God is in Control! Even if it Doesn’t Look Like It

God is in Control:

1. Even when EVIL seems to win. (Mk 14:43-47)



2. Even when CIRCUMSTANCES look chaotic. (Mk 14:47-52)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:06

  Thank you for watching with us for our snow day makeup as we're walking through the gospel of Mark.

  00:06-00:09

  Jesus on tour at Harvest Bible Chapel.

  00:09-00:15

  We are studying that Jesus Christ is indeed the Lord and the Lamb and the life.

  00:16-00:21

  And this message comes from the gospel of Mark chapter 14 verse 43.

  00:22-00:26

  If you want to turn there, I have something here that means a lot to me.

  00:26-00:29

  Actually, this is the television remote.

  00:30-00:33

  And this thing means so much to me.

  00:33-00:36

  How could you tell how much this thing means to me?

  00:36-00:43

  Well, all you need to do is watch me panic when the Pittsburgh Penguins are coming on TV and I can't find this.

  00:43-00:45

  Then you see how much this thing means to me.

  00:45-00:49

  It's so much more than plastic and batteries.

  00:50-00:56

  This thing gives me and probably you, it gives us a sense of control.

  00:57-01:07

  And even if I'm just sitting down watching TV, and even if I don't really care what's on, I'm just relaxing, I wanna have this thing close to me.

  01:07-01:11

  I just wanna have it near and just gives me that sense of control.

  01:11-01:18

  But I've come to realize that I have very little control over things in my life.

  01:18-01:23

  You know, finances need a little more and I don't know where it's coming from.

  01:23-01:25

  and I can't control my bank account.

  01:26-01:27

  And what about relationships?

  01:28-01:29

  You know, we just need them to understand.

  01:29-01:31

  We just need them to see things our way.

  01:31-01:33

  And I can't control their mind.

  01:34-01:35

  What about health?

  01:36-01:44

  You know, I just need this illness to go away or I just need my child's illness to go away and I can't control the problem in the body.

  01:44-01:52

  Further I go, the more I realize that I actually do have very little control over what happens in my life.

  01:52-02:01

  And church people, we go to church on Sunday and we believe that God is sovereign.

  02:02-02:04

  That word sovereign means that He solely reigns.

  02:04-02:09

  We believe that and we preach it and we teach it and we sing about it.

  02:10-02:13

  And we talk about it in our small groups.

  02:14-02:21

  And to think that God is sovereign and that He's in control over everything, it seems true on Sunday.

  02:22-02:26

  But it doesn't look like it on Monday a lot of times.

  02:27-02:34

  And we're going to turn here to a passage in Scripture that is probably the most chaotic passage in the Bible.

  02:35-02:36

  It's Jesus' arrest.

  02:36-02:37

  So do you have your Bibles?

  02:38-02:39

  Read along with me here.

  02:39-02:42

  We're in Mark chapter 14 and verse 43.

  02:43-03:02

  It says, "And immediately while he was still speaking," that's Jesus, "while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd, with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.

  03:03-03:08

  Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, 'The one I will kiss is the man.

  03:09-03:16

  Seize him and lead him away under guard.'" So what was up with this sign?

  03:16-03:19

  Well, this would have been in the middle of the night.

  03:20-03:22

  You know, Jesus would have looked just like any other Jewish man.

  03:23-03:30

  And trying to find a Jewish man in the dark near Jerusalem was going to be tough, unless it was somebody that really knew Jesus.

  03:31-03:33

  And they didn't want to grab the wrong guy.

  03:33-03:36

  So Judas said, I'll lead you right to him.

  03:36-03:39

  In fact, I'll kiss the guy that you need to grab.

  03:40-04:13

  It says, verse 45, "And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, 'Rabbi!' him and they laid hands on him and seized him but one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear okay we know from John chapter 18 that was Peter that was doing the sword swinging there and he cut off the ear of a Malchus who was as Mark tells us here the servant of the high priest.

  04:15-04:22

  And Jesus said to them, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me?

  04:23-04:30

  Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, but you did not seize me.

  04:31-04:33

  But let the scriptures be fulfilled.

  04:35-04:39

  And they all left him and fled.

  04:40-04:44

  And a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body.

  04:45-04:46

  And they seized him.

  04:47-04:55

  He left the linen cloth and ran away naked." Yeah, those last two verses, did you know those were in the Bible?

  04:57-04:58

  What's going on there?

  04:58-05:08

  This guy comes out, apparently he was awoken from the noise of the crowd coming through to arrest Jesus, and he just kind of wraps his sheet around himself.

  05:08-05:15

  And in the chaos, somebody grabs him, but he takes off running, and they're left holding his sheet.

  05:16-05:17

  He's left running in the buff.

  05:19-08:15

  So all of these things, from our point of view, when we read this passage, look, if you just put yourself in this scene and kind of detach yourself from what you know is coming, imagine being one of the disciples, and you're there, and you're watching all of these things take place. This looks completely out of control, but I want you to notice what Jesus says about this in verse 49. Look again, and this should be underlined in your Bible. Jesus said, "But let the Scriptures be fulfilled." In other words, this is all happening according to God's plan and under God's watch. So there's hope for us in this passage. If you're taking notes, I want you to jot a couple of things down. Word of encouragement for you today, and that is this, God is in control. Just two points in this sermon quickly. Number one, God is in control even when evil seems to win. We see that in the first part of the passage verses 43 through 47. There's just evil to the brim in this passage. We have the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, you know, these religious leaders basically went and got a group of security guards and got the army to come and grab Jesus. And then you have Judas. I mean Judas was a man for three years followed Jesus around and he he saw it all and he heard it all and he experienced it all and he got the t-shirt and he sells out Jesus for a handful of coins. You know sometimes it looks like evil is winning. We are people who live in a sinful world and we are surrounded by sinful people and these sinful people do sinful things and a lot of times sinful people do sinful things to you. When gossip at work hurts your reputation, when a wife is hit or a child is neglected. I'm sure you've been following the reports of ISIS killing Christians in the name of Islam, beheading people just because they would align themselves with Jesus Christ. Sometimes it seems that evil is winning and you know we can look at our own circumstances and evil done to us and we can turn on the news and see the evil that's done on a global scale and we've all been there. I've been there to say God how can you just sit by and let these things happen? But you know if there was ever any time in history that that question seemed appropriate it's in the passage that we just read.

  08:17-09:44

  This was evil's best shot at Jesus and Jesus didn't despair. I want you to write that down. Jesus didn't despair because he knew my father is in control. And if God is in control of these crazy circumstances that we just read in God's Word, and he was, we can rest assured that he is sovereign over the evil that's being done to us. Evil is not going to ultimately triumph. Evil is nothing more than a pawn that God is going to use to make you into the person that he's called you to be. So like Jesus in the midst of evil coming upon you can you stand with Jesus and say I'm not going to despair because I know that God is in control. The second point is this God is in control first of all when evil seems to win but second of all God is in control even when circumstances look chaotic. You know, verse 43 tells us that a crowd comes. How many people were in this group of the temple guards, the Roman guards, how many people there are estimations that there could have been hundreds, maybe even upwards of a thousand people that came. All these people came to arrest who? Jesus Christ.

  09:46-09:50

  You know, here we have a scene that it's dark because it's the middle of the night.

  09:50-09:58

  Peter goes all clumsy Zorro on the high priest's administrative assistant and tries to cut his head off and ends up cutting his ear off.

  09:58-10:01

  I think Peter didn't mean to cut his ear off.

  10:01-10:09

  I think that was-- I think he missed his intended target and actually ended up cutting the man's ear off.

  10:09-10:17

  So you have all of that going on and then you have this naked guy running around like it's some crazy episode of cops.

  10:19-10:24

  And Jesus just simply says to them, "You armed yourselves to come after me?

  10:25-10:52

  I was standing right beside you, teaching all week in the temple." But he said again, "Let the scripture be fulfilled." In the midst of the circumstances looking chaotic, Jesus didn't panic because he said, "My father is in control." From our point of view, a lot of times, our circumstances do look chaotic.

  10:52-11:00

  From our point of view, it looks like we are losing control of our lives or the circumstances around our lives or around our family's lives.

  11:02-11:08

  We need to see our circumstances from God's point of view, just as Jesus did in this passage.

  11:09-11:14

  God used all of this to take Jesus to the cross to purchase our redemption.

  11:14-11:22

  And like Jesus, we can embrace the promises of God's Word, and we can embrace the God who keeps these promises.

  11:23-11:33

  And some might say, "Well, I hear what you're saying, but Jesus had direct prophecies about him that applied." And I want to encourage you today that God has a Word for you too.

  11:35-11:40

  And he has many words to encourage you in this area, but one in particular I want you to meditate on.

  11:41-11:54

  Romans 8.28 says, "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good." All things work together for good.

  11:55-11:56

  But what about when people mistreat me?

  11:57-11:59

  Does that fall under the category of all things?

  12:01-12:08

  What about when everything seems out of control with my finances and my relationships and health issues?

  12:08-12:10

  What if all of those things seem out of control?

  12:11-12:15

  Well, do those things fall under the category of all things?

  12:16-12:17

  They certainly do.

  12:18-12:29

  And God has given a promise to you that He is going to bless you through those things that He's taking you through, through those circumstances that He's allowing in your life.

  12:30-12:37

  We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

  12:38-12:46

  So when life seems out of control, you can rest assured knowing God is always near the remote.

  12:47-12:50

  Thank you so much for watching tonight, and you are loved.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 14:43-52

1. How did Jesus keep from panicking in the midst of betrayal, arrest, and violence? What principles from this can you use to apply to your life when it gets chaotic?
    

2. Is God sovereign over evil? Why does God allow evil to harm His people? How can God be sovereign, be all good, AND allow evil to occur? 

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another.

Gethsemane: Thy Will Be Done

Review:


From Not Praying Like the Disciples to Praying Like Jesus...

1. I Fail to Pray Because...
   
   
   1. I fail to make it my PRIORITY . (Mk 14:34)
   
   
   2. I fail to recognize its POWER . (Mk 14:38)
   
   
   3. I fail to overcome my WEAKNESS . (Mk 14:38)
   
   
2. What Drives Me to Prayer (Mk 14:36)
   
   
   1. I need God's PRESENCE .
   
   
   2. I need God to MOVE .
   
   
   3. I need God's PEACE .

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:02

  Open up your Bibles with me please.

  00:03-00:06

  The Gospel according to Mark in chapter 14.

  00:08-00:14

  If you've been with us through this series, back in the fall we've been talking about Jesus is the Lord.

  00:15-00:27

  And this journey started in Mark chapter 11 as Jesus rode into Jerusalem to announce to everyone, "Yes, I am fulfilling Scripture because I am the Messiah." We saw Jesus cleanse the temple.

  00:28-00:32

  And Jesus' authority challenged over and over and over.

  00:32-00:36

  And Jesus putting down all the challengers with His authority.

  00:37-00:42

  And we saw in Mark 13, Jesus teaching on the end times.

  00:43-00:46

  And that all falls under one heading in the fall.

  00:46-00:47

  Jesus is the Lord.

  00:47-00:49

  The question is, is He your Lord?

  00:50-00:53

  Is Jesus the authority in your life?

  00:55-01:00

  Now, we're in Act 2 in this series on Mark.

  01:00-01:02

  Jesus is the Lamb.

  01:04-01:14

  And as we've gone through Mark 14, we've seen the plot against Jesus.

  01:15-01:23

  The chief priests and the scribes, the Sanhedrin, upset especially over the temple incident, wanted rid of Jesus.

  01:25-01:29

  Jesus anointed by Mary, the sister of Lazarus.

  01:31-01:38

  We talked a couple of weeks ago about the betrayal from Judas and the Last Supper.

  01:38-01:55

  Jesus taking the Passover meal that they came to celebrate and fulfilling it, giving it new meaning in the Lord's Supper, remembering His body and blood that was about to be laid down that was about to be shed for the forgiveness of sins.

  01:57-01:58

  That takes us to our passage today.

  01:59-02:06

  Our passage today actually in this last week of Jesus' earthly ministry takes us to, this is Friday morning, ok?

  02:06-02:10

  This is middle of the night, Friday morning.

  02:11-02:13

  We'll pick up in verse 32.

  02:14-02:21

  It says, "And they went to a place called Gethsemane." And that just means olive press, okay?

  02:22-02:27

  It was a garden just outside of Jerusalem where they pressed olives, and that's what it was called.

