with me to Mark or I'm sorry, Matthew 26.

I just want you to see this for yourself.

Matthew 26. It's the same story here when

Jesus was in Bethany, the home home of the Simon the leper in

verse 8, it says, but the disciples were indignant.

John doesn't capture that. Maybe for, I don't know, his own

purpose. I, I don't know.

He doesn't say anything about the disciples, including

himself, the writer, but he's, he's looking, he's like, I'm,

I'm, I'm looking at this. I'm like, man, you would think

the disciples would be cheering Mary on, but they don't.

Why is that? Why does Mary not use this

precious perfume on her brother Lazarus's funeral?

Why doesn't she use it even she doesn't even use it.

It says preparing, it says let her alone.

She's like, so she may keep it for the day of my burial.

Jesus shows us that he that yes, maybe she understood about the

burial, but she didn't even use it because Mary Magdalene was at

that site. She didn't even go at the foot

of the cross. What is so remarkable about this

woman is that she knew something everybody else didn't know.

Why is that? Why do you think that is?

Why do you think that Mary, out of all the people in that room,

of all the people that Jesus interacted with, she was the

only person that knew that Jesus was going to the cross to die

for her sins. How many times have you guys,

when you read through the Gospels, how many pauses,

there's this amazing story of Jesus healing somebody and then

school in the Pharisees and all these, I mean, he's just like

going for it. But there's like every like

almost every 3 pages, Jesus inserts something.

What is he inserting? One day I'm going to die and

three days later I'm going to rise.

He says it explicitly and all these guys don't have a clue

what's going on. Why is that?

Because Mary was at the feet of Jesus.

If you could, if you could see, like if you could see just the

like in a movie, you know, sometimes you see these clips,

you're like, you don't know, you don't know really what's

happening until the very end. And they're just showing you

these clips. Oh my goodness, that was the bad

guy. That was the guy.

They're showing you all these clips.

How like they, they manipulated the people on scenes and stuff.

If you can almost see the same thing with Mary, like as you

kind of go back on her life and you see this moment of like

Jesus is affirming it, let her alone.

Like that's just the same as saying stop bothering her, leave

her alone. She's doing something remarkable

that even that my disciples don't even understand.

She understands something incredible.

Why is that? As you're looking at these

scenes, all you see their whole life, Mary's at the feet of

Jesus. Luke and Luke 10, right?

She's at the feet of Jesus. Martha's in the kitchen.

And then you see it in John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

She's at the feet of Jesus constantly.

She's at the feet of Jesus where her brother when her brother was

dying. Remember last last last week,

John Chapter 11, Mary is there at the feet of Jesus, literally

John 11 · chapter mention

throws herself at the feet of Jesus.

Guys, there's incredible revelation, incredible insight,

incredible discernment that I wish I could just tell you story

after story of story in my life where God gives me something and

we're like, how in the world, you know that I don't know.

But just when you sit at the feet of Jesus long enough, he

reveals things. There's a friendship with God

that he's inviting all of us into.

You know, John, what's what's crazy about this is that he's in

Psalm. I think someone just prayed this

over me earlier in Psalm, the first part, Psalm 24 or 25, it

says the friendship with God or the secrets of heaven is

revealed to those who fear him. 2514 John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

He says, hey, slaves don't know what what their owner is doing

with the with the master is doing.

But I tell you, you're my friends and I'm revealing more

to you than I would to anyone else.

And that's why it's so important word worship and prayer.

I was listening to something earlier this week that, that

there's a pastor that said he was in some meeting just

recently and he, he shared, he just was curious, you know, did

some stats curious how many pastors this is pastors, not not

regular congregants, just pastors in a room who are

leading organizations, churches around the world.

And he asked, Hey, how many of you get up in the morning and

spend time with Jesus every morning?

Like just word worship and prayer, 10% of the room.

I know that's not a an issue here.

So many of you just that is so a part of your routine.

The last 25 years, my life just spending time with Jesus.

No matter the roller coaster of life, you just are with the Lord

and he reveals things to you. There's a friendship, there's a

relationship that you get to experience with God.

He is inviting you into that. It's amazing.

And then he asked the same, this pastor asked the same with the

students because he was at a college event.

He said, look, I'm just curious how many students in this

college ministry spend time tomorrow morning?

How many you're going to get up in the morning and spend time

with God. Just a few hands.

He didn't say 10%, but just a few hands kind of darted around

the room. I'm thinking to myself, I'm

like, how does that even work? I don't even understand how that

works, but Jesus is inviting us into how do you I love this and

and Mark was it chapter 14 verse 9 says whatever the gospel is

preached in the world. What she has done, what she has

done will be told in memory of her.

