Easter Series Part 1: Come and See His Purpose

All right John chapter 1 verses chapter 12

John 1 · chapter mention

verses 1 through 8 says this says six

days before the Passover what's coming up Passover

at this time Passover Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was whom

Jesus has raised from the dead so they gave a dinner for him there man church

people always love to eat didn't this is this is historic right here Martha

served and 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, one of the disciples, who was about to betray him,

we know the story, we know who Judas is, right?

It's the Judas principle, right? There's 12 of them, one in every 12 is trying

to kill you. Two more is trying to take your position.

I mean, there's a lot of things that we can learn from the disciples.

But anyway, Judas said this.

Judas said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

He said this, Judas, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief.

And having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself with what was put into it.

So Judas was a thief. but Jesus said this if it's in your King James you'd be

written in red the CSV the Bible says leave her alone so that she may keep for

it that so that she may keep it for the day of my burial for the poor you have

with you King James says always but you do not always have me.

He was saying that she is preparing me for something that you guys don't understand.

That's what she was telling. For

the next three weeks, I'm going to be preaching a series on come and see.

This week, I'm going to talk about come and see his purpose.

Next week, I'm going to talk about come and see his passion.

On the day of Easter, we're going to talk about come and see his power.

But this morning, I'm going to preach the first part in this three-week series

leading up to Easter on come and see his purpose.

There's a preparation that we have so that we can be involved in the purpose

of Jesus in our lives So let's let's pray this morning as we get started father

in the name of Jesus We come before you.

We thank you for your Holy Spirit We thank you for your presence in this place

today and God I just pray right now that you would prepare every heart That

you would you would let us be intentional about hearing your word and preparing

our lives today And father right now, we just thank you for this opportunity,

but Holy Spirit speak a word Only you can speak one thing that says so much to every individual.

We thank you for your word, and we pray it in Jesus' name. And the church said?

Amen. Amen. Preaching this morning on the subject, come and see his purpose.

Come and see his purpose.

If I'm giving my theme for this sermon today, and something we'll kind of follow

throughout this sermon, it would be this, that when we give our best to Jesus,

we prepare our hearts to encounter his purpose.

When we give our best, now notice there, I'm not just talking about giving the

portion or giving the leftovers, but when we give our best to Jesus,

then we are preparing our hearts to encounter his purpose.

And that's really what it's all about. We all look for purpose in our lives.

We look for meaning in our lives.

And a lot of times we forget that really the purpose of our life is to encounter

the purpose of Jesus Christ at work in our world.

Now, has anybody ever misplaced your priorities before?

That's a rhetorical question right there. I know you have. I know sometimes

we've kind of got our priorities out of whack.

There was a time, I was telling the 9am about this, I've mentioned it before,

but there was a time that I had a job opportunity.

I took a brief stint away from public education. I went and worked for another sector.

At the time, Now, listen, education, how many teachers and school employees

do we have in here? All right, lots of educators here. So you know what I'm talking about.

Like an education, whatever's printed on that salary sheet is what you make,

right? There's no negotiations.

I've hired some people over the years, and there's been a couple times that

people have said, hey, you know, this is really just not enough. I need a little more.

And I'm like, nah, you know, me too, right? But whatever's on that paper is what you get.

So it's take it or leave. You want a job? That's great. Nope,

next interview, all right?

So it's just kind of one of those things. So I'd never worked in a sector where

you could negotiate your salary.

And so several years back, it's been almost a decade and a half ago now,

I'd applied for this other job. I'd gotten some interviews.

They'd made an offer. And somebody told me, said, hey, tell them that that's

not enough and then counteroffer them.

I'd never lived in this world before. I mean, I didn't know this world was out

there. I was in education. I didn't know I was in church work before that, and there was no money.

And then there was education and there's just above no money.

And so I just didn't realize that there was this world out there.

And so I thought, I'm going to give them a ridiculous number.

What was ridiculous to me at that time? I didn't have enough faith because ridiculous

to me this day, you're like, Scott, what salary do you want? Two million.

I would just throw out a number ridiculous now. But at that time I threw them

out what I thought was a ridiculous number.

And I thought they'll look at that number and then they'll counter offer and

we'll meet. And that's what I was told. We'll meet in the middle.