  02:29-02:35

  It was a place that Jesus and His disciples went to frequently, Scripture tells us.

  02:36-02:44

  And He said to His disciples, "Sit here while I pray." So there would have been eleven at this point.

  02:44-02:50

  Remember Judas was preparing to sell them out to cash in.

  02:51-03:00

  So he said to the eleventh, "Sit here while I pray." And he took with him three of those, Peter, James, and John.

  03:02-03:07

  And began to be greatly distressed and troubled.

  03:10-03:12

  I believe that's why Jesus took Peter, James, and John.

  03:12-03:15

  Certainly, He wanted to give them an example in prayer.

  03:16-03:20

  But the heaviness we're going to talk about here in a moment, the heaviness of what was about to happen.

  03:23-03:26

  In those hard times, don't you want your closest around you?

  03:27-03:30

  To be praying with you and praying for you and to encourage you.

  03:32-03:34

  I think that's what was going on here with Peter, James, and John.

  03:35-03:40

  and he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful.

  03:42-03:58

  Even to death, remain here and watch." Going a little further, he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.

  03:58-03:59

  What's the hour?

  04:00-04:02

  Jesus talked over and over in His ministry.

  04:02-04:03

  The hour. I've come for this hour.

  04:04-04:08

  The hour refers to this time on the cross.

  04:08-04:11

  This time that was coming when He was going to lay down His life as a sacrifice.

  04:13-04:14

  He prayed that that might pass.

  04:14-04:19

  Look at verse 36, "And He said, 'Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.

  04:21-04:33

  Remove this cup from Me, yet not what I will, but what You will.' And he came and found them sleeping, the disciples.

  04:34-04:39

  And he said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep?

  04:41-04:43

  Could you not watch one hour?

  04:44-04:46

  Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

  04:48-04:56

  The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words.

  04:57-05:03

  And he said in verse 36, "And again he came and found them sleeping.

  05:05-05:10

  Their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him.

  05:12-05:17

  And he came the third time and said to them, 'Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?

  05:18-05:19

  It is enough.

  05:21-05:23

  The hour has come.

  05:25-05:30

  The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

  05:32-05:33

  "Rise, let us be going.

  05:36-05:53

  See my betrayer is at hand." Now in verse 36, we talked about the hour, but in verse 36 Jesus said during His prayer, Remove this cup from me.

  05:53-05:56

  And I need to explain to you what the cup is.

  05:56-05:57

  What in the world is the cup?

  05:57-05:58

  Remove this cup from me.

  06:00-06:02

  This is an image used throughout the Old Testament.

  06:02-06:03

  You see it in Psalms.

  06:03-06:04

  You see it in Isaiah.

  06:04-06:05

  You see it in Jeremiah.

  06:06-06:09

  The cup refers to the cup of God's wrath.

  06:11-06:19

  It's the personification of God's fury, His wrath, His anger, of his hatred over sin.

  06:23-06:26

  And the Old Testament is depicted as a cup of wine.

  06:29-06:32

  God's wrath ready to be poured out.

  06:34-06:43

  So I want you to understand that when Jesus was praying, when Jesus was agonizing in the garden, He wasn't agonizing over the physical pain that was coming.

  06:43-06:50

  And listen, the physical pain beyond anything that any of us can fathom.

  06:51-07:02

  To be nailed to a cross and hung in public shame to die a slow, painful death is physical pain beyond anything that I can relate to.

  07:04-07:10

  But you have to understand that it wasn't the physical pain that Jesus was all distressed over.

  07:11-07:14

  The thing that Jesus was sorrowful over, it was not the physical pain.

  07:15-07:21

  What Jesus was agonizing over in prayer in the garden was the cup.

  07:24-07:25

  It's very clear in the text.

  07:26-07:28

  Let this cup pass from me.

  07:28-07:29

  What do you mean?

  07:29-07:36

  When Jesus was on the cross, the Bible says that He literally became sin.

  07:39-07:42

  2 Corinthians 5, what is it, 21.

  07:43-07:46

  God took Him who knew no sin to become sin.

  07:46-07:54

  Jesus, when He was on the cross, because He is the Lamb of God, He became sin when He was on the cross.

  07:55-08:00

  And when He became sin, God was pouring His wrath on His Son.

  08:02-08:10

  Every wrong, sinful, selfish, stupid, rebellious thing that you've ever done.

  08:12-08:22

  Every sin, every wicked act, thought, deed that I've ever committed, the sin of the world was put on Jesus Christ.

  08:24-08:35

  And as the sin of the world was put on Jesus Christ, God was pouring His wrath on sin by pouring His wrath on His Son.

  08:37-08:56

  So this is God the Son who knew nothing but perfect fellowship with the Father every second of His existence for a time was going to be hanging on a cross bearing the full weight of God's wrath on the sin of the world.

  08:59-09:03

  So do you understand why Jesus was so distressed here?

  09:03-09:07

  Do you understand why Jesus was on His face crying out?

  09:09-09:11

  He didn't want this fellowship broken.

  09:11-09:16

  He didn't want to experience the wrath of his Father.

  09:18-09:20

  That's the cup that he was praying would pass.

  09:22-09:26

  It's obvious in our text that this passage is about prayer.

  09:28-09:29

  And it's obvious from the text.

  09:29-09:30

  You saw it, right?

  09:30-09:32

  You see two examples of prayer.

  09:32-09:36

  You see the example of the disciples not praying.

  09:37-09:42

  You see the example of Jesus praying, and just very simply, that's what we're going to look at this morning.

  09:42-09:51

  If you're taking notes, from not praying like the disciples to praying like Jesus, first of all, let's look at the negative example of the disciples from the text.

  09:52-09:53

  Because let's be honest, church.

  09:56-09:59

  Prayer's that thing that we have to keep going back to revisit.

  09:59-10:03

  Prayer's the third pillar of our church, believing firmly in the power of prayer.

  10:04-10:07

  But let's be honest, that seems to be the thing that we have to go back and tighten up.

  10:07-10:15

  It's that thing we have to go back and revisit to say, you know what, I need to step up my prayer.

  10:17-10:18

  And we're just like the disciples.

  10:19-10:20

  I jot these things down.

  10:20-10:24

  First of all, I fail to pray because number one, I fail to make it my priority.

  10:25-10:27

  I fail to make it my priority.

  10:28-10:36

  Jesus gave His disciples - all of them, but even specifically the three when you look at the other Gospel accounts, Jesus told them to watch and pray.

  10:37-10:38

  Watch and pray.

  10:40-10:42

  And you would have thought that they would have kept each other on it, right?

  10:42-10:43

  I mean, there's three of them.

  10:44-10:52

  And Jesus said, "Stay here and pray." Don't you think that like, one starts nodding off and like, "Hey, hey, wake up, come on, come on, come on.

  10:52-10:54

  "I know you're tired, come on, wake up." Jesus wants us to pray.

  10:55-11:01

  You would have thought that they'd be watching each other's backs, but quite honestly, they just failed to make it a priority.

  11:02-11:04

  That's the popular saying today.

  11:04-11:06

  You had one job.

  11:06-11:06

  Have you heard that?

  11:07-11:08

  You had one job.

  11:08-11:12

  You see pictures on the internet of somebody with an epic fail.

  11:12-11:13

  And it's like, you had one job.

  11:14-11:15

  And I was thinking about that this week.

  11:16-11:21

  Jesus said, "Pray." And that was all we told them to do.

  11:21-11:24

  And they didn't.

  11:25-11:27

  How many times do we need to pray?

  11:27-11:31

  Other people need us to pray, and we just didn't make it a priority.

  11:31-11:44

  And we have time for social media and TV and sports, and we get to the end of the day and say, "Oh, I really didn't have time to pray today." Like to remind you that nothing important in life happens by accident.

  11:46-11:48

  Nothing important in life happens by accident.

  11:48-11:50

  You don't say, "I hope my checkbook gets balanced today.

  11:50-11:52

  I hope I exercise today.

  11:53-11:56

  I hope I get to work today." That stuff doesn't happen by accident.

  11:56-11:57

  You have to be intentional.

  11:57-11:58

  And it's the same with prayer.

  11:59-12:01

  "Oh, I hope I pray today." It's not going to happen by accident.

  12:01-12:03

  You have to be intentional.

  12:04-12:06

  And for it to be intentional, it has to be a priority.

  12:07-12:08

  Has to be a priority.

  12:09-12:11

  Number two, I fail to recognize its power.

  12:12-12:14

  I fail to recognize its power.

  12:15-12:23

  Jesus said in verse 38, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation." I just jotted this down in my notes.

  12:23-12:24

  Prayer is preventative.

  12:25-12:28

  Was it an ounce of prevention, pound of cure?

  12:28-12:29

  That kind of thing is happening here.

  12:30-12:31

  Prayer is preventative.

  12:32-12:36

  Specifically the Bible says that prayer is preventative when it comes to falling into temptation.

  12:39-12:40

  Prayer is preventative.

  12:40-12:44

  It has power to keep us from temptation.

  12:45-12:47

  Jesus talked about that in the Lord's Prayer, right?

  12:47-12:48

  Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

  12:48-12:51

  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

  12:52-12:53

  What's the next line?

  12:54-12:56

  Lead us not into temptation.

  12:57-12:59

  So this is something that Jesus taught prior.

  13:00-13:02

  Pray, lead us not into temptation.

  13:02-13:03

  Jesus was saying the same thing here.

  13:03-13:05

  Pray that you don't fall into temptation.

  13:05-13:06

  You're like, well, hang on here.

  13:07-13:08

  Temptation for what?

  13:09-13:12

  Well, I covered this previous passage in a blog.

  13:14-13:20

  Jesus knew that they were going to be tempted to bail on Him.

  13:21-13:25

  Spoiler alert, we're going to find out that they did on a Tuesday.

  13:26-13:31

  He knew they were going to be tempted to bail, and He knew that because He knew they would fail to pray.

  13:32-13:41

  I just want to encourage you, church, that prayer has power, and the Bible is clear that prayer has power to help you avoid temptation.

  13:42-13:44

  The Bible is very clear that that's something we need to be praying.

  13:44-14:00

  "God, help me to avoid temptation." And I think if we spent more time saying at the start of the day, "Father, help me to avoid temptation," I think we'd spend a lot less time at the end of the day saying, "Father, I'm sorry that I blew it today.

  14:01-14:07

  I'm sorry that I gave in to temptation today." You believe that prayer has power?

  14:08-14:10

  The question is, do you pray like it?

  14:11-14:14

  You believe prayer has power? Well, do you pray like it has power?

  14:15-14:16

  So important for the disciples.

  14:17-14:19

  Jesus wasn't giving them busy work.

  14:21-14:22

  that they fail to recognize the power.

  14:23-14:27

  Sometimes I fail to pray because I fail to recognize the power of prayer.

  14:29-14:30

  Thirdly, I fail to overcome my weakness.

  14:31-14:33

  This is really tied into number one.

  14:36-14:42

  You saw in verse 38, I don't think Jesus was giving a hard rebuke in this passage.

  14:42-14:43

  I really don't.

  14:44-14:46

  I see Jesus being compassionate here.

  14:46-14:47

  Because you see what He said?

  14:48-14:57

  "The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." was saying, "I know you want to pray, but you're worn out." I get that.

  14:58-15:25

  He says, "I know that inwardly you have the desire, but physically you're just exhausted." I get that. So when we're talking about prayer here at church, I'm not chewing anybody out. I know we've got some prayer warriors in this church. So just to echo the Word of God, I Every single person in this room is to pray and to pray more and to pray better.

  15:25-15:27

  I know that desire is in you.

  15:29-15:31

  Sometimes we just fail to overcome weakness.

  15:33-15:34

  That was the real issue here.

  15:34-15:36

  Jesus expected them to pray.

  15:36-15:36

  Did you see it?

  15:36-15:38

  Three times he had to wake them up.

  15:39-15:40

  Let's be honest, that's pretty bad.

  15:41-15:42

  Three times.

  15:42-15:43

  Three times.

  15:43-15:47

  Did you ever get caught sleeping in class and the teacher comes over and wakes you up?

  15:47-15:50

  I didn't go back to sleep after that.

  15:51-15:52

  You know, you got my attention, sir.

  15:53-15:56

  We're talking about God of the universe walking around.

  15:56-15:57

  I had to wake them up three times.