How do you want to be remembered and then amazing like every time

the gospel is preached. Even today on Easter Sunday is

the gospel is going forth from this little place called Oviedo

right. We're talking about this woman

like talk like, let that be. I mean, if you don't believe

that the word of God is true as it's, I mean, you have to

wrestle with that. I personally believe without a

doubt in my mind that God's word is true.

And what I'm proclaiming here is that Jesus said that one day,

2000 years later, they're going to be pastors that are going to

be preaching the gospel and they're going to be mentioning

this woman who gave it all. That's pretty amazing.

That's pretty remarkable. He didn't say that about Martha,

although Martha, it's great. He didn't say that about his

disciples, Peter. He didn't say that about anyone

else in Scripture except her, this woman who got her life

rocked by Jesus. And it wasn't just because her

brother was raised from the dead, but because she spent time

with him every day and understood anytime that they

were together, she was learning, humbly learning from him.

There's something so precious about that.

And but then there's. I just want to land on this.

There's a few things here, but they're just the five reactions.

We've only mentioned 2. That was Martha, that was Mary

and Judas. Judas wants to appear pious,

generous, but actually doesn't really care about the poor.

He was ruled by what ambition, selfishness and greed.

Anybody dealing with those three, we all have.

We've all dealt with those things, some more than others,

but this is what Judas was all about.

Romans 7 says we struggle with all these things all the time,

but I think Jesus, he allows the Holy Spirit, right?

He puts this in this text because it's not just about

Mary. It is that's the focal point.

But he wants to show what a heart corrupted by sin would

look like if it continues to to rain.

What is interesting here is that that the Judas, you have to

understand Judas was about one thing.

He was about Jesus politically ruling in the day.

He wanted to overthrow Rome and he was indignant.

He was furious, mad at Mary. Why?

Because he's like, man, do you know what we could do with this

money had nothing to do with the poor.

He's thinking this money could be used for a political

campaign. We could actually do this.

We could actually overthrow Rome.

We could actually have a nice utopia right here in the United

States. We could right here.

We could have, we could have we politically, this is what we're

living for, right? We just like the conservatives,

whatever, you know, service liberals, all that people who

are just all in for politics and kind of use Jesus for their own

means. When she, when he saw Mary come

in and throw everything at her feet, at his feet, what that

showed was that this thing ain't happening.

We're not, we're actually not going to rule and reign because

what she showed is this man's going to actually die for our

sin. She believed it out of everyone

else in the room. There was something so deep in

her heart and in his heart, so shallow, right?

It's sad how you can be right next to Jesus and still not get

it. It's sad how you can literally

be next to the Lord for 3 1/2 years and not understand how

many church people, churchgoers in America right now are like a

Judas. They would never call themselves

Judas's. Never.

They would never in their right mind dream of calling themselves

a Judas. But yet they are because they

actually don't know God. Do you know there's a lot of

Judas's out there? A lot of them.

Do you know why they're Judas's? Because they actually really

don't know God. Why you don't spend time with

God every day is because you don't know Him.

Why you actually don't get up in the morning, open your Bible.

It's because you've never been transformed.

That's the only reason why. It's not because of time.

It's not because you're busy. It's what you're going to tell

Jesus, like when you died. Like, I was just really busy

like you. You can't do, I mean, Mary,

Mary's like, I don't even know what time it is.

Like what time is it? It doesn't even matter.

He just all she saw was this man who shared in her sorrow and

with someone who really cared and loved her deeply and was

going to the cross to die for her sin.

If you try to gain your life, you'll lose it.

You try to keep it, hold on to it.

You're going to lose it. It's elusive.

But if you lose your life like she did, you'll find it.

And I love that Jesus defends her.

Judas. Just leave her alone.

Stop bothering her. Stop.

Your heart's corrupt. You just want to live for

yourself. It's not even about money.

You're like, I don't even deal with greed.

I don't deal with money. Maybe you deal with selfishness.

Maybe if you're honest, your whole life is wrapped up in you

and Jesus is saying please. That is why you get upset when

you see somebody radically following Jesus and giving

everything. It doesn't make sense to you is

it didn't make sense to Judas. It did not make sense to Judas

because he never experienced transformation.

And then fourthly, it says here, the large crowd of Jews then

learned that he was there and they came not for Jesus sake

only. Isn't that interesting?

That's why I love the Bible. There's so many little Nuggets

in there, right? Not for Jesus sake only, but

that they might also see Lazarus whom they raised from the dead.

You know what they were in it for?

Do you know how many people come?

The reaction, the 4th reaction, You don't have people come to

church because they want to see a miracle.