And so I threw out what I thought was a ridiculous number.

And I remember I was at work at the school I previously worked at before that, at that time.

And I got a phone call, stepped into another room and the lady said,

yeah, we got your offer. I was ready to counter. I was ready to negotiate.

She said, uh, yeah, you know what? We think it's great. When can you start?

And I was like, oh my goodness.

Now I applied for this. Here's what I'm talking about.

Getting your priorities. I knew in taking this job that it was going to require more of my time.

I knew in taking this job that I was going to be on the road a lot more than

I was with my current job.

I knew I wasn't going to have the flexibility that I had at that point in my life.

I knew there was a lot of things about this job that were going to be very restrictive and a big change.

So I started this job. I took the offer or they accepted my offer.

I took the job, I started this job, and immediately I realized that I was out

of my purpose, that it wasn't where I needed to be.

I realized that I had looked at what the dollar figures were,

and I was totally out of what I felt was the will of God for my life.

I hadn't talked to Ashley about this. This was internal struggle.

I was, have you ever been at one of those decisions that you've made and you're

dying on the inside? Has anybody ever done that before?

I was dying on the inside. And I remember they sent us to a,

me to a conference down in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

We're staying at this, this resort and we're at this conference and,

and they paid for Ashley to go with me. And it was just one of those.

And so we're, we're out there laying on the beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

And it's like, it's come to a head and all this is just rolling in my mind.

And, and listen, before you get to your imagination, remember I,

I, I was a muscular tanned body laying on the beach.

No, I, when I say I was laying on the beach in Puerto Rico, I'm talking about,

I had on a long sleeve shirt, you know, my pale skin is covered.

I had a hat on and an umbrella was over top. So I'm laying on a beach in Puerto Rico.

I didn't want your mind to get carried away right there. All right.

But anyway, I was laying on a beach in Puerto Rico, Ashley's laying there.

And I looked over, I said, I've made the biggest mistake I've ever made.

And she looked at me like, this don't feel like a mistake to me, right?

She's like, this feels like the purpose of God in this place right now.

But I knew on the inside that I had gotten outside of what my purpose was.

I had, my priorities had gotten off and it was the grace of God that really

allowed me to get back into where I feel like my purpose and my priorities are.

But if we're not careful, we allow a lot of factors in this world to get our priorities off,

to lead us away from where our purpose is and get our eyes on things that may

not be, may or may not, but especially may not be the will of God for your life.

We get ourselves into hobbies and careers and worldly pursuits and other things

while Jesus is waiting for us to give our best for him.

See, the danger in all of this, and this is why we've got to pay attention to

this, the danger in all of this is just like the crowd in Jesus' day, we can get so caught up

in the crowd. We can get so caught up in the busyness. We can get so caught

up in the pursuits that we miss the Savior standing right in front of us.

We get so caught up in what we think that we want for our lives that we fail

to realize what God's purpose for our lives really is.

But then we come in the scripture in John chapter 12, and we run right headlong

John 12 · chapter mention

into Mary of Bethany. Man, I love this story of Mary of Bethany.

While others were distracted, Mary was devoted.

She poured out her most valuable possession on the feet of the Lord,

this jar of pure spikenard that she had poured out on the feet of Jesus.

Mary was preparing her heart, and Jesus' body, we'll talk about that in just

a moment, but Mary was preparing her heart for what was yet to come.

I think all of us need to get to the place where we say, God,

we want your will, but we know that we have to prepare our hearts for whatever your will is.

See, the realization is, and this is where it hits every single one of you.

This is me, us. This is where this hits us, all right?

It's because what we prioritize. See, Mary, she was getting her heart prepared. It was preparation.

And the reason why that we need to prepare our hearts is this.

It's because what we prioritize shapes what we experience.

You say, well, Scott, what do you mean by that? I've witnessed this over the

years, even in a religious environment.

You come into church services, and God moves, and you hear people that sit in

the same row, sit side by side in seats, and one person will walk out and say,

man, the glory of the Lord was...

Music.

Of God can dynamically change your life, then you are setting yourself up for an encounter with God.

What you prioritize will shape your experience every time.

Mary, in this story that we're about to talk about, Mary was preparing her heart

and the body of Jesus for what was next in their lives.

