Planning a murder.... (Mk 14:1-2)
How to Do a Beautiful Thing for Jesus (Mk 14:3-9):
- Give SACRIFICIALLY . (Mk 14:3)
- Ignore JUDAS . (Mk 14:4-5)
- Seize the OPPORTUNITY . (Mk 14:7)
- Do what YOU can. (Mk 14:8-9)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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00:00-00:02
I'm excited to get into God's Word with us today.
00:02-00:03
So you have your Bibles with you?
00:04-00:09
Here at Harvest Bible Chapel we believe in proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.
00:11-00:32
The last couple of years we've been walking through the Gospel of Mark and we finished up our series last week on "I Love to Give." This week we begin our series "He is the Lamb." Last fall we talked about "He is the Lord" and we saw Jesus' authority in His various interactions with people during the last week of his life.
00:33-00:38
And this stretch will actually take us through Easter as we talk about this glorious truth.
00:38-00:40
It's all building up to this, he is the lamb.
00:41-00:44
Open up to Mark chapter 14 and bow your heads with me, please.
00:45-00:47
Father in heaven, we're just about to turn to your word.
00:48-00:53
And Father, you know, as people, we are very easily distracted.
00:54-01:08
We've all come in here with, whether we're dealing with illnesses or heartaches or stresses at work that we can't seem to let go of that we know we're going to have to face tomorrow.
01:10-01:24
I pray, Father, that by the power of Your Holy Spirit within, that You would remove any distraction from us so that as we get into Your Word right now, we would allow Your Word to penetrate deep into our hearts.
01:25-01:30
Father, we know that when we encounter Your Word, we are never the same.
01:31-01:33
Your Word has a way of changing us.
01:33-01:38
Your Holy Spirit has a way of working with Your Word to increase our faith.
01:40-01:42
Your Word tells us that faith comes by hearing.
01:43-01:53
God, that's why we get into Your Word so that by hearing Your Word and by understanding Your Word and by applying Your Word, So we want to know You more.
01:57-02:04
I pray as we start this journey now, You would give us understanding what it really means that Jesus Christ is the Lamb.
02:06-02:08
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
02:11-02:13
Mark 14 - just a quick review.
02:13-02:16
Last fall, we looked at Mark 11, 12, and 13.
02:17-02:20
And we saw Jesus' triumphal entry.
02:20-02:23
That was Jesus' announcement He was the Messiah.
02:24-02:32
And everybody knew exactly what he was announcing, okay, because this was ramping up the desire of people to kill Jesus.
02:33-02:36
He was making a proclamation that he was the Messiah of Israel.
02:37-02:44
And then we saw throughout those chapters people challenging Jesus and wanting to try to make Jesus look stupid.
02:45-02:46
And they were constantly asking Him questions.
02:47-02:48
Should we pay taxes?
02:48-02:52
and, "Ok, so what if this woman marries these seven guys and they all die?
02:53-02:57
Who's going to have her in the resurrection?" They were always asking these ridiculous questions.
02:57-03:03
And Jesus in His wisdom and in His authority, because He is the Lord, handled them all.
03:04-03:06
We left Mark, we were in Mark chapter 13.
03:07-03:10
Jesus gave us the ultimate spoiler alert.
03:10-03:13
He said, "This is how the world will end." And He walked us through history.
03:14-03:30
He said, "Here's how the world ends." When we get to Mark chapter 14, on your outline, it just says "planning a murder." And in the first two verses in Mark chapter 14, that's what's happening is there are people planning a murder.
03:32-03:39
It says, "It was now two days before the Passover." And when was the Passover?
03:39-03:42
That would have been Friday, so okay, we're talking about Wednesday.
03:43-03:48
It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
03:50-03:52
Israel had three major feasts.
03:53-03:59
And there was the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Booths, but this was the granddaddy.
03:59-04:00
This was the ultimate.
04:01-04:10
The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, these were Israel's biggest holidays and both of these events actually commemorated the Exodus.
04:10-04:26
They were remembering when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and the angel of death would pass over the Israelites who were obedient to sprinkle the blood of a spotless lamb on their doorposts.
04:26-04:32
That's the Passover, then the unleavened bread to commemorate the haste in which they left Egypt.
04:33-04:34
So this was a seven-day holiday.
04:35-04:41
And that's, Mark's giving us the context here, it was now two days before the Passover and the beast of unleavened bread.
04:42-04:51
And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest Him by stealth.
04:52-04:57
So the religious leaders, it says, the chief priests and the scribes, wanted to arrest Jesus by stealth.
04:57-05:00
And the word "stealth" is an interesting word in the Greek.
05:00-05:07
It can also be translated "fish hook." They wanted to trick Jesus into getting arrested.
05:09-05:11
The same way somebody tricks a fish.
05:12-05:15
When you think about it, fishing is extremely cruel.
05:16-05:19
From the fish's perspective, the fish is just kind of swimming along.
05:19-05:21
I see Ben smirking.