  15:59-15:59

  Come on.

  16:00-16:00

  Come on.

  16:02-16:03

  They're exhausted.

  16:05-16:06

  Have you ever been that tired?

  16:08-16:10

  How many people have been that tired?

  16:11-16:12

  I have been that tired.

  16:13-16:24

  And my brother can attest, there were times when I worked at Walmart way back like 20-some years ago, we go to work like a 3 to 11 shift, and they'd be like, hey, we need the stock room rearranged.

  16:24-16:25

  Can you just stay and work overnight?

  16:26-16:31

  So I'm working like 3 to like 7 or 8 the next morning.

  16:31-16:34

  And it was like constant big heavy work all night.

  16:34-16:41

  And there were times that I'd get home, and Darren can tell you, remember, I used to come home, and I didn't even get my coat off.

  16:41-16:45

  I would walk in, go downstairs, and I wouldn't even be near my room.

  16:45-16:47

  I would just be like, I just got to sit down for a second.

  16:48-16:57

  And I was done. My brother would come and find me like, coat on, shoes on, on my face, out.

  16:59-17:01

  So I've been that tired, you have too.

  17:04-17:14

  We fail to overcome weakness. I just want to encourage you, you know, that's why it's important to pray at the beginning of the day when you're fresh and awake and alert versus at the end of the day when you're tired and just ready for bed.

  17:16-17:23

  beginning of the day, on my face with my prayer journal open, my Bible open, versus-- oh, come on.

  17:23-17:24

  Let's be honest.

  17:24-17:25

  We've been guilty of this.

  17:25-17:26

  We're in bed.

  17:26-17:28

  Like, I really didn't pray that much today.

  17:28-17:29

  And I really should pray.

  17:29-17:32

  We're like trying to do the-- I'm laying on my back in bed trying to pray.

  17:32-17:34

  Anybody else have done that?

  17:34-17:35

  And you're out.

  17:35-17:38

  I've done-- I've been guilty of that countless times.

  17:39-17:40

  Like, I really need to pray.

  17:41-17:42

  And I do pray.

  17:42-17:46

  And I didn't remember closing the prayer.

  17:47-17:50

  I remember praying, and then I remember waking up the next morning.

  17:51-17:52

  So we fail to pray.

  17:53-17:55

  We fail to make a priority like the disciples.

  17:55-17:56

  Fail to recognize its power.

  17:56-17:57

  Fail to overcome weakness.

  17:59-18:00

  So let's look at Jesus' example.

  18:00-18:02

  What drives me to prayer?

  18:02-18:04

  What drives me to prayer?

  18:05-18:06

  Number one, you see this?

  18:06-18:08

  This is all from verse 36.

  18:08-18:14

  You should have verse 36 outlined, underlined, highlighted, underlined whatever in your Bible.

  18:14-18:19

  We'll have somebody at the back door on your way out to make sure that it's underlined in your Bible.

  18:19-18:20

  Verse 36.

  18:21-18:24

  I want to read it again because the rest of this message really comes from here.

  18:24-18:26

  This was Jesus' prayer.

  18:26-18:30

  And He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.

  18:31-18:32

  Remove this cup from Me.

  18:34-18:41

  Yet not what I will, but what You will." Which drives me to prayer number one, I need God's presence.

  18:43-18:45

  I need God's presence.

  18:45-18:48

  There's intimacy with God in prayer.

  18:48-18:49

  See this in the text.

  18:50-18:53

  Jesus said, "Abba, Father." Do you know what Abba means?

  18:54-18:55

  Abba means dad.

  18:57-18:59

  There's a difference between father and dad, right?

  19:01-19:03

  Any guy can father a child.

  19:06-19:17

  a man who steps up to take care of and have that relationship with that child, to teach that child and to disciple that child and to love that child.

  19:18-19:18

  That's a dad.

  19:21-19:29

  And that's what you see Jesus - this wasn't some stale, written liturgical prayer that He cried out.

  19:29-19:32

  You see Jesus on his face going, "Dad!

  19:33-19:39

  Dad, I don't want to go through this!" Relationships there, it's not a chore, it's not a duty.

  19:42-19:43

  Jesus felt the need to pray.

  19:43-19:51

  He felt that, "I need to cry out to my dad." And if Jesus felt that, how can we feel any less, honestly?

  19:52-20:39

  If Jesus needed to pray, if Jesus put prayer on the top of his to-do list, how can we be any less. Secondly, not only do I need God's presence, but I need God to move. That's what drives me to prayer. Look at the next thing Jesus said, "All things are possible for you." All things are possible for you. It's not like just about how much you pray, but the question is, what do you pray for? Because what you pray for shows what you know about What you pray for shows what you know about God. So if you're throwing up these little, you know, "God bless grandma and amen." Hey, fantastic.

  20:42-20:45

  But I want to encourage you to dig deep into God's Word and to get to know God.

  20:46-20:50

  And when you do, that affects how you pray. Because you notice what Jesus said?

  20:50-20:52

  He goes, "Dad, here's what I know about you.

  20:54-20:55

  You can do anything.

  20:56-21:01

  All things are possible for you." What he knew about his father affected how he prayed.

  21:02-21:09

  Jesus wasn't like, "I'm not sure if you have the ability or you have the power or you have the desire." He knew his Father perfectly.

  21:11-21:20

  And as you grow in Christ, as you grow in God's Word, as you grow in prayer, you're You're going to see your theology come out in your prayers.

  21:21-21:24

  What you pray for shows what you know about God.

  21:25-21:28

  You see the, dare I say the word, desperation?

  21:31-21:33

  Even when it looks impossible.

  21:33-21:35

  I think that's why Jesus cried out here.

  21:35-21:44

  Jesus knew His purpose for coming into the world was to die on the cross for our sins and to raise from the dead to give us eternal life.

  21:44-21:47

  He knew that's why he came over and over and over and over and over.

  21:48-21:48

  He's like, "Here's why I came.

  21:49-21:49

  I came to die.

  21:49-21:50

  I came to die.

  21:50-21:51

  I came to die.

  21:51-22:00

  And now it's time." Jesus was crying out for this to pass.

  22:00-22:00

  What?

  22:02-22:03

  How could he do that?

  22:04-22:08

  This was just real, raw emotion.

  22:09-22:12

  This was God the Son crying out to His Dad.

  22:15-22:16

  Look at what He says.

  22:16-22:22

  He goes, "Well, I know that's why I came here." But He says, "All things are possible for you.

  22:24-22:26

  Sent me to this earth for this mission.

  22:29-22:32

  I don't want to experience that break in our fellowship, that pouring out of your wrath.

  22:33-22:35

  But I don't see any way around that.

  22:36-22:38

  and all things are possible for you.

  22:40-22:43

  Church, we tend to try everything else first, don't we?

  22:44-22:47

  When what we really need is for God to move on our behalf.

  22:48-22:54

  This is a great prayer that Jesus kicked it off by saying, all things are possible for you.

  22:55-22:56

  Make that part of your prayer.

  22:58-23:01

  And finally, what drives me to prayer is I need God's peace.

  23:03-23:04

  You need God's peace.

  23:06-23:11

  If you leave with nothing else today, you have to leave with this last statement from Jesus in prayer.

  23:13-23:20

  Because this will make all the difference in your own prayer life and in your own walk with Christ.

  23:21-23:22

  Look at this last phrase.

  23:22-23:35

  Jesus said, "Yet, not what I will, but what you will." Jesus had a "my will vs. God's will" thing happening.

  23:35-23:36

  Have you ever been there?

  23:38-23:38

  Have you ever been there?

  23:40-23:48

  "God, it looks like you're doing this, but I'm going to be honest with you God, I don't want this to happen." Have you ever been there?

  23:49-23:55

  I shared with you before, it was a rough season for me last September as I watched a man who was like a dad to me.

  23:56-23:57

  Comatose from a motorcycle accident.

  24:00-24:05

  praying at his bedside every day and so many times saying, "No, no, this man can't die, God.

  24:05-24:06

  You don't understand.

  24:08-24:10

  This can't happen, all right?

  24:13-24:15

  God, I know all things are possible.

  24:15-24:18

  God, I know you can get him up out of this hospital bed today.

  24:19-24:21

  You can discharge him from the hospital today.

  24:21-24:22

  God, I am crying out to you.

  24:23-24:28

  God, I don't ask for much." Okay, I do ask for a lot, but I'm asking for something else.

  24:29-24:35

  I need you to do a miracle, God, because this can't happen." And a week later, he died.

  24:38-24:54

  And I'll be honest with you, it was a struggle of a "God, my will is very strong in this." Coming to grips with the fact that obviously it was God's will that it was time to call this man home.

  24:56-25:13

  Everyone in this room room could step up to a microphone and say, "Yeah, here was the story of my own life that I cried out because..." And it just didn't seem like God answered my prayer.

  25:15-25:17

  He didn't give me what I asked for.

  25:19-25:36

  But you have to see, when you pray, you must pray with an attitude of submission to God God the Son, Jesus Christ, the Name above all names, the perfect Son of God.

  25:36-25:40

  Jesus did not get what He asked for in this prayer.

  25:41-25:45

  When He said, "Let this cup pass from Me." You understand?

  25:47-25:55

  The previous part of this prayer, when Jesus said, "Let this cup pass from Me," did God say, "Okay." He didn't.

  25:56-26:00

  But you have to see at the end of Jesus' prayer, you see the submission.

  26:00-26:12

  "God, if this is Your will for this to happen, I'm going to yield to Your will." Jesus was very specific in His prayer.

  26:14-26:21

  Jesus was praying big things as we encourage you to do often, but Jesus was submissive in His prayer.

  26:23-26:32

  Listen, church, you are going to get so sideways in your walk with Christ, when you think that God is a genie.

  26:32-26:33

  God is not a genie.

  26:34-26:34

  Okay?

  26:35-26:43

  "Well, I rubbed a lamp, now you have to give me three wishes." Okay, "I read my Bible, I did my devotions, now God, you have to do what I want you to do." God is not a genie.

  26:43-26:45

  He's not there to serve you.

  26:45-26:45

  We're here to serve Him.

  26:46-26:47

  Okay, but God's not a genie.

  26:49-26:52

  God is not obligated to give you everything that you ask for.

  26:52-26:54

  God is not a vending machine.

  26:55-27:01

  Okay, like, "B3, give me my Twix bar now, God." And God's not a vending machine.

  27:02-27:04

  God is not Amazon.com.

  27:06-27:10

  Come on God, I need this, I need this, and you have to give it to me.

  27:13-27:16

  The Bible doesn't say God's a genie, a vending machine, or an Amazon.

  27:16-27:18

  How does the Bible describe God?

  27:19-27:21

  How did Jesus just describe God?

  27:22-27:23

  God is a what?

  27:25-27:27

  Jesus just described it in the first two words of the prayer.

  27:27-27:27

  Look at it again.

  27:28-27:28

  God is a what?

  27:30-27:30

  He's a dad.

  27:32-27:34

  That's how the Bible describes God.

  27:34-27:36

  He is a dad.

  27:36-27:43

  Listen, parents, do you give your children what they ask for?

  27:46-27:46

  Sometimes.

  27:48-27:53

  But when giving what they ask for It is not the right thing.

  27:54-27:56

  Don't you want them to trust your wisdom?

  27:58-28:04

  It is the same way with God because He is a bad.

  28:07-28:09

  Does prayer move the hand of God?

  28:10-28:10

  Yes.

  28:10-28:12

  It absolutely does.

  28:13-28:19

  But prayer also trusts God to do what is best.

  28:20-28:21

  This was a great spot for an amen.

  28:23-28:29

  Prayer moves the hand of God, but prayer also trusts God to do what is best.

  28:31-28:41

  And see, the peace comes in prayer as you are reassured that God has a plan for you.

  28:42-28:46

  God has a plan to bless you and to glorify His name.

  28:49-28:55

  Are you willing to go with His plan instead of insisting on your own?

  28:58-29:02

  Where would we be today if God decided to let the cup pass from Jesus?

  29:04-29:05

  Where would we be today?

  29:06-29:06

  Hopeless.

  29:07-29:08

  That's where we'd be.

  29:08-29:09

  We'd be hopeless.

  29:10-29:14

  If God said, "Okay, we'll pass the cup." God said, "No, no, no.

  29:16-29:17

  I have this will.