See, we've got to get back to this doctrine of worship and sacrifice.

I know I've talked about worship, and I've talked about sacrifice a lot lately,

and it's because we must get back to the place where the people of God sacrifice once again.

Man, we live in a world that we want it our way. We want it, you know, it's amazing.

I heard a preacher talking about it one time, that if you told people 50,

60 years ago that you'd be able to drive up to a drive-through and order a full

meal for your family, and by the time that you got to the next window after

you've paid, you drive one more window,

and they're handing your food out and your drinks out, and everything's already,

see, that's the way that we've all of a sudden wanted it in the church.

We want to live like we want to live. We want to talk like we want to talk.

We want to be our priorities all over the place and not prepared to worship,

but we want to walk into a house of worship and give God five minutes of our

time and expect him to pour his spirit out in every area of our lives.

And I want to tell you right now that it don't work that way.

It doesn't. Jesus said it this way, John chapter four and verse 23 said,

but the hour is coming and it's now here when the true worshipers will worship

the father and spirit and in truth.

And the father is seeking such people to worship him.

So if you look at that, you say, Scott, we want to worship God.

We love the music. I'm not talking about music.

I'm not, I'm not talking about what it I know people

say well you got to get I told you about you got to get

the right environment you got to get the lights right you got to

get the scene right you got to get the sound right no

I'm talking about an attitude of worship to where

your heart is connected to Jesus Christ to where you are intentionally engaging

yourself preparing your heart to be in communion with him that Greek word for

worship is a Greek word proskuna which means to bow down or to kiss the hand in reverence.

In other words, it's an act of humility.

Worship is an act of humility. Worship is a sacrifice.

We talked about it last week that we are to give a sacrifice of praise.

Worship is an act of humility, and worship is a sacrifice, which means that

we encounter a precious God, and we are not worshiping because of the song that's

being sung. We're not worshiping just because everybody else is.

We're worshiping because Jesus Christ is absolutely worthy of praise.

Do you believe that in this place today? If you believe that,

give God a hand clap of praise.

See, we need to understand sacrifice, though, because we say that worship is an act of sacrifice.

In the Old Testament, people, and this is kind of where we are,

in the Old Testament, people, before they prepared themselves to get in the

presence of God were required to offer up sacrifices for themselves.

If you read the book of Leviticus chapter 16, the Bible says that on this day

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

shall atonement be made to cleanse you.

You shall be clean before the Lord for all of your sins.

Worship, the sacrifices were not just symbolic, but they were preparation.

It was preparation to come into the presence of God.

See, just that very act of you coming in here and sitting down and taking time out of your schedule.

I know this, I'm not going to overemphasize this, but it's sacrifice.

You being here right now, it's sacrifice.

I say that because he's worthy of sacrifice, not of our leftovers, but from our best.

In other words, when it's time to sacrifice, we're not looking at it and saying, well, you know,

we really need to cook a dinner, so I can't do it this Sunday,

and I really need to wash some clothes, and so I can't go next Sunday,

and I really need to get some things done before work, so I can't, but one Sunday,

no, I'm not talking about that kind of, I'm talking about, not your leftovers,

I'm talking about from your best, from your first fruits,

from the everything that you have, you say, God, I'm sacrificing for you,

I'm clearing my calendar, I'm going to be there.

Not because of an obligation, but because I'm preparing myself for your priority,

for your purpose. I'm willing to prepare myself.

See, Jesus is the fulfillment of that Old Testament sacrifice.

In the Old Testament, they sacrificed bullocks and rams and turtle doves,

but the Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 10,

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

and we have all been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

In other words, we don't have to sacrifice bulls and goats anymore,

but we come in here and we give him our life, not just a little bit of our time.

We give him our lives, and because of his eternal sacrifice,

we are all cleansed and worthy to be in the presence of a living God.

If it was not for Jesus, first of all, we couldn't experience God, right?

Because have you ever been somewhere and people say, man, the glory of the Lord

was in that place? Have you guys ever felt that?

Right. Because I believe it. I believe the glory of the Lord could come into the sanctuary.

Do you realize that if it had not been for the sacrifice of Christ and the glory

of the Lord came in, you'd fall dead?