05:21-05:22
You're a fisherman, right?
05:22-05:26
And the fish is just kind of swimming along, and all of a sudden, there's a hamburger!
05:26-05:30
And he's like, "I don't know who this is, but it's mine now." And he takes a bite and...
05:31-05:32
Hook in the head.
05:33-05:34
Ok, that's cruel.
05:35-05:36
Everybody say that's cruel.
05:38-05:38
Two of you said it.
05:40-05:41
The rest of you are fishermen.
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I have nothing against fishermen.
05:44-05:45
I really don't.
05:47-05:49
But that's the sense of this word.
05:49-05:51
They wanted to arrest Jesus by stealth.
05:51-05:52
They wanted to trick Him.
05:53-05:57
They wanted to sneakily arrest Him.
05:58-05:59
But not just arrest Him.
05:59-06:00
Do you notice what else it says?
06:00-06:02
They're seeking how to arrest Him by stealth.
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Kind of under the radar kind of thing.
06:05-06:05
And kill Him!
06:07-06:21
Verse 2 says, "For they said, 'Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.'" Okay, so not during the feast.
06:22-06:30
Okay, there were countless thousands and tens of thousands, even upwards of hundreds of thousands of people that came to Jerusalem for the feast.
06:31-06:35
Okay, everybody came to celebrate the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
06:36-06:45
Okay, so if you can imagine Jerusalem as just people on top of people on top of people, and they said, "Well, we want to, we got to kill this guy.
06:48-06:56
The last thing we want to do is do it during the feast because there's all these people here and if you remember Jesus' track record, he was quite popular.
06:56-07:01
He would show up in the town and he would heal people and he would teach people and people loved Jesus.
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And they said, "With all these people here, there's going to be thousands of Jesus fans, so we've got to get rid of this guy.
07:11-07:12
He's ruining our business.
07:14-07:19
He's getting quite a following, but we cannot do it during the feast.
07:20-07:22
John Q. Public just likes him too much.
07:23-07:29
So let's do this, but anytime during the feast, anytime at all, anytime but during the feast.
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but during the feast.
07:32-07:34
So let me ask you, when was Jesus crucified?
07:36-07:39
He was crucified during the feast.
07:41-07:41
Why?
07:42-07:50
Because even though these men were plotting his death, understand that God was the one who was really preparing everything.
07:52-08:01
His son, the Lamb of God, was to be sacrificed on Passover because God the Father was going to offer God the Son as a sin offering.
08:04-08:20
So understand these verses here in the beginning of chapter 14, there's a sense of irony here, and that these people wanted to kill Jesus anytime but to feast, but God the Father says, "No, it has to happen during Passover." Because from God's perspective, this wasn't His Son being grabbed and murdered.
08:21-08:33
From God's perspective, it was, "I'm allowing my Son to lay down His life as a sacrifice, and that has to happen during Passover." I don't care how much these people say it can't happen during Passover.
08:34-08:38
God says it will happen over Passover because this is my plan.
08:38-08:40
God says I've always had this plan.
08:40-08:44
My calendar says this is when my son is going to die.
08:46-08:54
And it is so important for us to understand that because there are some people that think that Jesus was a victim of circumstance.
08:55-08:57
I'll never forget one time we were just doing some street evangelism.
08:57-08:59
It was me and Grandma Barb.
09:00-09:06
And we met this lady who said, she got very, we were talking to her about Jesus and she got very sad.
09:06-09:33
And she said, "You know, the worst thing "that ever happened in history was they got him." We're like, "What do you mean they got him?" She said, "They killed Jesus "and he was doing so much good and they got him." I'm like, "What are you talking about?" She says, "Oh, if only they hadn't killed Jesus, if only they hadn't got him and crucified him and he was able to continue to live and to teach, if only...
09:33-09:35
She was really broken up about it.
09:35-09:40
She says they got him and nothing really has ever been the same since they killed Jesus.
09:42-09:46
And you see, she didn't understand the scripture says this was God's plan.
09:47-09:51
Man was plotting, but God was planning.
09:52-09:53
This was the very purpose for which he came.
09:54-09:54
What did we see already?
09:55-09:59
Three or four times in Mark, Jesus said that he was going to die.
10:02-10:05
So while these men were plotting, God was planning.
10:06-10:17
So we move from people plotting his death to someone doing unto Jesus what he called a beautiful thing.
10:17-10:23
Now, verses three through nine in your Bible, just right in the margin in your Bible beside Verse 3, right toward flashback.
10:24-10:27
Okay, understand that this isn't chronological.
10:28-10:30
The verses 3 through 9 are a flashback.
10:31-10:32
Like, well, how do you know that?
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Because John chapter 12 and verse 1 says that this event that we're going to talk about actually happened six days before the Passover.
10:43-10:47
So Mark, for the purpose of his writing, was giving a flashback.
10:47-10:48
You've seen that in movies, right?
10:49-11:00
Like something's happening, the plot's moving along, and then all of a sudden there's like the wavy lines or there's this like black and white flashback scene to show you something because it's relevant to what's coming next.