  29:20-29:39

  I'm going to use you to bless the entire world." Jesus knew the importance of the preeminence of God's will, which is why Jesus said something that you need to incorporate into your prayers.

  29:41-29:43

  and not my will.

  29:46-29:48

  God, this is what I'm asking for and I know You can do it.

  29:48-29:50

  But I also know You're a dad.

  29:50-29:53

  And I also know, God, You know a lot more than I do.

  29:55-30:00

  So I'm asking for this, and if in Your grace You decide to grant this request, I want to thank You.

  30:00-30:08

  But God, if in Your wisdom You decide this is not the right thing, help me to trust You.

  30:09-30:13

  for me to yield to Your will.

  30:15-30:25

  Father in Heaven, we are sorry for the times that we act like the disciples that we know we should be praying, but we just don't.

  30:26-30:33

  And we certainly have the desire, but we let our fleshly limitations take over.

  30:35-30:43

  God, I thank You for the example of Jesus Christ, I'll be honest with you, Father, I don't understand this passage.

  30:43-30:53

  Jesus knew that's why He came, but in His humanity, He cried out to you for this cup to pass.

  30:54-30:57

  And He knew, Father, He knew that's why He yielded to your will.

  30:58-31:00

  But God, I don't have to understand it.

  31:02-31:04

  Jesus gave an example that I'm to follow.

  31:06-31:11

  I pray, Father, for me and I pray for my brothers and sisters here, that we would follow this example in prayer.

  31:12-31:14

  That it is about the relationship with our Heavenly Dad.

  31:15-31:18

  That it is about the understanding that all things are possible with You.

  31:19-31:30

  And, at the end of the day, it is a trust that Your wisdom is greater than ours.

  31:31-31:36

  That Your will being accomplished is more important than our will being accomplished.

  31:36-31:45

  So Father, as people come down to pray here in just a moment, I pray that this is a time of yielding our wills to you.

  31:46-31:48

  We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 14:32-42

1. How would you counsel someone to make prayer a priority? What practical advice would you give someone who struggles to make prayer a priority?
    

2. What’s the connection between prayerlessness and temptation? How have you seen this play out in your own life?
    

3. Why didn't Jesus get what He asked the Father for? What does this say about your "unanswered" prayers?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for prayer to be a priority, and pray against temptation.

In Remembrance: The Lord's Supper

1. The Traitor Revealed (Mk 14:10-21)


1. The traitor BARGAINS . (Mk 14:10-11)


2. The traitor DELAYED . (Mk 14:12-16)


3. The traitor CONDEMNED . (Mk 14:17-21)


2. The End of Passover / The Beginning of Communion. (Mk 14:22-25)

The Passover:
God told Israel to celebrate in remembrance... remember what?








The Fulfilled Passover:
Jesus told the church to celebrate in remembrance... remember what?

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:04

  If you have your Bibles, open them up to Mark chapter 14.

  00:06-00:07

  Mark chapter 14.

  00:09-00:13

  We're going to cover a lot of ground very quickly today.

  00:14-00:15

  And that's okay.

  00:15-00:17

  All of our messages are on the website.

  00:18-00:26

  So if we go over something quickly, I'd like to rewind and re -listen to that or study this again.

  00:26-00:32

  Go to HarvestPittsburghNorth.org and you can listen to it there.

  00:35-00:37

  But we're walking through the gospel according to Mark.

  00:37-00:53

  And last week, we were in Mark chapter 14, picking up in the first verse, we saw that the chief priests and the scribes said, "We've got to get Jesus." And their main motivation was Jesus was costing them money.

  00:53-01:05

  You remember turning the tables over in the temple and Jesus had this following, but He was anti their crooked business scheme and we've got to get rid of them.

  01:07-01:13

  But they said we don't want to kill Jesus during the feast because all of these people are here to celebrate.

  01:13-01:22

  And meanwhile, God was saying yes, we are going to sacrifice the Lamb of God during the feast because this is when The lambs are killed.

  01:23-01:28

  We saw that this last week leads up to the Passover.

  01:29-01:31

  This last week of Jesus' life leads up to the Passover.

  01:31-01:33

  The Feast of Unleavened Bread.

  01:35-01:40

  Because of our culture and geographical distance, it's easy to miss the importance of that.

  01:40-01:41

  And I was thinking about that this week.

  01:41-01:45

  To Israel, what is the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread?

  01:46-01:57

  Just imagine taking the 4th of July, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas, all into one, and celebrating those holidays over the course of a week.

  01:58-02:00

  And that's a little bit what it was like to Israel.

  02:01-02:03

  This holiday was huge.

  02:03-02:09

  And I want to encourage you to take notes because I want to give you a little bit of the background concerning the Passover.

  02:10-02:14

  We introduced it last week, and we're going to be talking about it this week.

  02:15-02:20

  And there might be some people here that say, you know what, I think I heard of it, but I'm not really sure what the Passover is about.

  02:20-02:22

  So take some notes here.

  02:22-02:34

  The Passover is a Jewish tradition created by God to remember the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage.

  02:37-03:12

  In a sense, Passover was a starting point nation of Israel. When you read your Old Testament, the book of Genesis, the book of Exodus, very long story, very short, you see that Israel, because of a famine, ended up in Egypt. And the Israelites were multiplying and the Egyptians were like, "We can't have these people multiplying so quickly because if another country comes to attack and the Israelites are like, 'We're really kind of sick of the Egyptians,' they'll team up with the other country and we'll be conquered. So the Egyptians' plan was to keep Israel as slaves. They enslaved them.

  03:13-03:16

  And the Lord sent Moses to deliver them.

  03:18-04:06

  I've got this reference on Exodus chapter 12. God was going to send the last of ten plagues on Egypt. You remember the ten plagues of Egypt? You remember that story? Shout out your favorite plague. What was your favorite plague? The frogs. Okay, how many people said that? You know what? We were talking about this in Chicago and did a similar poll and that was the first one that people think of is the frogs. Does anybody know any other one? The darkness and the, what did you say, the lice and you know, water to blood. Okay, so God sent all these plagues and why did God send these plagues? Because he didn't want Pharaoh to just say, "Okay, you can go." He wanted Pharaoh to say, "I'm gonna pack your bags and I'm gonna give you some spending money and I'm going to give you a good send off." He wanted Pharaoh to launch Israel out of Egypt.

  04:09-04:12

  Well, the 10th plague, the last plague, what was that one?

  04:12-04:13

  Bible students?

  04:14-04:16

  Right, that was the death of the firstborn.

  04:16-04:19

  God says, "Okay, here's the last plague," because Pharaoh kept changing his mind.

  04:19-04:20

  "You can go, no, you can't go.

  04:20-04:24

  You can go, no, you can't go." And he kept waffling.

  04:24-04:26

  The last plague, God says, this is it.

  04:29-04:36

  The angel of death is coming, and he is going to kill the firstborn in each household.

  04:38-04:48

  The Lord told Israel that the head of the family was to take a spotless lamb and kill it and sprinkle the blood on the doorposts of the house.

  04:50-04:56

  Then the lamb was to be roasted and eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened bread.

  04:57-04:59

  God says, here's how I want you to eat this meal.

  05:00-05:06

  He says, first of all, you have to eat with your loins girded, meaning your robes tucked into your belts.

  05:07-05:12

  You have to eat this meal with your shoes on, and you have to eat this meal with your staff in your hand.

  05:13-05:14

  Why would you eat the meal like that?

  05:16-05:18

  What that signifies is you've got to be ready to run.

  05:19-05:19

  Okay?

  05:20-05:21

  This is an act of faith.

  05:21-05:22

  Be ready to run.

  05:23-05:31

  Tuck your robe in, get your staff, have your running sandals on, because when this last plague comes, you are out of here.

  05:33-05:44

  So when the Lord came, when the angel of death passed through, if he saw the blood of a spotless lamb on the doorpost, what would he do?

  05:44-05:46

  He would pass over.

  05:47-05:51

  The firstborn child would not die in that household.

  05:51-05:58

  The Lord would see the blood and pass over, and that is where we get the name Passover.

  05:59-06:00

  Okay?

  06:01-06:07

  So God told Israel to celebrate in remembrance.

  06:09-06:10

  Look at the bottom of your outline.

  06:11-06:14

  God told Israel to celebrate in remembrance.

  06:15-06:20

  And I don't know what Bible study tools you use, but here's one I encourage you.

  06:22-06:29

  In the Old Testament, when the Lord says, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt." Do you know what I have in the margin of my Bible?

  06:29-06:32

  I draw a triangle with an arrow coming out of it.

  06:32-06:35

  The triangle represents the pyramid, which to me represents Egypt.

  06:35-06:43

  But that's just a signal for me because you're gonna find over and over and over and over and over and over and over again in the Old Testament.

  06:43-06:44

  The Lord says that, right, Derek?

  06:44-06:45

  over and over in the Old Testament.

  06:46-06:50

  God says, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt." Like, why does he keep saying that?

  06:52-06:59

  Well, this is why he reminds, and this is why he says to celebrate the Passover every year.

  06:59-07:01

  What does he want them to remember?

  07:01-07:02

  Jot these things down.

  07:02-07:03

  Number one, you were slaves.

  07:05-07:10

  Jot this down, this is gonna, we're gonna tie this back together here in a few minutes.

  07:10-07:12

  He says, "You were slaves." Remember when you were in Egypt?

  07:13-07:15

  Remember, you were slaves in Egypt.

  07:15-07:18

  You were ruled by another people.

  07:20-07:21

  And I want you to remember you were slaves.

  07:21-07:24

  Number two, I want you to remember that I delivered you by my power.

  07:26-07:28

  You were slaves and I delivered you.

  07:28-07:30

  Number two, I delivered you by my power.

  07:31-07:34

  Okay, it wasn't like Moses assembled this army.

  07:36-07:37

  You know that joke, right?

  07:38-07:50

  But the kid goes to Sunday school and he goes home and the mother says, "What'd you guys talk about?" And the kid says, "Well, we talked about how Moses got the Israelites out of Egypt." And the mother's like, "Well, how did he do it?" He says, "Well, he trained this band of mercenaries.

  07:51-07:55

  And when nightfall came, they snuck out undercover.

  07:55-08:00

  And when they came to the Red Sea, Moses called these engineers in to build this bridge.

  08:00-08:02

  And they built this bridge and they crossed the bridge.

  08:02-08:17

  And then when the Egyptians got on the bridge and chased the Israelites, Moses radioed an an airstrike and a plane flew through and shot rockets at the bridge that the Egyptians were on, blew it up and they all went into the sea.

  08:17-08:26

  And the mother says, "Is that really what your Sunday school teacher told you?" And the kid said, "No, but you'd never believe it the way she told it." So where was I?

  08:28-08:28

  Airstrike.

  08:29-08:32

  So number two, I delivered you, by my power, that was the point.

  08:33-08:35

  The way that God delivered Israel left no doubt.

  08:36-08:39

  It left no doubt that God was the one who delivered.

  08:41-08:44

  And number three, this is something God wanted Israel to remember.

  08:45-08:52

  Every year, every year, every year, if you are covered under the blood of a spotless lamb you will be saved.

  08:52-08:55

  Or you will be spared from death.

  08:56-09:00

  If you are covered under the blood of a spotless lamb, you will be saved.

  09:00-09:02

  Or you will be spared from death.

  09:02-09:03

  However you want to write that.

  09:03-09:05

  And see that's why it became a holiday.

  09:05-09:08

  It's like our holidays have symbols and traditions.

  09:09-09:10

  That was Israel's holiday.

  09:10-09:14

  Every year, every year, every generation, every generation.

  09:15-09:16

  This is what God did.

  09:16-09:19

  We were slaves and God delivered us by His power.

  09:19-09:20

  And how did He do it?

  09:20-09:28

  Well, because if you were covered under the blood of a spotless lamb, death would not show up at your house.

  09:30-09:33

  Now let's get to Mark 14 and we're going to see how this all ties together.

  09:35-09:36

  as I said just a few minutes ago.

  09:37-09:47

  Remember last week, Mary, in a display of lavish worship, took a bottle of perfume that was worth about a year's wages.

  09:47-09:49

  Okay, calculate what you make in a year.

  09:49-09:50

  That was in a bottle.

  09:51-10:01

  And Mary was like, "I'm going to pour this on Jesus." And she broke the top off and poured it on Jesus as an act of lavish worship.