If you weren't worthy to be in his presence, and none of us are.

If it wasn't for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the glory of the Lord comes

in that heals body and saves souls and delivers people to the uttermost,

then you'd fall dead because of that presence.

But it's because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we have all been cleansed once and for all.

And when we worship by giving our best, our lives, by giving our best,

our time, our talents, our abilities, when we worship, we prepare ourselves

to encounter His purpose, to encounter the purpose of God.

See, we look at this in the scripture, we're reading this in the book of John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

And this story occurs right before the Passover. The Bible tells us in the account,

it's six days before the Passover.

The Passover is the time that people would make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to the temple.

And they're celebrating their deliverance, the children of Israel's deliverance

from Egyptian bondage, Egyptian slavery.

And so thousands of pilgrims at this time, they're making their journey to Jerusalem.

But while they were making their journey to Jerusalem, they're unaware that

the true Lamb of God is getting ready to be sacrificed on Calvary.

But, you know, Jesus and his disciples, he's not going to Jerusalem. He's going to Bethany.

Bethany is a village about two miles east of Jerusalem.

And so he goes to Bethany. And, you know, we kind of think about these Bible stories.

And when he said he made the journey to Bethany, it's not like he's going to

Houston from here, okay? How many people's ever been to Israel before?

How many people's ever been? So Israel is a small country. It is, right?

So it is like he's making a journey, not like going to Houston.

It's almost like walking to the other side of Josephine, all right?

That's kind of like the journey that Jesus is making, except for no grass and

no trees and a lot of rocks, all right?

So people always tell me, they're like, I've got, I used to be impressed before I went to Israel.

They said, we got stone from Jerusalem. him. And I always used to think,

man, that's amazing. And I went over there and that whole place is a rock.

I'm thinking, man, if my yard looked like this, I'd be giving it away too.

Anyway, I'm less impressed by that. But he goes to the home of Mary and Martha.

So here he is, him and his disciples are in the home of Mary and Martha.

And if you'll remember, it's Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead. We know that when Lazarus was dead,

Jesus arrives on the scene, what they thought was late, and He told them,

He said, He's going to live again.

And then they said, well, we know He's going to live again one day in the resurrection.

When whatever, you know, someday in the future.

And Jesus said, no, no, I am the resurrection.

He had already given them a preview of the fact that He is the resurrection and He is the life.

He had all power in heaven and in earth. He's already showed them all of that.

But he comes, and we come to this part where Mary has anointed the feet of Jesus.

We'll talk about that a little more in just a moment. But it's symbolic.

And so we've got to at least talk about this. You need to know this as we approach Easter.

It's symbolic because Jesus was showing them that he was going to die.

It was symbolic in that culture that when people were dead and they were going

to be buried, they would anoint their bodies with oil.

And it symbolized the honor and the reverence for the deceased.

And so what Mary was really doing in terms of Jesus is that she was showing

them that they were fulfilling, we'll talk about it in a moment,

they were fulfilling Old Testament prophecy that he had come to die.

Here they were six days before the Passover.

But at the same time, it was also something that was counterculture because

when a visitor would walk into the home of someone, they would anoint their heads.

It was customary that when they would walk into someone's home,

they would honor the guest by anointing their head.

But Mary did not anoint the head of Jesus.

As a matter of fact, she showed an act of humility by anointing his feet.

Let me go a step further right now and let you know that it wasn't a beautiful

thing for her to anoint his feet. Now, think about this.

They lived in a land of no roads, okay?

So there's not paved street. He's walking on dirt, dusty dirt roads.

He's in archaic sandals, all right? So he wasn't wearing a pair of on clouds,

walking on pavement all the way to Bethany.

No, no, he is wearing sandals.

He is on dirt roads.

They're in that Middle Eastern climate. Let's go ahead and say what it is.

There was dirty, sweaty, sandaled feet that had been walking all the way to Bethany.

And so Mary said, not only am I not going to anoint his head,

I'm going to show the ultimate act of humility because I recognize the value of him.

I'm going to get down. I'm going to anoint.

I know what this is like. So you may ever been a part of a foot washing before.

I know I get actually nervous when I start talking about this.

I can remember because I know some people say, I don't like feet, right?