11:00-11:02
And that's kind of what Mark's doing here.
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Like the action's moving along, moving along, it's Wednesday, and then they're like, flashback, let's go back to last Saturday.
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Let me tell you something that happened there because this is significant to what's about to happen.
11:14-11:14
Everybody with me?
11:15-11:16
This is a flashback.
11:18-11:20
It happened the Saturday before.
11:21-11:25
It says, "And while he was at Bethany..." Remember, Jesus stayed at Bethany.
11:25-11:28
That was in the suburbs of Jerusalem.
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Jesus had some friends there.
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Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
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Two sisters and a brother.
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That was their hometown.
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And Jesus stayed with them.
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It says, "And while he was at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper..." I'd just like to insert here, that that is a really bummer of a nickname.
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Honestly.
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I mean, there were a lot of people named Simon.
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There were.
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There were a ton.
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You read through your Bible, there were a lot of people named Simon.
12:04-13:08
And as Mark was describing this scene, I don't know, I kind of imagine that, you know, people say that Peter gave Mark his information for the gospel. So Peter's like, "Yeah, we were at Simon's house." Like, which Simon? Well, Simon Bar-Jonah, Simon son of John, that was Peter. "Your house, Peter?" "No, it wasn't my house. It was it was another Simon's house." "Well, which Simon was it?" "It was Simon the leper." Actually, in the Greek, it could also be translated, you can look this up, but this is stuff that kind of makes me chuckle, it can be translated "scaly." Simon the Scaly, because leprosy made your skin fall off, and they called this guy Simon the Scaly, or Scaly Simon. So we were, Peter's like, "Yeah, we were at Scaly Simon's house." And that's something you might miss if you just gloss over this. I think this stuff's kind of funny. We were Scaly Simon's house. Obviously, Simon didn't have leprosy anymore, otherwise people, if you had leprosy, people weren't at your house, right?
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Well, people weren't at your house for Thanksgiving if you had leprosy.
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It's like, we're not going there.
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We're having Thanksgiving somewhere else.
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But he was obviously healed, but that's why this is such a bummer.
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The nickname stuck.
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It'd be like, you know, Kate had the mumps last month, but we don't still call him mumpsie.
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But this name stuck for Scaly Simon.
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Bummer.
13:33-13:40
So they were at Simon the leper's house, and it said, "And he was reclining at table." Understand, they didn't use chairs and tables like we do.
13:40-13:49
Their tables would have been very low to the ground, and they would have had pillows and cushions, and when they would sit to eat, they would actually lean on a pillow and recline like that.
13:50-14:00
So that's why it says, "He was reclining at table." It says, "A woman came with an alabaster flask "of ointment of pure nard." Like, who's the woman?
14:01-14:01
Well, it's Mary.
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John tells us that in John chapter 12.
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Mary, sister of Lazarus and Martha.
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So she came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly.
14:15-14:16
What is nard?
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Well, nard is a perfume from an Indian plant.
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Some Bibles say spike nard because the plant actually looks like spikes.
14:29-14:36
But it was a perfume that came from that plant And notice, he says it was pure or undiluted.
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So this stuff was very expensive.
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She didn't bring out the Brut by Fabergé, you know, the $2 at Target cologne.
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She brought out this stuff that we're going to see.
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It was probably more expensive than any perfume you have at your house.
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And what did she do with it?
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It says, "She broke the flask and poured it over his head." That was a custom.
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When people would come and visit, you would anoint them.
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You know, they would be hot and sweaty, and most people would be very stinky.
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So as a - being a good host, being hospitable, you would anoint people, refresh them with oil.
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That's why they would wash their feet and they would anoint their head.
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It was to say, you just came in from the heat in the desert.
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This will make you feel better.
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And quite frankly, it was a benefit to everybody else, too, because if that guy was stinky, it was sort of putting some deodorant on him.
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OK, so it was a custom that people did.
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But Mary kind of took it up to the next level, Because she didn't just use any old oil.
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She used this stuff that the Bible says was very costly.
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Very expensive stuff.
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Usually you drip it on.
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And that's how I understand it.
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When it says that she broke the flask and poured it over his head, what I imagine is the flask probably had a top on it that just allowed you to drip it.
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Because as I said, we're gonna see how expensive this stuff was.
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You probably didn't wanna have a open top on it so that one of the kids could knock it over and spill it.
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It probably had a top on it to just let it drip, so you could just get a little bit at a time, because it was so expensive.
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But she actually broke the top of it off so that it had an open spout and poured it over the head of Jesus.
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And then the fireworks start.
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Let's look at the rest of this passage, and then we're going to go back through some application.
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Okay, so she broke the flask, poured it over his head.
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Verse 4 says, "And there were some who said to themselves indignantly, 'Why was the ointment wasted like that?
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For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor.' And they scolded her.
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But Jesus said, 'Leave her alone.
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Why do you trouble her?
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She has done a beautiful thing to me.