  10:01-10:28

  And you remember, that Judas was like, "We could have sold that and we could have given the money to the poor." And John's like, "Yeah, he wasn't really interested in the poor. Judas was pocketing money for himself." That's why Judas was mad. When he saw the perfume pour out, he saw money pouring out of his pocket. That's why Judas was mad.

  10:30-10:35

  And I really believe that that incident for Judas was the last straw.

  10:37-10:38

  This is the last straw.

  10:39-10:42

  And the reason I say that is I want you to look at verses 10 and 11.

  10:42-10:45

  On your outline, "the traitor revealed." Here it is.

  10:45-10:49

  "The traitor revealed." Major plot turn here in our narrative.

  10:50-10:57

  "The traitor revealed," letter A, "the traitor bargains." "The traitor bargains." Look at verses 10 and 11.

  10:58-11:00

  Remember the flashback?

  11:00-11:02

  actually happened on the Saturday before.

  11:04-11:06

  So this is still part of the flashback.

  11:06-11:12

  It says, "Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them.

  11:14-11:28

  And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money." Look at this last phrase, "And he sought an opportunity to betray him." OK, still part of the flashback.

  11:28-11:30

  This happened on Saturday.

  11:31-11:38

  So Jesus was in Jerusalem all week, and your Bible tells you that Judas was looking for an opportunity.

  11:38-11:40

  First of all, it says Judas Iscariot.

  11:41-11:43

  Iscariot was not really his last name.

  11:44-11:47

  That means from Kerioth.

  11:47-11:50

  Kerioth was a city about 23 miles south of Jerusalem.

  11:52-12:01

  And after Mary dumps the expensive perfume out, And Judas rebukes her, and then Jesus rebukes Judas, remember?

  12:02-12:03

  She's done a beautiful thing.

  12:04-12:04

  Leave her alone.

  12:07-12:08

  This was it.

  12:08-12:10

  Judas was like, I'm done.

  12:12-12:16

  I'm done, but I'm not leaving empty-handed, okay?

  12:16-12:29

  I've been following Jesus around for three years because here's this promise of a kingdom, and he says he's a king, and I'm thinking if I follow the king and I get to be one of the right-hand men of the king, that I'm going to be wealthy and rich and famous.

  12:29-12:36

  And it's not happening that way when our king will let some foolish woman dump perfume out like that.

  12:37-12:38

  Okay, I'm out.

  12:39-12:44

  I'm cashing my chips in and I'm done, but I am not leaving empty handed.

  12:44-12:51

  So he goes to the chief priests, "I can get Jesus for you.

  12:53-13:00

  How much will you give me?" The Bible tells us in Matthew 26.15 that they gave him 30 pieces of silver.

  13:01-13:04

  There is so much Old Testament symbolism.

  13:04-13:06

  Exodus and Zechariah.

  13:06-13:11

  Exodus says that it was the price of a slave and just so much symbolism.

  13:12-13:17

  I'm not gonna go into today, but understand there's 30 pieces of silver were very prophetic and symbolic.

  13:18-13:21

  People debate, what kind of coins were they?

  13:21-13:23

  Were they Antiochian coins or were they Tyrian coins?

  13:24-13:27

  People guessed that at 30 pieces of silver, how much is that?

  13:27-13:32

  People guessed that that was equivalent to about four months wages.

  13:34-13:35

  I don't know.

  13:35-13:36

  I really don't know.

  13:36-13:39

  But I do know this though.

  13:40-13:41

  That's not the point.

  13:43-13:44

  The point is this fulfilled Scripture.

  13:44-13:49

  And the point is this shows where Judas' loyalties lie.

  13:51-13:52

  It says he sought an opportunity.

  13:53-13:54

  Why was he looking for an opportunity?

  13:54-14:01

  Because of all these people in town and all these Jesus fans in town, like the chief priest in the scribes, Judas was afraid of the crowds.

  14:02-14:05

  So Judas was like, "We'll find a chance.

  14:05-14:09

  There will be some opportunity when he's not in the public square.

  14:10-14:13

  He'll be close enough and available for you to grab.

  14:13-14:14

  We'll make it happen.

  14:14-14:18

  Don't worry about it." The traitor bargained.

  14:18-14:20

  Secondly, the traitor delayed.

  14:21-14:28

  "The trader delayed." back at your Bible, it says, "And on the first day of unleavened bread," do you know what that means?

  14:28-14:30

  The flashback's over, okay?

  14:30-14:33

  The previous verses and last week, that all happened Saturday.

  14:33-14:38

  Now Mark is saying, "Okay, now let's get back to Thursday." You with me on that?

  14:38-14:39

  Flashback's over.

  14:40-15:00

  He says, "On the first day of unleavened bread, "when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, "his disciples said to him, "'Where will you have us go and prepare for you "'to eat the Passover?' And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the city and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.

  15:00-15:01

  Follow him.

  15:02-15:13

  Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, 'The teacher says, 'Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.

  15:15-15:25

  There prepare for us.' And the disciples set out and went to the city and found that just as he had told them and they prepared the Passover.

  15:27-15:28

  The trader delayed.

  15:29-15:32

  Ok, what's with the tricky way of finding the room?

  15:33-15:35

  So the disciples are like, "Jesus, we're reading the Passover.

  15:35-15:39

  Why didn't Jesus just say, 'Ok, here's where you go.

  15:40-15:43

  The address is 121 High Street.

  15:44-15:49

  And it's owned by my good friend, you know, Scaly Simon's brother or whatever.

  15:50-15:51

  I remember him from last week.

  15:52-15:53

  This is the address.

  15:53-15:54

  Here, let me write this down for you.

  15:54-15:56

  Here's the address and here's the guys name.

  15:56-15:58

  Why didn't Jesus do that?

  15:59-16:02

  What's with all this secret agent stuff?

  16:03-16:12

  Quite frankly, I mean, you find the guy carrying the water and then you get a like, the teacher wants the Passover room or whatever.

  16:12-16:13

  What's up with that?

  16:14-16:16

  Well, here's what's up with that.

  16:17-16:22

  The Passover meal would have been the perfect chance for Judas.

  16:23-16:24

  And what does your Bible say?

  16:24-16:26

  Judas was looking for what?

  16:27-16:28

  He was looking for an opportunity.

  16:28-16:29

  That's what he was looking for.

  16:30-16:32

  So they're like, hey, we're going to celebrate the Passover.

  16:33-16:36

  I guarantee you Judas was like, ha ha.

  16:37-16:45

  So it'll just be like Jesus and the 12 by ourselves in a room like in Jerusalem.

  16:47-16:48

  Perfect opportunity.

  16:48-16:49

  We'll be away from the crowds.

  16:50-16:55

  And Judas was like, "Yeah, where are we going to be eating the Passover, Master?

  16:55-17:02

  I'm curious." But this meal was so important to Jesus.

  17:05-17:09

  Jesus wasn't about to jeopardize the timetable He was on.

  17:09-17:11

  How important was this meal?

  17:11-17:13

  I'll tell you how important this meal was to Jesus.

  17:13-17:14

  John 13.

  17:15-17:15

  John 14.

  17:16-17:16

  John 15.

  17:17-17:18

  John 16.

  17:19-17:32

  That whole passage of Scripture is some of the most beautiful teaching of Jesus Christ about His ministry and about discipleship and about the coming Holy Spirit and who He is and what He will do in believers.

  17:35-17:41

  That whole passage of Scripture, that whole dialogue took place during the Last Supper.

  17:41-17:46

  That whole teaching took place during the Last Supper, during this Passover meal.

  17:48-18:05

  So this way that Jesus had the disciples find the location - this way of procuring the room would have kept the location unknown to Judas so that Judas couldn't tell the chief priest and the scribes.

  18:05-18:06

  Do you get that?

  18:07-18:07

  It's brilliant.

  18:08-18:14

  Yeah, this is a way that we can all go there and meet up, but Judas has no idea where it's going to be.

  18:15-18:24

  Judas doesn't know, Judas can't tell the chief priests and the scribes, and if he can't tell them, they're not going to stop this meal because Jesus was all about this meal.

  18:24-18:34

  He says, "I've eagerly longed to have this meal with you." So you're like, okay, well, who was the man?

  18:36-18:43

  Part of the plan, I don't know the guy's name, but this man was obviously in on it.

  18:44-18:46

  Did Jesus reveal this to him supernaturally?

  18:47-18:51

  Did Jesus have something arranged with him prior to when he was in Jerusalem?

  18:52-18:54

  I don't know, but I do know this, this guy was in on it.

  18:55-19:02

  It was a pretty clever sign really, because he would have been conspicuous, but not too conspicuous.

  19:02-19:04

  Usually women carried the water.

  19:04-19:07

  Usually women are harder workers than men, honestly, right?

  19:08-19:09

  Right, amen?

  19:10-19:42

  Okay, so this would have been a really weird sight a guy to be doing manual labor, a guy to be carrying water, but it wasn't like he was walking down the street playing the trombone, okay? So it was a sign, but it was a little inconspicuous. So Jesus is like, "Just look for the guy carrying water." So the disciples were looking. You notice they didn't even use Jesus' name. They're like, "The teacher, the teacher." I think that was intentional. You know, this was kind of a covert operation.

  19:42-19:44

  They weren't like, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, water guy!

  19:46-19:54

  Jesus wants the room!" Like, they pull, "Hey, the teacher says take us to the room, you see?" Covert operation.

  19:56-19:57

  Clever.

  19:59-20:04

  Of course, if Jesus was going to plan something like this, it would be clever.

  20:06-20:08

  But Jesus, again, on an exact timetable.

  20:08-20:17

  "So this operation kept Judas from selling him out "before he could have the Passover meal." I just wrote down in my notes, aren't you glad that God's all about the timing?

  20:18-20:19

  Aren't you glad?

  20:19-20:20

  Aren't you glad that God's about the timing?

  20:20-20:21

  God's never late.

  20:22-20:23

  He's never late.

  20:23-20:25

  He sold him early, but he's never late.

  20:25-20:27

  And we see it right here in the life of Jesus.

  20:28-20:32

  You have this group of people after him and God's like, "Nope, nope, nope, nope.

  20:33-20:33

  "Not till I'm ready.

  20:34-20:40

  "Yes, I'm going to sacrifice the lamb, but it's on my timetable, pal, not yours." Love that.

  20:41-20:42

  Traitor delayed.

  20:42-20:43

  Thirdly, the traitor condemned.

  20:44-20:45

  The traitor condemned.

  20:46-20:47

  Look at verse 17.

  20:47-20:59

  It says, "When it was evening, he came with the twelve, and as they were reclining at table and eating..." This meal was several hours long, by the way, okay?

  21:01-21:07

  I know it originally started as staff, shoes, loins, right?

  21:08-21:13

  But over time, the tradition kind of changed a little bit that it was a several hours long thing.

  21:14-21:17

  And that's why it says they were reclining at the table.

  21:19-21:27

  As they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, "don't lose the impact here, okay?

  21:28-21:34

  "In your mind, imagine Thanksgiving dinner sitting down with your family, and somebody drops a bombshell like this.

  21:34-21:36

  This is kind of what was going on here.

  21:36-21:48

  So they're enjoying this huge Jewish celebration so important to their people and to their heritage and so important for Jesus to make this happen.

  21:49-21:53

  They sit down and what does Jesus say during the course of these hours?

  21:55-22:10

  Among other things, Jesus said, "Every day I say to you, one of you will betray Me." Just so there's no miscommunication, one of you, you mean somebody in Jerusalem?

  22:11-22:11

  Or what?

  22:12-22:16

  Look, He says, "One who is eating with Me." No ambiguity here.

  22:17-22:23

  Somebody sitting around this table is going to sell Me out.

  22:24-22:43

  betray me." They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, "Is it I?" They knew Jesus was a prophet and they knew that Jesus knew stuff that they didn't know.

  22:43-22:49

  So you can imagine, this was a bombshell. Me? Jesus, is it me?

  22:50-23:17

  I mean, I wouldn't think that I'd be capable of that, but you know me better than I know me. Is it me?" He said to them, "It is one of the twelve who is dipping bread into the dish with me." They would take the unleavened bread and they had this like paste that was made out of nuts and made out of fruit, and they made this like paste out of it, and that's what Jesus was talking about.

  23:18-23:30

  He says, "Somebody that's sharing this bowl with me right now." And he says, "For the Son of Man goes as it is written of Him.

  23:31-23:33

  But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

  23:34-23:38

  It would have been better for that man if he had not been born." Traitor condemned.