I don't like feet. I was going to be honest right now. I don't even like my

own feet. I walk around my house in socks. I don't want to see feet, all right?

My grandmother used to bleach her feet. I don't know what that was all about,

but I don't think it's a bad idea. I don't like feet, okay?

So, it's a Thacker's Branch thing. I can't explain it.

Anyway, but I can remember growing up as a young man in the church,

and we'd have foot washings, and I can remember, you know, back in the old days,

all of the older men were those thick gold toe

dress socks and and black and navy blue

and there's always black and navy blue nobody ever know they didn't

have stripes on them that was you know it was just just thick dress

socks and i can remember there i was as a young man

in the church we're having a foot washing i know i was going to have to wash

some old guy's feet and so i'm just waiting there and we had a few of those

little tubs set up and those men that first man would put his foot down in that

tub and all of that lint from those dress socks would just flow to the top of that water.

Here I am. I'm the young man, so it's not like I'm getting the first foot in

the bucket right there. I'm in the back of the line.

And so by the time there's seven or eight or ten of them older men putting them

dress sock feet down in that, they're taking them dress socks off. Oh, man, I can still.

Those big, those big, you know.

Anyway, fuzz and lint and everything else. putting them down in there about

eight guys in you you had to part that water in order to get feet down in there

and i can remember i know i know hey let's have a foot washing after church you want to anyway.

I can remember, but you know what? There was something, I say all of that. I say all of that.

There was something about, I can even remember as a young man,

that kneeling down there and washing the feet of a brother, there was something

about the humility of it.

There was times when I just was overcome by emotion, a different emotion that

I had standing in line, but I was overcome by emotion because there was something

about the humility of it.

Here Mary was. See, this leads me to my first point about preparing for his purpose.

Three things you need to know about preparing for his purpose is you've got to recognize his worth.

Mary recognized the worth of the Savior. She said, it's not about me.

It's not about what's going on around me.

Everybody else in the house might be busy. She said, but those feet might be dirty.

He may have just come here, but I recognize his worth.

I'm going to humble myself. Let me take it a step further right now.

But in the Old Testament, the Bible says that the glory of a woman is her long hair.

So you know what she did? She said, not only am I going to anoint the feet of

Jesus with this precious ointment, you can read it there for yourself, anoint it.

And what does the Bible say she did?

She took this precious ointment, she anointed his feet, and then she said, I'm going to take.

Music.

Understand the worth of Jesus. Yeah, yeah.

Listen, your mama might think you're cute, but when you come into this place, it's all about Jesus.

It's all about Jesus. You may be the boss at your job, but when you walk in

here, you ain't the boss no more, right?

He is. We're talking about the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

The Bible says, recognizing his worth, the Bible says that she took this spikenard.

Spikenard was imported for the Himalayan region of India.

It was rare. It says that it was probably worth about 300 denarii.

Most historians say that that was probably like a year's wages.

Mary took a year's, something that she had invested a year's wages in,

and she broke it open, and she washed the feet of Jesus.

She realized the worth of who she was giving her all for.

Matthew chapter 3 and verse 44, Jesus said it this way.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.

Then in his joy, notice this, then in his joy goes and sells all that he has and buys the field.

I'm tired of people walking in and saying, oh yeah, I just, I gave up a lot to be here.

No, no, no, you didn't give a lot to be here tonight. We've got the,

today, we've got the king of kings in here. We walk in here acting like we've done Jesus a favor.

He died for us. He gave his life for us. He took our place.

He is the one that has value.

I'm not mad. I'm just passionate. People are on the business.

They're like, that guy was mad. No, I'm not mad. I'm just passionate. I'm mad at the devil.

Mad at people walking in and acting like we don't have something to be glad about.

Jesus said, when that guy finds that treasure, he gladly, he's joyfully sells

all and buys that treasure.

Listen, church, I've heard people testify.

They get up and testify about who they used to be for 10 minutes.

And at the end says, and then Jesus saved me.

No, it wasn't about who you used to be. I gladly left that stuff behind.

I gladly left that life behind.

I gladly left that old lifestyle behind.

It's all about Jesus now. We've got to sell out everything that we were.

Don't look back. Jesus said, if any man puts his hand to the plow and looks

back, he's not worthy of the kingdom of God.