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Stop.
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She has done a beautiful thing to me.
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This is the key to this passage.
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Don't misunderstand.
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Because in all the hubbub of what's going on in this scene, the only thing that really matters is what Jesus said about it.
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And notice what Jesus said.
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You should underline this in your Bible.
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done a beautiful thing to me." They were all up in arms and angry and screaming at her.
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Jesus said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.
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She did what's beautiful." In verse 7, Jesus goes on.
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He says, "For you always have the poor with you.
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And whenever you want, you can do good for them.
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But you will not always have me.
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She has done what she could.
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She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.
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And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her." So on your outline, I encourage you to be taking notes.
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I'm going with Jesus' opinion here.
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All in favor?
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Okay, good.
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How to do a beautiful thing for Jesus.
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Jesus said this act was beautiful.
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So if I want to do a beautiful thing for Jesus, I want to look at what Mary did.
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Pick up some principles there.
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You ready?
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Number one, give sacrificially.
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Give sacrificially.
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Again, verse 3 said that this stuff was very costly.
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Like, well how costly was it?
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Well, verse 5 says that it could have been sold for more than 300 denarii.
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Like how much is that?
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Well, a denarii was about a day's wage.
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So, how much would 300 denarii be?
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To calculate that out, we're talking approximately a year's worth of income for this one bottle of perfume.
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Do you have perfume in your house like that?
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And I'm reading this, I'm like, how did Mary get this stuff?
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It doesn't matter, I don't know, maybe it was a gift, it's irrelevant.
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But she had this bottle of perfume It costs as much as you make in a year.
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What she decided to do with this was to give it, more accurately, to use it on Jesus.
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Last month we spent four weeks talking about giving.
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And understand, there's a difference between giving and sacrificial giving.
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There's a difference.
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Giving is great.
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Giving is great.
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What did we see in 2 Corinthians 9?
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God loves a cheerful giver.
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We talked about that.
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God loves everybody.
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But the Bible says God has a special affection for people that give in the way that He gives, hilariously, cheerfully, joyfully.
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And giving is fantastic.
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But there's something special about sacrificial giving.
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Like what's the difference between giving and sacrificial giving?
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Well, it's easy.
20:57-20:59
Sacrificial giving is something that costs you.
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I told you the story about giving some McDonald's chicken sandwiches to the homeless guy outside of Walmart.
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That didn't cost me anything.
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That cost me $3, okay?
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Did my family miss that?
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I didn't come home and say, "Aaron, I'm sorry.
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We're not going to be able to eat this week because I fed a homeless guy." That didn't really cost me anything.
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Sacrificial giving is when you give and it costs you something.
21:30-21:38
In other words, you say, "I'm willing to go without something so that I can give it to God." And that's exactly what Mary did here.
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I don't think Mary was this multi-billionaire that had a whole shelf of these bottles of perfume.
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I imagine this was the only thing that she had in the world that had any value to it.
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She goes, "You know what I want to do with this?
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I want to use it on Jesus." Did that cost her something?
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Of course it costs her something.
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Church, sometimes God calls us to sacrificial giving to say I'm willing to go without something so that I can give it to the Lord.
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Sacrificial.
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Best example of this in Scripture - I'm going to give you the CliffsNotes version, but you can look it up.
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Write this reference down.
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2 Samuel 24.
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2 Samuel 24 v. 18.
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Again, this is the CliffsNotes version.
22:28-22:34
David wanted to build an altar to the Lord on the property of a man named Arana.
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Okay, so Arana had this property and David said, "I wanna build an altar to the Lord "on this guy's property." So the Bible says David and his entourage go to Arana's house.
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And David's like, "Hey, I wanna buy a chunk of land here from you "to build an altar." And Arana, he said, he's like, "King." He goes, "It's yours.
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You can have it.
22:59-23:00
Here, oxen.
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Here's wood.
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It is all yours.
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I'm giving it to you.
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I want you to have it.
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David said in verse 24-- I love this verse-- David said, no.
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But I will buy it from you for a price.
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I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God.
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that cost me nothing.
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You get that?
23:29-23:30
Do you get that?
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David was the king.
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He could have just showed up and seized the property.
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This belongs to Israel now, thank you.
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He shows up and says, I want to buy it.
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And even when the guy graciously wants to give it, David says, no, no, no.
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I'm not going to offer to the Lord something that doesn't cost me anything.
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You see, just like Mary in this passage, David in 2 Samuel said, "I want my worship to be a sacrificial worship.
23:59-24:08
I want to give something unto the Lord that costs me something because that's part of worship." Mary gets this.
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Would this act of worship for Mary, going back to Mark 14, would this act of worship for Mary express her love and devotion if she just sprinkled a little well water on Jesus?
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If she's like, "Jesus is here.
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You know what?
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I'm just going to run out to the well.
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a little cup and sprinkle a little water, because that sort of meets the hospitality needs that wouldn't have reflected the devotion and worship that she wanted to communicate.