  23:39-23:41

  This is unspeakable betrayal.

  23:43-23:49

  I want you to think for a moment of the things that Judas would have seen in three years of walking with Jesus.

  23:49-23:51

  Just think, we've been walking through Mark, right?

  23:51-23:57

  For those of you that have been with us last year and a half or so, we started Mark 1.1.

  23:59-24:03

  I want you to think of the things that Judas would have seen Jesus do.

  24:03-24:04

  Think about that.

  24:07-24:12

  Parents bringing sick children to Jesus, and Jesus heals them.

  24:14-24:17

  People bringing their lame friend to Jesus.

  24:18-24:20

  My friend can't walk, can you do something?

  24:20-24:22

  And Jesus heals them.

  24:22-24:27

  The blind and the deaf and the people with leprosy who have been shut out.

  24:27-24:31

  Judas is watching all of this over three years.

  24:34-24:36

  Jesus logging overtime.

  24:39-24:43

  Because remember, people were constantly after him, constantly after him, constantly after him.

  24:44-24:46

  Jesus didn't turn them away, did He?

  24:49-25:01

  All of the people that Jesus healed, all of the people that Jesus drove demons out of, one guy had a legion of demons in himself by himself.

  25:03-25:05

  Think of all of that that Judas would have seen.

  25:05-25:27

  These people coming, you know, he's out of his mind, he's got a demon and Jesus speaks the demon out and the person is restored. Judas saw that. Think of the love that Judas would have seen, the compassion, the prayer.

  25:30-25:40

  Judas seeing Jesus get up very early in the morning, Mark 1.35, while it was still dark and he went to a desolate place to pray. Judas would have seen that. Jesus on his face.

  25:43-25:49

  Praying for Judas. I'm sure at times.

  25:51-26:01

  Thinking of the teaching that Judas heard over three years. I mean we have we have four Gospels but you remember what John said like the whole world couldn't contain the books that could be written about the stuff that Jesus did.

  26:03-26:11

  I'm sure this you know God gave us what he wanted us to know but think over three years, the teachings that Judas would have heard.

  26:11-26:19

  And grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace.

  26:22-26:32

  And he's willing to hand this man over to be executed for a pocket full of coins.

  26:33-26:44

  Now Jesus said in verse 21, is prophesied as it is written. This was foreknown, but Judas, notice, was still held responsible.

  26:45-27:01

  So we get into one of those issues, right? Well, did God sovereignly oversee this? Did God sovereignly use Judas? Yes, He did. Did Judas have a free will? Did Judas choose?

  27:02-27:03

  Yes, he did.

  27:04-27:12

  You're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, how does that work?" The answer is, "I don't know because I'm just Pastor Jeff." Only God knows how that stuff works.

  27:13-27:13

  Only God does.

  27:13-27:16

  God has a sovereign will, but we have free will.

  27:17-27:30

  The Bible teaches both, and the problem in the church is you have people on one side of the spectrum, and you have people on the other side of the spectrum arguing about two doctrines that are both found in the Bible.

  27:30-27:35

  Look, He is God and I am not.

  27:35-27:35

  Right.

  27:36-27:37

  He is God and I am not.

  27:38-27:40

  Okay, so Jesus made it very clear.

  27:40-27:41

  This was prophesied.

  27:43-27:47

  God knew this was coming and in His sovereignty He was going to use this.

  27:48-27:49

  But Judas still had a choice.

  27:51-27:55

  You're like, "Can you explain that?" And the answer is, "No, I can't.

  27:55-27:58

  Thanks for asking." I do know this though.

  27:59-28:02

  condemnation. Jesus said it would have been better for him if he was never born.

  28:03-28:15

  And then finally, number two, the end of Passover, beginning of communion. So our first section here obviously all about Judas and his betrayal.

  28:18-28:34

  We'll get verses 22 through 25 with me quickly. It says, "And as they were eating, he He took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them, and said, "Take, this is my body." And he took a cup.

  28:36-28:40

  When he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it.

  28:41-29:02

  And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many." "I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." So understand what's going on here.

  29:02-29:05

  Jesus took the bread, and He broke it, and He passed it out.

  29:05-29:15

  He said, "This is my body." In the Catholic Church, they teach something called transubstantiation, meaning that that bread literally turns into Jesus' flesh.

  29:15-29:16

  I don't believe that. Why?

  29:17-29:20

  That's not how the disciples would have understood that, right?

  29:20-29:24

  Jesus didn't rip off a piece of his skin or rip off his finger and say, "Here, eat this.

  29:25-29:26

  This is literally my body.

  29:27-29:29

  Eat it." Obviously, the bread was symbolic.

  29:29-29:29

  Right?

  29:29-29:30

  Everybody gets that, right?

  29:31-29:31

  The bread is symbolic.

  29:33-29:33

  Right?

  29:35-29:37

  Same with the wine.

  29:40-29:43

  You know, in Catholicism, it's believed that the wine literally turns into His blood.

  29:44-29:46

  That you're literally consuming Him.

  29:48-29:52

  The disciples wouldn't have understood transubstantiation.

  29:52-29:54

  They would have understood, "Oh, this is a symbol.

  29:54-30:10

  The bread represents His body, and the fruit of the vine, the wine, represents His blood." But underline in your Bible, in verse 24, I want you to underline the word "covenant." I've got to be honest with you here.

  30:11-30:14

  My problem in preaching every week is not trying to figure out what to say.

  30:16-30:19

  The problem in preaching every week is trying to figure out what not to say.

  30:22-30:36

  And I was sitting in my office this week, Bible open, staring at my notes and staring at my computer saying, "Where do I even begin here?" Talking about the New Covenant.

  30:37-30:41

  In our men's group right now, we're going through an eight-week study about the New Covenant.

  30:42-30:52

  And I'm sitting at my computer this week like, gosh, this is such a huge topic and how can I tackle it in one sermon and I can't.

  30:55-30:56

  I'm gonna give you the overview.

  30:57-31:01

  Men, you gotta go to the men's study and learn more about this.

  31:01-31:03

  This is deeply profound and impactful stuff.

  31:06-31:10

  Women, you can find a guy and borrow his book or something.

  31:11-31:13

  Can I just say this?

  31:13-31:29

  Jesus took this Jewish celebration called Passover, and He gave it a new meaning because He fulfilled it.

  31:32-31:36

  Jesus fulfilled the Passover.

  31:38-31:44

  Now on your outline, I have Jesus told the church to celebrate in remembrance, and we're going to do that here in just a couple of minutes.

  31:45-31:46

  But remember what?

  31:46-31:47

  What does he want us to remember?

  31:49-31:55

  The truth is, he wants us to remember the same things that were true in the original Passover.

  31:56-31:58

  You were slaves, number one.

  31:58-32:00

  The Bible says you are slaves to sin.

  32:03-32:07

  The truth is, as delivered in Jesus Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin.

  32:07-32:08

  We are free and we are victorious.

  32:09-32:11

  But we remember that we too are slaves.

  32:11-32:13

  Number two, I delivered you by My power.

  32:13-32:14

  Does that sound familiar?

  32:16-32:21

  God stepped in to rescue in the most graphic way possible by coming to the earth Himself.

  32:23-32:28

  And number three, if you are covered under the blood of a spotless lamb, you will be saved.

  32:30-32:33

  And that's what the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the cross is all about.

  32:34-32:38

  A spotless lamb shedding His blood.

  32:40-32:51

  If I receive Him, and if you receive Him, if you are covered under His blood, you too are saved from death.

  32:53-32:55

  But it was a once and for all sacrifice.

  32:57-33:10

  I want you to understand that there were for generations and generations and generations of the sign of the Passover, and Jesus is the reality of the Passover.

  33:11-33:18

  What's the difference between the first Passover and this new Passover that Jesus is celebrating?

  33:18-33:19

  I was thinking about this this week.

  33:20-33:23

  What's a way that I can tell you in one sermon what the difference is?

  33:23-33:25

  I'll show you what the difference is.

  33:27-33:27

  Wait a second.

  33:28-33:29

  Can I take your picture?

  33:30-33:30

  All right, smile.

  33:31-33:34

  This is my wife Erin, for those of you who don't know.

  33:36-33:41

  What's the difference between the old Passover and this new thing that Jesus was doing?

  33:41-33:43

  I'm going to show you what the difference is.

  33:43-33:49

  The difference is the same difference there is between this and this.

  33:50-33:51

  Do you see the difference?

  33:53-33:54

  This is a picture.

  33:56-33:59

  This is reality.

  34:00-34:02

  Ok? Do you see the difference?

  34:03-34:06

  If you don't see the difference, we need to have a serious conversation.

  34:06-34:07

  This is a picture.

  34:08-34:11

  Now, do these things have some things in common?

  34:12-34:16

  Beautiful, dark hair, dark eyes, beautiful smile.

  34:17-34:19

  They have a lot of things in common, don't they?

  34:21-34:24

  But they have a lot of things different about them too, don't they?

  34:26-34:38

  If you don't believe me, how foolish would it be - think about this - how foolish would it be, Bob, if Aaron is sitting on one end of the couch, and I'm sitting on the other end of the couch looking at this picture.

  34:39-34:41

  She is so beautiful.

  34:41-34:42

  Wow!

  34:43-34:43

  What a looker!

  34:45-34:46

  And I'm just like...

  34:46-34:50

  And you're like, dude, she's sitting on the couch with you.

  34:50-34:52

  Why are you looking at the picture?

  34:55-35:04

  That's the difference between the Old Testament Passover and the Passover that Jesus instituted in Himself, you see.

  35:04-35:10

  The Old Testament was a picture to say, "You're slaves to sin.

  35:10-35:12

  You need God's power for deliverance.

  35:13-35:22

  You need to be covered under the blood of a spotless lamb." Repeated over and over and over this picture, this picture, this picture, this picture, so that the plan was this.

  35:22-35:30

  Israel, you're going to get So used to this picture, that when the reality shows up, you're going to say, "This is it.

  35:31-35:40

  This was always what God intended." He was just preparing us for the reality with the picture.

  35:40-35:41

  Is everybody with me?

  35:42-35:48

  He was preparing us for the reality with the picture.

  35:50-35:57

  So as I close, Jesus said in Luke 22.20 that this is a new covenant.

  35:58-36:02

  The book of Hebrews talks about this being a new covenant.

  36:02-36:05

  I know we don't often turn to different passages.

  36:05-36:08

  I just want you to turn over to Hebrews chapter 8 really quickly with me.

  36:09-36:21

  Again this is one of those, I would just like to share so much with you about the new covenant and what it means and so much to say.

  36:22-36:42

  for our purpose today. I want to share this with you. Hebrews chapter 8, actually verse 6, says that the new covenant is a superior covenant because it has better promises. Hebrews chapter 8 verses 10 through 12 actually quotes a promise from God through the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 31. I want you to just jot these down in the bottom of your outline.

  36:43-36:48

  Three better promises of the new covenant. Three better promises of the new covenant.

  36:50-36:53

  Let's read the text real quick and then we'll get to it.

  36:54-36:59

  "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days." This is Hebrews 8.10.

  37:00-37:05

  "It declares the Lord, 'I will put My laws into their minds and I will write them on their hearts.

  37:05-37:08

  And I will be their God and they shall be My people.

  37:09-37:18

  And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.

  37:19-37:25

  I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

  37:28-37:30

  Three better promises of the new covenant, number one.

  37:31-37:34

  It's not about conforming outwardly, it's about being changed inwardly.

  37:35-37:37

  That's the first better promise, do you see it?

  37:39-37:42

  I will put my laws into their minds, I will write them on their hearts.

  37:43-37:45

  God says he's going to change us from the inside out.

  37:46-37:51

  Gone are the days of the law is written down, and we need to strive to keep the law.

  37:51-37:54

  God says, "Okay, that's old covenant stuff.

  37:54-37:54

  "Here's the new covenant.

  37:55-38:04

  "I'm going to come inside you "and change you from the inside out." That's the promise of the new covenant, and we live in those days.

  38:04-38:08

  The Holy Spirit indwells His people.

  38:08-38:09

  It's not about conforming outwardly.

  38:09-38:11

  It's about being changed inwardly.

  38:11-38:13

  Number two, it's not about religion.

  38:13-38:14

  It's about relationship.

  38:15-38:16

  It's about relationship.

  38:16-38:17

  Do you see that?