We have to understand it's all about Jesus now. It's all about Jesus.

See, what it comes down to is, are we giving Jesus our best or are we giving him our leftovers?

See, the Barna Group did a study and what they found was that 73% of Americans

claim that faith is important, but

less than 20% prioritize regular church attendance or sacrificial giving.

Let that land where it lands. So are we giving Jesus our best or are we giving him our leftovers?

So number one, we gotta recognize his value. Number two is we have to prepare for his sacrifice.

There has to be preparation made she's there washing his feet with her hair

and Jesus said this Jesus said leave her alone that she could make keep it for the day of my burial.

You got Judas over there complaining about it because he's still in it anyway.

He's got his hands in the money bag anyway.

He, you know, for some reason he's, he's showing up in, in a pair of Armani

shoes and everybody else is wearing sandals and everybody's like,

gosh, wonder where Judas got that.

He's, he's sleeping the same place we're sleeping, eating the same things we're eating.

And, and you know, he had his hand in the money bag. So that's,

that's, it is what it is right there. But Jesus said, don't criticize that woman.

Said she's preparing. She's prepared. Now she was not only preparing herself,

but she was preparing him. Look at this.

Because according to those, I told you, according to Jewish burial practices,

the body had to be anointed.

Why did that body have to be anointed? Isaiah chapter 53 had already told us

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

that, and they made his grave with the wicked.

See, that's what happened when there's thieves on either side of him hanging on that cross.

And with the rich man, his death. That's what happened when Joseph of Arimathea,

the rich man, Joseph, gave him the borrowed tomb to lay his body in.

He had done, and the Bible says, although he had done no violence,

Isaiah had prophesied it. Isaiah had already told us it was going to happen.

And so what Mary is doing, Mary is saying, we're getting ready to,

we're preparing to fulfill everything the Old Testament has talked about.

She said there's some preparation that has to be made.

In other words, she's showing us that it had to be timely and intentional.

Mark chapter 14 and verse 8, Jesus said, she has done what she could.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. In other words,

Jesus said she has been timely.

She has been intentional. And because she is prepared, she is ready for the

purpose that I am walking in.

Church, we cannot walk into, I've seen people walk in haphazardly like I'm going

to wander through life, do my own thing, and hopefully on a Wednesday night

I wander into church and God just revolutionizes my life because I happen to be sitting in the sea.

Listen, God, through his grace, does that sometimes miraculously,

but I want to say more often.

Music.

God, when I walk in this place today, let me experience your presence so that

I can align my life with your purpose.

Here's a sad reality, and this one blew me away when I read this.

According to LifeWay Research 2021, it revealed that only 32% of American Christians,

Christians regularly reflect on the death of Jesus and the sacrifice of Jesus outside of Easter.

32 percent that means that 68 percent

of christians never think

about the resurrection they never think

about the sacrifice of christ outside of easter see

we do it on the last sunday of every month we do communion here the

reason why we do communion is the bible tells us that it's ordered

by jesus it's it's the authority of jesus

the apostle paul reaffirmed it and he told us to do

it to remember the body and the blood the sacrifice of jesus

until the second coming we do that but you know even at

that the only time we think about the resurrection the sacrifice

of jesus should not be on the last sunday of the month as a matter of fact old

preacher brother clendenin he's in heaven now he said one time he said i don't

have an easter resurrection sermon he said i preach the resurrection every day

we got to get to the point in our lives it's not just easter but every day we

realize the sacrifice of jesus christ.

So we've got to prepare. We've got to be intentional. And then finally,

we've got to commit to follow his purpose.

Man, we need commitment. In our church world today, we need commitment.

With believers, we need commitment. Jesus said this, said, if anyone serves me, he must follow me.

And where I am, there will my servant be also.

He's talking about discipleship. We were at a men's meeting yesterday,

and Brother Rob Albright was in a small group, and Brother Rob Albright said to go make disciples.

He said he wasn't talking about going and making people who show up,

who attend, but people who are disciples, people that follow,

people that are intentional.

As a matter of fact, a disciple in the ancient world, those were people that

didn't just commit to the teachings, but disciples were required to imitate the rabbi's lifestyle.

Disciples were required to imitate the rabbi's teaching.