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Because truth is, whether we like it or not, whether we want to admit it or not, the size of the gift reflects the love, doesn't it?
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The size of the gift reflects the love.
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"Oh, you don't have to get me anything." The size of the gift reflects the love.
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God loved you so much that He gave you the greatest gift - in His Son.
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We even understand this principle human to human, right?
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You know, if it's my wife's birthday, I don't stop at the gas station and buy her a Snickers bar on the way home and say, "Oh, it's the thought that counts." She's like, "Yeah, obviously you didn't think very much about me." But did that set you back a buck and a half now?
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The size of the gift reflects love and devotion.
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That's why you hear these beautiful stories about wives that were working these jobs for the sole purpose of buying their husband a gift.
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All of the income from this job, I'm saving it.
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I just heard a story about that recently, and it just really touched me.
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I worked this job so I could buy my husband this gift.
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That is sacrificial giving.
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Because she gave her time.
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She gave her energy.
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She put everything into working to earn the money to give this gift to her husband.
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Why? Because she loves him.
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Mary got that.
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She's like, what's the biggest gift that I can give Jesus?
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What's the biggest act of worship that I can give Jesus?
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Jesus' value to her was greater than the value of the expensive perfume to her.
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Here's Jesus sitting in her kitchen.
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Here's this bottle of perfume that cost $50,000.
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She's like, "He's worth to me more than this." She gave it and noticed that she held nothing back for herself.
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She could have said, "You know what?
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I'm just going to leave the little drip top on.
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Here Jesus, this stuff costs $50,000 a bottle." Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!
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That was like $25 worth of perfume I just dripped on you.
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She didn't keep any for herself.
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She's like, "All on Jesus." That's sacrificial giving.
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Sacrificial giving.
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Sometimes church, God calls us to give sacrificially.
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Sometimes God calls you, and this is between you and the Lord.
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We're going to talk about this here in a second, but sometimes God calls you to say, "Hey, Here's an opportunity to give sacrificially.
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I want you to take a step of faith and do it.
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Mary certainly got it.
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Look at verses 4 and 5.
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It says, "There were some who had said to themselves indignantly, 'Why was the ointment wasted like that?
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For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor, and they scolded her.'" This is heart mark.
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This mark reminds me of another mark that I know.
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A gentleman, discreet.
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Because if you read John chapter 12, John's like, "It was Judas." He just blows the whistle.
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Mark's like, "So there was somebody there "who was like, said this, and then somebody said this." And John's like, "It was Judas.
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"Judas said it." Come on, let's name names here, okay?
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It wasn't somebody said it.
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Judas said it.
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Oh, and by the way, John adds, by the way, you know something else about Judas?
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He was helping himself to the offering plate, okay?
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That's something else you need to know about him.
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Judas had some sticky fingers and he was stealing from the money that we carried around.
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And thank you, John, for shedding some light on this.
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But John tells us, elaborating on this, Okay, it wasn't just like some kind of general conversation.
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Judas precipitated this.
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Judas was the one that spoke up and said, "That was worth 300 denarii.
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We could have given that to the poor." And John's like, "He doesn't care about the poor.
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He cares about Judas.
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That's all he cares about, give to the poor." It says that they were indignant.
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Mark says that, do you see that at the end of verse five?
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It says they scolded her.
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Can you imagine this scene?
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This would have been kind of embarrassing, wouldn't it?
29:18-29:36
You have this party and Jesus is here, like the biggest celebrity ever is at your house, you know, Scaly Simon's house, and they're having this big party, and Mary comes out and says, "I want to anoint you with this stuff." and the Bible says everybody starts screaming at her.
29:37-29:39
Like how embarrassing would that have been for Mary?
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Like what are you doing?
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Oh my gosh, I can't believe, did you guys see what she did?
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I can't believe that she did that.
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And that's why the next point on your outline, number two, ignore Judas.
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You wanna do a beautiful thing for Jesus, then you're gonna have to ignore Judas.
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Because any time you feel led to take a huge step of faith, here come the Judas's.
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you can hear their footsteps marching to your door.
30:08-30:11
I'm thinking about taking a mission trip and here come the Judases.
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You couldn't take this mission trip.
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You don't make very much money.
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Maybe you should leave that for somebody else who knows what they're doing or has been on mission trips.
30:21-30:23
Here come the Judases.
30:24-30:25
You know what?
30:25-30:29
I hear about this prison ministry that some guys in the church are involved in.
30:29-30:30
You know what I was thinking about doing?
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I was thinking about doing the training.
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about getting involved at prison ministry.
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Here come the Judas's, you can't do that.
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Why in the world would you do something like that?
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You're not cut out for a prison ministry.
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Those people would eat you alive.
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What are you thinking getting involved in a ministry like that?
30:45-30:49
You need to leave that to the roughnecks and here come the Judas's.
30:51-30:54
We've been talking about this opportunity in Romania.
30:55-30:58
We had a video to show, but we had some technical difficulties.
30:58-30:59
We're gonna try to get that to you next week.