They want to see a cessation. They want to see people.

Wow, look at that guy. Wow, he's amazing.

He's, he's awesome. Wow, look at him, look at him.

Look at him. Look at him, look at him.

It's so man. Worship, worship, worship man,

worship man, worship man. It's amazing.

Do you ever feel like that? Do you know some churches, most

churches in America, it's all about a it's all about a man.

It's all about what man can do. Wow, he's so amazing.

He's so gifted. He's so amazing.

Wow. Like I don't care about any of

that stuff. Does everybody just want to come

and see the glory of God? Does anybody here have a pulse

and want to see the glory of God?

Like that is what it's about. Do you understand?

Like all they were like, hey, the large crowd, it's always the

large. It's always 17 people, 1 was

corrupt, 17 people, 16 of them of which are OK, One of them was

corrupt. Small.

It's always the small. It's always the few who get it.

Do you understand that? Please be the few who get it.

It's not the large, it's not the amount of people.

It's not all these people coming up.

Woo revival. I, I, I'm all about revival, but

I want real transformation, real revival.

Because you don't have to constantly keep prodding people

along. It's like nobody had to tell

Mary, go upstairs. Now is the time.

She just knew it was the time. This is what she wanted to do.

Nobody was forcing her to go on mission.

Nobody was forcing her to give money.

No one's forcing her to do anything.

No one's forcing her to give her time fully to the King and his

Kingdom. Shallow people came not for

Jesus sake, but for the miracles.

Isn't that interesting? They weren't the hostile crowd,

but they weren't also committed like Mary.

They weren't committed. They were.

They were what we call what lukewarm.

They were neither hot nor cold. And Jesus says this, I'm going

to spit you out of my mouth. Why is he going to spit you out

of your mouth? Not because when you when you

consume something that's healthy, that's good, it digests

right. When you when something's out of

the ordinary, when something doesn't fit right, you spit it

out right. If it's too, it's too hot or

right, it's you spit it out of your mouth.

It's not right. Something's not right and

something's not right with people who are lukewarm.

Something's not right. And Jesus is giving us a chance

to repent of that. Of course.

You see, there's a bunch of people today who when

everything's going really well, they shout Hosanna, blessed be

the King, and then days later they say what?

Crucify him? There's a lot of fickle people,

and Jesus knows that. But what Jesus is looking for

and what he will remember 2000 years even later right now is on

his heart is Mary. And then lastly, but the chief

priest plan to put Lazarus to death verse 10.

Also because on the account of him many of the Jews were going

away and we're believing in Jesus.

They wanted to kill him. But there's no one neutral guys,

everybody in this room, no one neutral, no one neutral, no one

could ultimately be neutral with Jesus says in Luke 11 verse 23,

Luke 11:23

he was not with me as against me.

Matthew 6 says you can't serve God and Mammon or money or

whatever that might be. It's not both one or the other.

And I think Jesus is where I want to.

I mean, there's so many different ways, so many

different landing points. But I was thinking about my kids

like what, you know, like I, I have this whole drawer like this

big, like, like this huge drawer full of all the stuff that they

gave me that, you know, have all these spelling errors on it.

And you know, whatever. Just when they were like 5 or 6

or younger, maybe a little older.

And I don't know, I don't know why I keep them all because

they're, they're precious, right?

I mean, they're, they just mean a lot.

They maybe if there's a fire that happens in my house, I

mean, there's only a few things, you know, you have maybe about

30 seconds to before the whole thing burns down.

You only have about 30 seconds to take what is most precious to

you. And so I was thinking I was

like, man, what would I take that is most precious to me.

What is most precious to me? And it's my kids hearts, right?

And how they display that heart is by just writing awkward notes

with stick figures on it that says thank you for the date

night, daddy, or, you know, just something simple or happy

birthday or it's their hearts. And I believe Jesus is the same

way with us, right? It's like, men, what I want is

your heart. I want your heart.

I don't care about your gift. I mean, if you're going to come

and get some big gift, be like, man, that was great.

You're just like Ananias and Sapphira.

He doesn't care about that. He doesn't care about your

selfish ambition and what you're going to do for the Lord.

He just cares about your heart. He just wants you.

That's what he wants. He wants you.

It's crazy to think about that, but that's what he wants more

than anything else. And that's what I want, right?

I mean, as a parent, I get it. I mean, I want my kids heart.

I don't want them to just impress me and do something or

spend all this money on something they don't really have

or, you know, just, but just the simplicity of I love you.

I want to be with you. That's, that's what, that's what

Jesus wants. And you know what, you can't

force that. I can't force that upon you, but

it kind of has to come from within.