Disciples were required to imitate the disciples' missions.

That's why they were first called believers at Antioch. You guys remember reading

that in the scripture in the book of Acts?

They were first called believers at Antioch. And that's what they first called Christians.

And that word Christians there, to be Christ-like, it wasn't a compliment.

They were making fun of them. They were calling them little Jesuses is what

they were called, little Christ, little Jesuses running around.

They were making fun of them. You know why?

Because they looked like Jesus and sounded like Jesus and acted like Jesus and

loved like Jesus and cared like Jesus.

And I got to just wonder if they had to give us a name today,

would they even call us Christians if it came down to the way we act?

Right? Disciples have to commit to follow the purpose of the master,

the purpose of the rabbi.

See, Mary's model was not just about giving. It was about following.

It was about being a disciple.

It was about giving everything that she had. Jesus said it this way,

said, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.

See, surrender means that you walk out the purpose of Jesus every single day of your life.

Church, this is not just a message leading up to Easter. This is a life message right here.

That when we come and see the purpose of Jesus Christ, it takes preparation

to align with his purpose.

What's his purpose? To seek and save that which is lost.

That's what he came to do, to be that eternal sacrifice. That was his purpose.

But in order for us to align with his purpose, it takes preparation on our behalf.

I thought about it. I hope you'll come help me close this out. I thought about it.

Jim Elliott, he was a missionary that came and brought the gospel to the indigenous people of Ecuador.

Ultimately, he and a few other missionaries would be killed by those indigenous

people of Ecuador. They lost their lives to them.

And after his death, it became something he said became really famous.

But he said this, that's Jim Elliott right there, but he made this statement.

He said, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

For some of us, we think that we're saving a few hours a week if we cut out a church service.

Some of us look at a daily prayer life and say, well,

we don't have 30 minutes to spare, when in reality, we're fools if we think

we're saving time when we're giving up something that we could never lose if

we would just trade ourselves our lives for it,

give ourselves see here's here's the reality.

Jesus has so much for us. Jesus has so much more to give us.

So much more valuable than what we could ever give him.

And yet, we lie to ourselves. We fool ourselves thinking that we're saving something

for us. It's not that way.

There was a businessman that revolutionized earth-moving equipment.

His name was R.G. Torino.

And he was famous because this man they called him god's businessman he was criticized,

but also famous because he would give 90 of his wealth to christian opportunities

and organizations and missions 90 of his wealth he gave for the furtherance

of the gospel and he lived off of 10%.

He lived off of 10%. We know as Christians, we tithe 10% and live off the 90%.

He turned that upside down. He gave 90%.

I'm not telling you you should do that. But what I'm trying to show you is this,

is that when you give your life to God, he can give you so much more in exchange.

Someone asked him, he said, why would it ever be reasonable?

How could you ever even make it? giving 90% of your life, livelihood to God.

He made this statement. He said, I shovel out money and God shovels it back.

But God has a bigger shovel.

Has anybody experienced that before? I gave Jesus my life.

And when I first did it, I thought, I'm giving up all of this.

But what I found was, what he gave me in return is worth so much more than anything I ever gave up.

Because you know how you look at it from the outside? You say, I used to have fun here.

But compared to what I experience now in Christ, that doesn't seem fun anymore.

Because of the glory that I see in my life right now.

Opportunities that we say we gave up,

I've had people over the years I could have been over there If I chose to come

to church tonight God bless your heart God bless your heart.

Hopefully you can win your own salvation too But you can't The reality is There's

nothing we can give up that would be more precious than what he gives us in return. He knows that.

It's a greater exchange. It's a great exchange. That's what I want to challenge you with today.

Come and see his purpose. But it takes preparation. It takes giving your life.

I'm talking to Christians right now. This is not just a salvation message.

Because here's what I found is we'll give Jesus our heart but we have a hard time giving him a time.

We give Jesus our heart and maybe even give him a couple hours on a Sunday morning,

but we have a hard time giving him our anger and our unforgiveness.

We have a hard time giving him our vice and our habits.

When Jesus is saying, come and see, come and see for yourself, come and see my purpose.

But what you got to do is you got to prepare by giving it all to me.