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that Harvest Bible Chapel is building a training center to train pastors, to plant churches all over Europe.
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And instead of bringing them all to Chicago, we wanna train pastors in Romania and they've asked us to partner with them.
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And we're talking about, right now Jay talked about it last week, we wanna take February, March and April, we wanna take some special offerings to get this training center up and going.
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I promise you in talking about that, there are people that are driving home from church.
31:33-31:34
Here come the Judas's.
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Our church can't do that.
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We're a little church.
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And look at the snow, we're an even littler church today.
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And we can't do that.
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We don't have the funds to do that.
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And our church is thinking about donating to this.
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What about the needs right here?
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What about our own people?
31:52-31:53
Here come the Judas's.
31:55-32:00
Somebody, somebody is going to say because of this Romanian thing, I think that is an awesome idea.
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And you know what?
32:01-32:04
I have this, our family has this extra car.
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We're gonna sell the car and give the proceeds, this Romanian thing, and they're gonna have people say, "Oh gosh, you guys shouldn't do that.
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"Come on, you guys are gonna need that.
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"You shouldn't do that." Or somebody's gonna say, "Oh, I have these collectibles at my house "that I've kept and I've enjoyed them for years, "but you know what I wanna do?
32:20-32:25
"I'm going to sell them and I'm going to give the money "to this thing in Romania." And there are gonna be people that say, "You shouldn't do that.
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"Those things mean a lot to you.
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You shouldn't give those to the Lord.
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And they put themselves in the place of Judas.
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What are you doing?
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You're giving up something valuable to Jesus?
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I can't believe you would do such a thing.
32:41-32:43
You want to do something beautiful for Jesus?
32:43-32:45
You're going to have to ignore Judas.
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And listen church, I know this can happen innocently.
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It can happen innocently.
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I'm not trying to be harsh.
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Because I know it can happen innocently.
32:56-32:57
You show up to small group.
32:58-33:00
"Hey, did you hear about this Romania thing?
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You know what our family's thinking about doing?
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Our family's thinking about selling this thing and giving the money." And the small groups, "Oh, you don't make very much money.
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You should hang on to that.
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And maybe you should take care of yourself first.
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And you're going to have people, even maybe with sincere motives, trying to talk you out of it." Or maybe it's not your small group.
33:22-33:23
Maybe it's mom and dad.
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You're like, "Mom, dad, our church is doing this thing.
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and you know what I'm thinking about doing?
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I'm thinking about selling off this stuff and giving the money for this mission work and your parents.
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Well, you know what dear?
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Maybe at some other stage in your life you'd be better equipped to handle something like that, but you don't make very much money.
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Maybe you should hold onto that for a few more years.
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And I'm just telling you, when you try to talk somebody out of doing something huge for Jesus, You're putting yourself in the place of Judas.
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Nobody wants to be Judas.
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'Cause here's the thing, nothing given to Jesus is wasted.
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Nothing given to Jesus is wasted.
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Do you think Mary in the aftermath, do you think Mary sat at home going, man, I wish I hadn't done that.
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Man, I miss my perfume.
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Do you think she thought that?
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I don't think she thought that for a second.
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Because worship is never too lavish.
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Do you think God's in heaven saying, "You know what?
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Those people were just giving too much.
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Those people were giving so much.
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You know what?
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That's just a little too good for my son.
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They need to calm it down.
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I can't possibly repay them for their goodness." Do you think God's in heaven saying that?
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Nothing given to Jesus is wasted.
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Nothing given to Jesus is wasted.
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A friend of mine, a couple weeks ago, he's talking about this family in need and he was talking about giving this family in need a big gift to try to help them out.
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He says, "What do you think about that?" I said, "I think you should do it." And I said, "I hope that you do do it." And it's my sincere hope for this guy that he doesn't have other people come alongside and try to talk him out.
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Because he's doing this, he's giving this gift in the name of the Lord.
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Like do it.
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Do it.
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Nothing given to Jesus is wasted.
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You want to step out in faith?
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You want to trust what God has said concerning giving?
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We talked about it all last month.
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Remember, I love to give.
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I give and God gives back to me.
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to trust God to keep His Word about that?
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Well, if you're going to do that, you need to ignore Judas.
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Ignore Judas.
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Number three, seize the opportunity.
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Seize the opportunity.
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Verse 7, Jesus said, "You always have the poor with you." I didn't realize this until my studies this week, but that was actually an Old Testament quote.
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Did you know that?
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I bet you knew that.
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Deuteronomy 15.11 says that.
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Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 15, 11, to say you're always gonna have the poor with you.
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Jesus said, "Whenever you want, you can do good for them, "but you will not always have me." Seize the opportunity.
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And it's funny how quickly people jump onto this.
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You know, that could help the poor here.
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You're talking about this Romania thing?
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I promise you there are gonna be people that say, "Oh, we're talking about like helping people in Romania.
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"Do you know we have people here in the Pittsburgh area "that need help?" And my question is, when was the last time you helped them?