And so maybe if you know, if you're not, if you're feeling

like, man, I don't really understand any of this stuff

because what I know is in a room like this, especially on an

Easter Sunday, what I do know, I know this, but there are people

are like, man, I'm convicted. I want, I don't know if I'm

giving my all like I, I, I, I'm convicted, I'm cut to the heart

like the Lord is disciplining us.

He disciplines those he loves. But then there are others who

are like me. I have no idea what that guy

just talked about. I have no clue what he's saying.

And if you're like, I have no clue what you just said, you're

not transformed. You don't have the Spirit of God

living in you testifying to the scriptures that he's real.

But what I want more than anything else is for you to be

transformed. I want that for you.

I want that more than anything. That'd be the greatest, greatest

Easter present ever is to for your heart to be transformed for

your heart to say for the first time.

And I, I want God, I don't know him.

I don't know him like that. I, I mean, I'm so far, I think

I'm more of a Judas than a Mary for sure.

I think I'm more of a Martha. I've busy myself up with so many

different things and I don't slow down enough to spend time

with this Jesus who's transformed my life.

I want to hear from him. I want to be with him.

That's what he I think that's what the Lord is extending his

hand. He's like, man, you could know

me like that. You could literally know me like

Mary does. There's no difference between

her and anyone else in the room. You he can you can know him that

way. He plays no favorites.

In the Bible it says God plays no favourites.

He just wants our hearts. You can't.

I for so long we were like we look at Mary like wow, that's a

superhero like that could never I would never sell my house and

give everything away. There are people that have done

that in the world that may not be what he's asking.

He might be just asking something so simple.

It's like just meet with me tomorrow as it's worth it.

He might just be asking you do I don't know what it is.

I don't want to put ideas in your head.

I just know that would between you and the Holy Spirit.

He's asking you for your heart and there are places in your

heart that you're resisting. And what he's saying is if you

just give it to me, the the greatest joy of your life will

be embracing, not resisting. And as you embrace the Lord and

he embraces you, man, that will be to your joy.

It'll be to your joy. There are things right now that

are holding you back from an all out encounter with God.

And I know some of you guys want an encounter with God, a genuine

encounter with God. He wants to give you that to

you. So I'm just going to pray for

you in the room. Lord, we just thank you for what

you're doing. God in this house, we thank you

for all the, the work, the busy work.

We're doing so much. There's so many great things and

we're so thankful for that. I really am.

I'm and I know that you're proud of this church for it's this

season. It's been a year, one calendar

year. It's been so many great things

that you've done in this church. We know there's more.

We know there's places in our heart even right now that we're

resisting. We're holding back because of

fear, because of unbelief, because we still are selfish and

we still want, we still think life's still kind of about us.

And there's just this selfishness that's still raining

in our hearts. And Lord, would you uproot that

so we can live selflessly in love with you and know you in a

deep way. We thank you for what you're

doing in our lives. We thank you for the word that

trans is transforming. We want to embrace it all.

We we, we don't want any part of us to resist what we want to

embrace. Lord, we, we just repent.

We repent for being selfish, for living for ourselves, for not

doing things your way, for being having selfish ambition, for

being cold, for whatever it is. God we just we're we repent of

those things and maybe even just for we're just coming to see a

show coming to see something just something for entertainment

purposes. We're sorry for that.

We want to be like Mary. We want to see what she saw.

Help us to see what she saw. She saw something so different

than no one else saw. No one else saw that but her

because of the simplicity of opening up the word spending

time with you in Word worship prayer daily.

It's worth it and I pray Lord that we would commit to a life

like that. Lord that it says that we if

we've been forgiven much. We would love much and Lord, I

pray that we would recognize how much truly we have been forgiven

for that that would cause us to worship you, cause us to to give

our lives fully to you in Jesus name.

I just want to invite you up to the front if you, if you feel

just wanting to repent of whatever it is, you know, I

mean, look, the empty tomb, it's amazing.

The only way that we're forgiven of our sin is because of the

empty tomb that it actually worked.

Like Jesus said everything that he said is actually true because

you proved it by resurrecting from the dead.

So we could trust him on this word.

But right now what I need you to do is not do some theological,

you know, ascent or I need you to do business with God, do

business with God. Like don't pride yourself that

you're this fantastic person, but just go to him and just say

God, you are the perfect one. I want to know you.

I want you to convict me of my sin.

Discipline me as a father, disciplines his son or daughter

for the purpose of having a heart clean, clean and cleansed

by God so that I would have joy again and give my life fully to

him and experience a little taste, just a little bit of what

Mary got to experience in that that afternoon.

Amen. All right.