So this morning i want to challenge you i want to challenge you give it to jesus and see just

see i i don't mind making this this

challenge if a life in christ is so

much is not so much better than what you used to live go back go back i'll make

that challenge if jesus is not better to you than anything in that old life

is go back i'll make that challenge i'll give you a total life back guarantee.

But what I do know is that when you experience Jesus, you can't help but love Him.

When you experience Jesus, you can't help but want to live your life for Him,

because He's so much better than anybody or anything you could ever imagine.

Let's all stand all over this building.

Yeah.

When we give our hearts our best to jesus we prepare our hearts to encounter his purpose,

so i gotta ask are you willing to pour out your all today are you willing to

pour out your all today are you willing to.

After i made that i told you about taking that job i shouldn't have taken there's

a friend of mine she told me she said Scott,

you've got to you've got to put a price on what you're willing to what your

happiness is worth to you she said you've got to put a price tag on it,

so here's my question to you is is the best that God has for you is it really

worth holding on to what you're holding on to is it,

that's a that's a hefty price tag it's a hefty price tag is is god's love and

treasure for your life is it worth holding on to that unforgiveness that's a hefty price tag,

your salvation is it

worth holding on to that habit eternity separated

from god is that worth holding on if you're not a believer it's a hefty price

tag I'm gonna tell you that it's not but you got to work out your own salvation

you got to know for yourself it's not worth it it's not worth it every head bowed every eye closed.

I just want you to take a moment and settle it. What's it worth? What's it worth?

What is it that you're holding on to that Jesus said, give it all to me? Give it all to me.

I want you to settle it. What's it worth? Why? Why are you holding on to it?

What's it worth? Compared.

Compared to Jesus. The purpose that he has for your life. What's it worth?

Nobody looking around. Here's my first call this morning.

I can't help but feel like there's a few people that need to consider your ways today.

I feel that in my heart right now. You need to consider your eternity right now.

If you don't know Jesus, if you're backslider, we're not going to pull you out.

You can make that decision right where you are. I want you to find me after

church and tell me that you've committed your life to Jesus.

But you can do this right where you are.

I challenge you. Nobody's looking around. Nobody knows.

But if you're here today and you can respond, say, Pastor Scott, I don't know Jesus.

I'm a backslider. I need to. What I'm holding on to is not worth my eternity.

It's not worth it. It's not worth it.

I want to give my heart to Jesus today. If that's you, I just want you to raise

your hand. You say, that's me.

I want to give my heart to the Lord today. I want to give my heart to the Lord

today That's me, there's a hand going up, who else?

You'd say, that's me, I want to give my heart to Jesus Christ today Today's

the day of salvation, I want to give my heart to the Lord Who else is here?

Because I know there's somebody else that says I need to get my life right I

want to give my heart to Jesus Who else, who are you?

That says, I want to give my heart to the Lord God, thank you, thank you.

Thank you you can put those hands down we're

going to pray in just a moment i told you i'm not here to embarrass anybody i'm here so

that lives can be changed if you're here right now

and you'd say pastor scott there's more that i need

to give to the lord of my life i know i'm a believer but

i know there's areas i've been holding back and i need to give more

of me to the lord if that's you i just want you to raise your hand

right now i'm listen this preacher's raising his hand because i

know there's more of me i need to give to the lord can we

just pray right now let's let's do this before we

go any further before we pray individually i want us all to pray this sinner's

prayer if you raise your hand and to accept salvation i want everybody to pray

this right now repeat after me say say dear jesus i love you i admit that i'm a sinner i've done wrong,

but I believe that you died to purchase my salvation so I give my heart to you.

Cleanse me make me new and I promise that I'll do my best to live for you for the rest of my life,

I'm saved by the blood of Jesus in your name we pray amen if you prayed that

prayer you are born and again, uh, it's coming.

Do you need to tell somebody about it? Come tell me about it after service.

Here's what I want us to do. You can, if you want to, let's do it this way.

If you want to come to this altar, if you want to get, if you were saying it's

Pastor Scott, I want to give more of me to the Lord this morning.

I want to make that greater commitment.

I just want you to step out on the count of three, one, two, three, step on down.

Let's make our way to this altar this morning. Listen, church,

it's all about giving more to Jesus this morning. It's, it's 1221. If you're.

Music.