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We have hungry people in Pittsburgh, when was the last time you helped those people?
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And look, it's not one or the other, right?
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Jesus made that clear, right?
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Everybody saw that.
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Jesus wasn't like, forget the poor.
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Jesus said, "You always have opportunity "to minister to the poor." That's an always thing.
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That's expected.
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And we should always be feeding the poor.
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That's why we're doing these outreach things, and Ryan Stroop's getting us involved with this living ministry, and Thompson's got us involved in sending those action packs, and we should always be doing this stuff.
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It's just funny how people jump in with, that could go to the poor here.
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Yes, we take care of the poor here, but that doesn't mean that we don't seize the opportunity to give sacrificially at times.
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opportunities for special, lavish, extravagant worship they don't come by every day.
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Like this Romania thing, this isn't an opportunity that's going to come by every day.
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We're committed to three months, and then I don't know what's going to happen after that, but we committed to three months.
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We're going to take an offering for three months to try to get this thing going.
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Is there going to be a longer sustained relationship after that?
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I hope so, but I honestly, I don't know.
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And you can talk more to one of our elders.
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talked about this in our elder meetings, and we said we made a three month commitment.
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We wanna give to this and see if we can sustain in our church a longer term relationship.
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But I can't promise you that.
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But here's what I can promise you.
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We have an opportunity right now.
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You have an opportunity right now.
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Mary saw her opportunity, Mary saw her chance, and she said, "I'm not gonna miss this.
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"I'm not going to look back.
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"I'm not going to look at this alabaster flask on my shelf, I'm not going to sit and look at this thing next week and say, "I thought about dumping that on Jesus and I didn't. I thought about dumping that on Jesus and I didn't." She's like, "I'm not going to miss this chance." Boom, right in the middle of the party, she does it.
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Same for you. I don't want you to look back in June, July, August like, "Oh man, you know what, I wish, you know, I had this, God kind of put it on my heart to take this big step of sacrificial giving for this Romanian mission, and I wish I would have done it, and I didn't do it.
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I missed a chance.
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I really wish I'd been part of that.
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I really wish that I...
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Seize the opportunity.
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If God calls you to give sacrificially, do it.
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Break the flask.
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No regrets.
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I'm dumping this, and I'm enjoying the amazing opportunity to worship right now, and this is an exercise in my faith, and I don't know when I'm going to get another chance, but But I do know this, I'm getting one now.
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Seize the opportunity.
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And finally, do what you can.
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Let me rephrase that.
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Do what you can.
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Look at verse 8 again.
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I love this phrase.
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Do not miss this.
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We saw this in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.
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Look at verse 8, Jesus said, "She has done what she could." She has done what she could.
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Mary made a very common act, this anointing, she made a very common act.
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An act of worship.
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And then Jesus said, "She has anointed My body beforehand for burial." That phrase always intrigued me.
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Do you think Mary knew what she was doing?
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Do you think when Mary took that bottle of perfume to Jesus, she was thinking in her mind, "I'm going to anoint Jesus for burial today." Do you think she knew The significance of what she was doing?
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Did she know that this was more than a gesture of kindness?
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That this was actually anointing for burial?
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I've thought about that a lot this week.
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My conclusion is, she must have believed Jesus when Jesus said He was going to die.
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She must have believed that.
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All the times Jesus said, "I'm going to Jerusalem. I'm going to die.
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I'm going to die." It seems to me that Mary did know, which is why she realized that this is my chance to do something extravagant.
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It seems that the time is near.
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Jesus has been talking about this.
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It seems like the time's ticking down.
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Now's my chance to do something completely out of the ordinary.
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Look at this phrase.
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Jesus said she has done what she could.
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She has done what she could.
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And church, I want to leave this with you.
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Just like when we talked about giving, Remember the very first sermon.
41:25-41:26
You have something to give.
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You might not have as much as the next guy, and you might have more than the guy after that, but you have something.
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In the same way, you have something that you can do.
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You have something that you can do.
41:40-41:43
I'll be honest with you, I never wanted to be a preacher.
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Ever wanted to be a preacher.
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I want to be a worship leader.
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Because worship leaders are cool.
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And worship leaders get to stand up here and lead a congregation in passionate worship of Jesus Christ.
42:01-42:03
Worship leaders are cool.
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And I wish I could be a worship leader.
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But I can't sing or play the guitar, and those are two things on the top of the list of job requirements.
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I can't do that.
42:18-42:20
But you know something I can do?
42:20-42:29
I can get fired up about what God says in His Word, and I can share with you, like, "Hey, check this out, check out what God's Word says." And let's get fired up about that.
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That's something that I can do.
42:31-42:37
You might be sitting there saying, "Well, you know, I can't lead worship, "and I can't preach a sermon." And the point is, you can do something, right?
42:38-42:39
You can do something.
42:40-42:52
I was talking with Darla Berry this morning about, you know, she works with the crisis center, and there's new laws coming out concerning regulations for child abuse, things like that.