  38:18-38:24

  He says in the end of verse 10, "I will be their God and they shall be my people." It's about relationship.

  38:26-38:30

  Many of the Israelites in the Old Testament were scared to death of God.

  38:31-38:34

  Moses, can you go to God on our behalf, like scared to death of God?

  38:36-38:37

  Because of the work of Christ.

  38:39-38:44

  See, we're not a people who strive to get closer to God through our religious works.

  38:44-38:55

  just recite these prayers, just repeat this, and light a candle here, and do these religious acts, and thinking that our works are somehow going to earn us merit towards God.

  38:55-38:57

  God says it's not about religion.

  38:57-38:58

  It's about relationship.

  38:59-39:00

  That's New Covenant thinking there.

  39:01-39:03

  God says I want relationship.

  39:03-39:06

  This is the New Covenant I'm making with you through My Son.

  39:07-39:11

  And number three, sin is not just atoned for.

  39:12-39:14

  What does atonement mean?

  39:14-39:14

  Atonement means covered.

  39:15-39:18

  Sin is not just atoned, it is taken away.

  39:20-39:24

  Like what's the difference between covering sin and taking away sin?

  39:25-39:34

  If a raccoon crawled up on my porch and died, and Aaron said, "Do something about that." And I took a tea towel and covered the raccoon with the tea towel.

  39:36-39:38

  Ta -da, problem solved.

  39:38-39:39

  Is that what she wanted?

  39:41-39:43

  Well, you said to do something and I covered it.

  39:44-39:45

  What did she want me to do?

  39:46-39:46

  Take it away.

  39:47-39:50

  So is there a difference between covering something and taking it away?

  39:51-39:53

  A little bit, a little bit.

  39:55-39:56

  And see, that was the promise of the new covenant.

  39:56-39:59

  Under the old covenant, God would cover your sins.

  40:01-40:03

  But when Jesus came, what did John the Baptist say?

  40:04-40:07

  There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

  40:08-40:10

  Jesus takes your sin away.

  40:12-40:22

  So enough with this foolish thinking that God's up in heaven mad at me about my sin, because the truth is if you're a born again believer in Jesus Christ, your sin has been taken away.

  40:23-40:25

  It's not an issue between you and God anymore.

  40:26-40:29

  If you're still not convinced, look at the last phrase here.

  40:30-40:32

  This is one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible.

  40:32-40:40

  He says, "I will remember their sins no more." God is willing to forget your sin.

  40:42-40:53

  You know, for those of you who think that you're gonna stand before God someday and you're gonna have to give this explanation, you know, explain yourself, explain your sin, if you're a born-again believer in Christ, that is not going to happen.

  40:55-41:11

  And you're gonna stand before God and say, "Well, God, I really messed up." And God's gonna be like, "Yeah, I so don't remember that." But God, "I hurt these people with my sin." And God's gonna be like, "Yeah, I don't remember that." Like, how can you not remember your God?

  41:12-41:13

  You know everything.

  41:13-41:14

  God says, "I chose to forget.

  41:16-41:27

  I promised you that I would remember your sins no more because my Lamb took your sin away." Jesus didn't just cover your sin.

  41:27-41:30

  Jesus took your sin away.

  41:32-41:33

  Isn't that awesome?

  41:34-41:34

  Amen?

  41:36-41:51

  So when we take the Lord's Supper, 1 Corinthians 11:26, we say it almost every time, we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

  41:52-41:58

  In just a moment, we are going to be taking the Lord's Supper, but I want you to understand, this isn't snack time.

  41:59-41:59

  Ok?

  41:59-42:02

  It's not like this will hold you over to lunch.

  42:02-42:08

  This isn't a religious act and God's happy with me when I do this.

  42:08-42:09

  It's none of that.

  42:09-42:10

  Why do we take the Lord's Supper?

  42:10-42:14

  Well, we do it because Jesus said to do it in remembrance of Him.

  42:16-42:27

  But furthermore, the Bible says that when you take the Lord's Supper, you are proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes.

  42:29-42:31

  So I just gave a sermon.

  42:33-42:35

  Now it's your turn to give a sermon.

  42:36-42:50

  When you receive these elements, what you're saying is, "Jesus, I believe You are who You said You are." When you take these elements, you're saying, "Jesus, I believe You accomplished what You said You would accomplish.

  42:52-43:02

  Jesus, I believe the promise of the new covenant that you purchased with your death on the cross.

  43:04-43:09

  Father, I feel like I've barely scratched the surface on what Your new covenant is about.

  43:11-43:18

  Father, I thank You that You've chosen to deal with us in the most gracious way possible.

  43:19-43:20

  We don't deserve it.

  43:21-43:26

  We are rebellious, wayward, stiff-necked, and hard-hearted by nature.

  43:27-43:28

  But Your Word tells us We are deceitful.

  43:31-43:34

  We are sinful to the core by nature.

  43:35-43:47

  What you have chosen to do is to not just cover our sin over, but to take it away and to put your life in us and to change us from the inside out.

  43:47-43:48

  To adopt us.

  43:48-43:52

  To choose to remember our sins no more.

  43:55-44:29

  Father, in just a moment, going to gather around your table again. We are going to remember the body and the blood again. And I pray Father that this is not some mindless act that we just sort of go through the motions. I pray that we would, each and every one of us in this room who received the Lord's Supper, I pray we would really stop and think about it. What does this mean that this is Jesus' body? What does this mean that this symbolizes Jesus' blood? What does he want us to remember about his on the cross and what it's accomplished.

  44:31-44:32

  Glorify your name.

  44:33-44:35

  In Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 14:10-25

1. Why do you think Judas waited until this point to betray Jesus?
    

2. Explain the Old Testament Passover Celebration. Where did it originate? What did it mean?
    

3. If it was prophesied Judas would betray Jesus, how can Judas be guilty of committing that sin?
    

4. Explain what it means when we take the Lord's Supper at church. 

Breakout Questions:

Has your testimony this week been faithful to the love you have for Jesus Christ in both your words and actions? How? Pray for one another.

Anointed: Preparing to Die

Planning a murder.... (Mk 14:1-2)


How to Do a Beautiful Thing for Jesus (Mk 14:3-9):

1. Give SACRIFICIALLY . (Mk 14:3)



2. Ignore JUDAS . (Mk 14:4-5)



3. Seize the OPPORTUNITY . (Mk 14:7)



4. Do what YOU can. (Mk 14:8-9)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  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.

  05:42-05:44

  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.

  06:03-06:05

  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.

  07:02-07:10

  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.

  07:31-07:32

  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?

  10:33-10:41

  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.

  11:02-11:09

  Like the action's moving along, moving along, it's Wednesday, and then they're like, flashback, let's go back to last Saturday.

  11:09-11:13

  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.

  11:28-11:29

  Jesus had some friends there.

  11:31-11:33

  Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

  11:33-11:34

  Two sisters and a brother.

  11:35-11:36

  That was their hometown.

  11:36-11:38

  And Jesus stayed with them.

  11:39-11:52

  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.

  11:55-11:55

  Honestly.

  11:56-11:58

  I mean, there were a lot of people named Simon.

  11:59-11:59

  There were.

  11:59-11:59

  There were a ton.

  11:59-12:03

  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?

  13:08-13:11

  Well, people weren't at your house for Thanksgiving if you had leprosy.

  13:11-13:12

  It's like, we're not going there.

  13:13-13:14

  We're having Thanksgiving somewhere else.

  13:14-13:17

  But he was obviously healed, but that's why this is such a bummer.

  13:17-13:18

  The nickname stuck.

  13:19-13:24

  It'd be like, you know, Kate had the mumps last month, but we don't still call him mumpsie.

  13:25-13:28

  But this name stuck for Scaly Simon.

  13:30-13:30

  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.

  14:02-14:04

  John tells us that in John chapter 12.

  14:04-14:08

  Mary, sister of Lazarus and Martha.

  14:09-14:13

  So she came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly.

  14:15-14:16

  What is nard?

  14:19-14:22

  Well, nard is a perfume from an Indian plant.

  14:24-14:28

  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.

  14:38-14:40

  So this stuff was very expensive.

  14:41-14:49

  She didn't bring out the Brut by Fabergé, you know, the $2 at Target cologne.

  14:50-14:52

  She brought out this stuff that we're going to see.

  14:54-14:57

  It was probably more expensive than any perfume you have at your house.

  15:01-15:02

  And what did she do with it?

  15:02-15:10

  It says, "She broke the flask and poured it over his head." That was a custom.

  15:11-15:15

  When people would come and visit, you would anoint them.

  15:15-15:19

  You know, they would be hot and sweaty, and most people would be very stinky.

  15:20-15:27

  So as a - being a good host, being hospitable, you would anoint people, refresh them with oil.

  15:29-15:32

  That's why they would wash their feet and they would anoint their head.

  15:32-15:36

  It was to say, you just came in from the heat in the desert.

  15:37-15:38

  This will make you feel better.

  15:38-15:45

  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.

  15:46-15:48

  OK, so it was a custom that people did.

  15:51-15:58

  But Mary kind of took it up to the next level, Because she didn't just use any old oil.

  15:59-16:02

  She used this stuff that the Bible says was very costly.

  16:04-16:06

  Very expensive stuff.

  16:06-16:07

  Usually you drip it on.

  16:08-16:09

  And that's how I understand it.

  16:09-16:17

  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.

  16:17-16:20

  Because as I said, we're gonna see how expensive this stuff was.

  16:20-16:26

  You probably didn't wanna have a open top on it so that one of the kids could knock it over and spill it.

  16:27-16:33

  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.

  16:34-16:41

  But she actually broke the top of it off so that it had an open spout and poured it over the head of Jesus.

  16:44-16:45

  And then the fireworks start.

  16:48-16:53

  Let's look at the rest of this passage, and then we're going to go back through some application.

  16:55-16:57

  Okay, so she broke the flask, poured it over his head.

  16:57-17:05

  Verse 4 says, "And there were some who said to themselves indignantly, 'Why was the ointment wasted like that?

  17:07-17:15

  For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor.' And they scolded her.

  17:18-17:20

  But Jesus said, 'Leave her alone.

  17:21-17:22

  Why do you trouble her?

  17:24-17:26

  She has done a beautiful thing to me.

  17:27-17:27

  Stop.

  17:29-17:32

  She has done a beautiful thing to me.

  17:33-17:34

  This is the key to this passage.

  17:35-17:36

  Don't misunderstand.

  17:37-17:44

  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.

  17:44-17:45

  And notice what Jesus said.

  17:47-17:48

  You should underline this in your Bible.

  17:49-17:59

  done a beautiful thing to me." They were all up in arms and angry and screaming at her.

  18:01-18:02

  Jesus said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.

  18:05-18:10

  She did what's beautiful." In verse 7, Jesus goes on.

  18:10-18:12

  He says, "For you always have the poor with you.

  18:15-18:17

  And whenever you want, you can do good for them.

  18:18-18:20

  But you will not always have me.

  18:21-18:23

  She has done what she could.

  18:24-18:27

  She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.

  18:29-18:40

  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.

  18:42-18:44

  I'm going with Jesus' opinion here.

  18:44-18:44

  All in favor?

  18:46-18:46

  Okay, good.

  18:47-18:49

  How to do a beautiful thing for Jesus.

  18:50-18:52

  Jesus said this act was beautiful.

  18:53-18:59

  So if I want to do a beautiful thing for Jesus, I want to look at what Mary did.

  19:02-19:03

  Pick up some principles there.

  19:03-19:03

  You ready?

  19:04-19:06

  Number one, give sacrificially.

  19:07-19:08

  Give sacrificially.

  19:12-19:15

  Again, verse 3 said that this stuff was very costly.

  19:18-19:19

  Like, well how costly was it?

  19:20-19:26

  Well, verse 5 says that it could have been sold for more than 300 denarii.

  19:27-19:28

  Like how much is that?

  19:30-19:34

  Well, a denarii was about a day's wage.

  19:36-19:41

  So, how much would 300 denarii be?

  19:44-19:52

  To calculate that out, we're talking approximately a year's worth of income for this one bottle of perfume.

  19:52-19:53

  Do you have perfume in your house like that?

  19:55-19:57

  And I'm reading this, I'm like, how did Mary get this stuff?

  19:57-20:00

  It doesn't matter, I don't know, maybe it was a gift, it's irrelevant.