42:52-42:55
And we have background checks done on everybody that works with kids.
42:55-43:03
And she said, "Well, there's some new regulations "that come out, do you think that's something "that I can share with people that work with kids?" And you see, that's a perfect example.
43:04-43:06
She's doing what she can.
43:06-43:11
Darla's like, "Okay, well, I'm in this field "and I see this possible need in the church.
43:12-43:15
"I can do that, I can do that.
43:16-43:20
"The question is, what can you do?" What can you do?
43:22-43:27
Like, well you know what, I might not be able to drive the trailer, but I can make phone calls.
43:27-43:30
Great, we need people to follow it up with all the time.
43:30-43:30
Can you do that?
43:31-43:32
I can bake.
43:33-43:38
Wouldn't it be nice if we had a family visit the church and you showed up at their house with something that you baked for them?
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I can't do much, but I can visit with people who are hurting.
43:44-43:48
There's no shortage of people who are hurting that would appreciate somebody sitting down and talk with them.
43:48-43:50
You have something to give.
43:50-43:52
You have something that you can do.
43:53-43:55
Jesus said she's done what she could.
43:56-43:57
How about you?
43:57-43:58
Can Jesus rightly say that of you?
44:00-44:02
You know the lavish worship that he's doing?
44:02-44:03
He's just doing what he does.
44:04-44:06
How can you use your giftedness to serve Christ?
44:07-44:09
God doesn't expect me to do what someone else is doing.
44:11-44:12
And that is so freeing.
44:13-44:16
I know that I'm not gonna show up in heaven and God say, you know what, Jeff?
44:16-44:18
I just really wanted you to be a worship leader.
44:19-44:23
Like, I didn't have the tools for that.
44:23-44:24
That's not the case.
44:24-44:27
If God wanted me to have the tools for that, do you think I'd be a worship leader?
44:27-44:28
Of course I would.
44:31-44:33
He's just like, Jeff, I just want you to do what you can.
44:35-44:36
Like Jesus said to Mary, she did what she could.
44:38-44:47
Verse nine, Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, "wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, What she has done will be told in memory of her.
44:49-44:58
You know that right now, February 1st, 2015, as you are sitting in church, you are watching prophecy being fulfilled in front of your eyes.
44:58-45:05
Okay, so all the people that didn't come out today because there was a couple of snowflakes, next week when you see them, here's what I want you to tell them.
45:05-45:11
And they're like, "What happened in church last week?" I want you to say, "We saw prophecy fulfilled right before our eyes, right in church.
45:12-45:17
The Word of God actually - a prophecy transpired as we were sitting there.
45:19-45:20
And what is the prophecy?
45:21-45:26
Jesus said when somebody proclaims the Gospel, this woman is going to be remembered.
45:26-45:29
This act specifically is going to be remembered.
45:31-45:32
She did a beautiful thing.
45:33-45:34
And you can too.
45:35-45:41
How can I do a beautiful thing unto Jesus make Mary give sacrificially.
45:42-45:43
Ignore Judas.
45:44-45:45
Seize an opportunity.
45:47-45:48
Do what you can.
45:49-45:49
Let's pray.
45:50-45:55
Father in Heaven, it is a beautiful thing that Mary had done for You.
45:57-46:01
Father, we rejoice at the opportunities that You give us to give sacrificially.
46:03-46:06
You have given us so much and You have blessed us with so much.
46:09-46:15
This is a joy for me to be serving alongside people who get it.
46:16-46:19
People who, like last week, talking about the car accident.
46:19-46:21
People who were offering me cars.
46:23-46:23
Why?
46:24-46:26
It was in the name of the Lord.
46:27-46:39
People who are using the giftedness and the resources that you have entrusted them with and bringing it to the church to say, How can I use this to glorify Jesus Christ?
46:41-46:43
Father, I thank You for that.
46:43-46:53
And I just ask that You would continue to stir in us a spirit of generosity as we, making these plans over these next three months to take offerings for this mission in Romania.
46:53-46:58
Father, put it on our hearts to emulate Mary.
46:59-47:01
To say this is for Jesus.
47:01-47:03
This isn't for Harvest Pittsburgh North.
47:04-47:08
This isn't for a harvest in Romania.
47:09-47:11
This isn't for a training center.
47:11-47:13
At the end of the day, this is for Jesus.
47:16-47:25
You've given us a very concrete opportunity to put Your Word into practice, and I pray, Father, You would find us faithful in doing so.
47:26-47:28
Again, Father, we thank You.
47:28-47:30
We praise You in the glorious name of Your Son.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 14:1-9
Do you think Mary knew that she was "anointing Jesus for burial" as she was committing the act, or do you think Jesus ascribed that meaning to what she thought was just hospitality? Explain your position and reason.
The Bible calls us to be good stewards, but the Bible also calls us to give lavishly by faith. How do you reconcile these two teachings? How do you know when to use stewardship principles and when to take a step of faith and give extravagantly?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.