  20:01-20:07

  But she had this bottle of perfume It costs as much as you make in a year.

  20:10-20:16

  What she decided to do with this was to give it, more accurately, to use it on Jesus.

  20:18-20:21

  Last month we spent four weeks talking about giving.

  20:21-20:27

  And understand, there's a difference between giving and sacrificial giving.

  20:27-20:27

  There's a difference.

  20:28-20:28

  Giving is great.

  20:29-20:30

  Giving is great.

  20:30-20:32

  What did we see in 2 Corinthians 9?

  20:32-20:33

  God loves a cheerful giver.

  20:34-20:34

  We talked about that.

  20:35-20:36

  God loves everybody.

  20:36-20:44

  But the Bible says God has a special affection for people that give in the way that He gives, hilariously, cheerfully, joyfully.

  20:44-20:47

  And giving is fantastic.

  20:49-20:53

  But there's something special about sacrificial giving.

  20:53-20:56

  Like what's the difference between giving and sacrificial giving?

  20:56-20:57

  Well, it's easy.

  20:57-20:59

  Sacrificial giving is something that costs you.

  21:01-21:07

  I told you the story about giving some McDonald's chicken sandwiches to the homeless guy outside of Walmart.

  21:07-21:08

  That didn't cost me anything.

  21:08-21:11

  That cost me $3, okay?

  21:13-21:15

  Did my family miss that?

  21:15-21:17

  I didn't come home and say, "Aaron, I'm sorry.

  21:18-21:23

  We're not going to be able to eat this week because I fed a homeless guy." That didn't really cost me anything.

  21:25-21:29

  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.

  21:40-21:47

  I don't think Mary was this multi-billionaire that had a whole shelf of these bottles of perfume.

  21:47-21:52

  I imagine this was the only thing that she had in the world that had any value to it.

  21:53-21:54

  She goes, "You know what I want to do with this?

  21:55-22:00

  I want to use it on Jesus." Did that cost her something?

  22:00-22:01

  Of course it costs her something.

  22:02-22:12

  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.

  22:13-22:13

  Sacrificial.

  22:14-22:18

  Best example of this in Scripture - I'm going to give you the CliffsNotes version, but you can look it up.

  22:19-22:20

  Write this reference down.

  22:20-22:21

  2 Samuel 24.

  22:22-22:25

  2 Samuel 24 v. 18.

  22:26-22:27

  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.

  22:35-22:45

  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.

  22:46-22:57

  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.

  22:57-22:58

  You can have it.

  22:59-23:00

  Here, oxen.

  23:00-23:01

  Here's wood.

  23:02-23:03

  It is all yours.

  23:03-23:04

  I'm giving it to you.

  23:05-23:06

  I want you to have it.

  23:09-23:13

  David said in verse 24-- I love this verse-- David said, no.

  23:16-23:18

  But I will buy it from you for a price.

  23:20-23:23

  I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God.

  23:24-23:25

  that cost me nothing.

  23:27-23:28

  You get that?

  23:29-23:30

  Do you get that?

  23:33-23:34

  David was the king.

  23:34-23:36

  He could have just showed up and seized the property.

  23:37-23:38

  This belongs to Israel now, thank you.

  23:40-23:41

  He shows up and says, I want to buy it.

  23:41-23:44

  And even when the guy graciously wants to give it, David says, no, no, no.

  23:45-23:48

  I'm not going to offer to the Lord something that doesn't cost me anything.

  23:50-23:58

  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.

  24:08-24:17

  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?

  24:19-24:20

  If she's like, "Jesus is here.

  24:20-24:20

  You know what?

  24:20-24:21

  I'm just going to run out to the well.

  24:22-24:33

  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.

  24:35-24:42

  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?

  24:42-24:44

  The size of the gift reflects the love.

  24:45-24:50

  "Oh, you don't have to get me anything." The size of the gift reflects the love.

  24:50-24:54

  God loved you so much that He gave you the greatest gift - in His Son.

  24:55-24:58

  We even understand this principle human to human, right?

  24:59-25:15

  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?

  25:16-25:20

  The size of the gift reflects love and devotion.

  25:22-25:30

  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.

  25:30-25:33

  All of the income from this job, I'm saving it.

  25:33-25:36

  I just heard a story about that recently, and it just really touched me.

  25:36-25:39

  I worked this job so I could buy my husband this gift.

  25:40-25:42

  That is sacrificial giving.

  25:42-25:43

  Because she gave her time.

  25:45-25:46

  She gave her energy.

  25:47-25:52

  She put everything into working to earn the money to give this gift to her husband.

  25:52-25:53

  Why? Because she loves him.

  25:55-25:56

  Mary got that.

  25:58-26:00

  She's like, what's the biggest gift that I can give Jesus?

  26:00-26:03

  What's the biggest act of worship that I can give Jesus?

  26:05-26:09

  Jesus' value to her was greater than the value of the expensive perfume to her.

  26:10-26:12

  Here's Jesus sitting in her kitchen.

  26:14-26:19

  Here's this bottle of perfume that cost $50,000.

  26:20-26:29

  She's like, "He's worth to me more than this." She gave it and noticed that she held nothing back for herself.

  26:32-26:34

  She could have said, "You know what?

  26:34-26:36

  I'm just going to leave the little drip top on.

  26:36-26:42

  Here Jesus, this stuff costs $50,000 a bottle." Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!

  26:42-26:46

  That was like $25 worth of perfume I just dripped on you.

  26:46-26:48

  She didn't keep any for herself.

  26:48-26:54

  She's like, "All on Jesus." That's sacrificial giving.

  26:56-26:57

  Sacrificial giving.

  26:59-27:03

  Sometimes church, God calls us to give sacrificially.

  27:03-27:06

  Sometimes God calls you, and this is between you and the Lord.

  27:07-27:16

  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.

  27:16-27:18

  I want you to take a step of faith and do it.

  27:19-27:20

  Mary certainly got it.

  27:22-27:23

  Look at verses 4 and 5.

  27:25-27:32

  It says, "There were some who had said to themselves indignantly, 'Why was the ointment wasted like that?

  27:32-27:42

  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.

  27:44-27:46

  This mark reminds me of another mark that I know.

  27:47-27:49

  A gentleman, discreet.

  27:50-27:57

  Because if you read John chapter 12, John's like, "It was Judas." He just blows the whistle.

  27:58-28:05

  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.

  28:06-28:10

  "Judas said it." Come on, let's name names here, okay?

  28:11-28:12

  It wasn't somebody said it.

  28:12-28:13

  Judas said it.

  28:13-28:17

  Oh, and by the way, John adds, by the way, you know something else about Judas?

  28:18-28:21

  He was helping himself to the offering plate, okay?

  28:21-28:23

  That's something else you need to know about him.

  28:23-28:28

  Judas had some sticky fingers and he was stealing from the money that we carried around.

  28:29-28:33

  And thank you, John, for shedding some light on this.

  28:36-28:43

  But John tells us, elaborating on this, Okay, it wasn't just like some kind of general conversation.

  28:43-28:44

  Judas precipitated this.

  28:47-28:54

  Judas was the one that spoke up and said, "That was worth 300 denarii.

  28:54-28:58

  We could have given that to the poor." And John's like, "He doesn't care about the poor.

  28:58-28:59

  He cares about Judas.

  29:00-29:08

  That's all he cares about, give to the poor." It says that they were indignant.

  29:10-29:13

  Mark says that, do you see that at the end of verse five?

  29:13-29:14

  It says they scolded her.

  29:15-29:16

  Can you imagine this scene?

  29:16-29:18

  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?

  29:39-29:40

  Like what are you doing?

  29:41-29:43

  Oh my gosh, I can't believe, did you guys see what she did?

  29:43-29:44

  I can't believe that she did that.

  29:46-29:50

  And that's why the next point on your outline, number two, ignore Judas.

  29:52-29:55

  You wanna do a beautiful thing for Jesus, then you're gonna have to ignore Judas.

  29:56-30:03

  Because any time you feel led to take a huge step of faith, here come the Judas's.

  30:03-30:06

  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.

  30:12-30:14

  You couldn't take this mission trip.

  30:14-30:15

  You don't make very much money.

  30:16-30:21

  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?

  30:30-30:31

  I was thinking about doing the training.

  30:32-30:33

  about getting involved at prison ministry.

  30:33-30:36

  Here come the Judas's, you can't do that.

  30:37-30:39

  Why in the world would you do something like that?

  30:39-30:41

  You're not cut out for a prison ministry.

  30:41-30:42

  Those people would eat you alive.

  30:42-30:45

  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.

  31:00-31:05

  that Harvest Bible Chapel is building a training center to train pastors, to plant churches all over Europe.

  31:06-31:14

  And instead of bringing them all to Chicago, we wanna train pastors in Romania and they've asked us to partner with them.

  31:15-31:27

  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.

  31:29-31:32

  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.

  31:35-31:36

  Our church can't do that.

  31:37-31:38

  We're a little church.

  31:38-31:41

  And look at the snow, we're an even littler church today.

  31:41-31:42

  And we can't do that.

  31:43-31:44

  We don't have the funds to do that.

  31:45-31:47

  And our church is thinking about donating to this.

  31:48-31:49

  What about the needs right here?

  31:49-31:50

  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.

  32:00-32:00

  And you know what?

  32:01-32:04

  I have this, our family has this extra car.

  32:04-32:10

  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.

  32:10-32:12

  "Come on, you guys are gonna need that.

  32:12-32:19

  "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.

  32:26-32:27

  "Those things mean a lot to you.

  32:27-32:29

  You shouldn't give those to the Lord.

  32:31-32:33

  And they put themselves in the place of Judas.

  32:33-32:34

  What are you doing?

  32:34-32:36

  You're giving up something valuable to Jesus?

  32:36-32:38

  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.

  32:46-32:49

  And listen church, I know this can happen innocently.

  32:49-32:50

  It can happen innocently.

  32:52-32:54

  I'm not trying to be harsh.

  32:55-32:56

  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?

  33:00-33:01

  You know what our family's thinking about doing?

  33:02-33:07

  Our family's thinking about selling this thing and giving the money." And the small groups, "Oh, you don't make very much money.

  33:07-33:09

  You should hang on to that.

  33:09-33:11

  And maybe you should take care of yourself first.

  33:12-33:22

  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.

  33:23-33:25

  You're like, "Mom, dad, our church is doing this thing.

  33:25-33:27

  and you know what I'm thinking about doing?

  33:27-33:34

  I'm thinking about selling off this stuff and giving the money for this mission work and your parents.

  33:34-33:35

  Well, you know what dear?

  33:35-33:41

  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.

  33:41-33:44

  Maybe you should hold onto that for a few more years.

  33:47-33:55

  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.

  33:57-33:59

  Nobody wants to be Judas.

  34:02-34:06

  'Cause here's the thing, nothing given to Jesus is wasted.

  34:09-34:12

  Nothing given to Jesus is wasted.

  34:14-34:20

  Do you think Mary in the aftermath, do you think Mary sat at home going, man, I wish I hadn't done that.

  34:21-34:22

  Man, I miss my perfume.

  34:23-34:24

  Do you think she thought that?

  34:24-34:26

  I don't think she thought that for a second.

  34:28-34:31

  Because worship is never too lavish.

  34:31-34:34

  Do you think God's in heaven saying, "You know what?

  34:34-34:36

  Those people were just giving too much.

  34:36-34:39

  Those people were giving so much.

  34:39-34:39

  You know what?

  34:39-34:41

  That's just a little too good for my son.

  34:42-34:43

  They need to calm it down.

  34:43-34:47

  I can't possibly repay them for their goodness." Do you think God's in heaven saying that?

  34:49-34:51

  Nothing given to Jesus is wasted.

  34:53-34:54

  Nothing given to Jesus is wasted.

  34:56-35:08

  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.

  35:09-35:21

  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.

  35:21-35:25

  Because he's doing this, he's giving this gift in the name of the Lord.

  35:26-35:27

  Like do it.

  35:28-35:28

  Do it.

  35:30-35:31

  Nothing given to Jesus is wasted.

  35:33-35:34

  You want to step out in faith?

  35:35-35:37

  You want to trust what God has said concerning giving?

  35:38-35:39

  We talked about it all last month.

  35:39-35:40

  Remember, I love to give.

  35:41-35:42

  I give and God gives back to me.

  35:43-35:45

  to trust God to keep His Word about that?

  35:47-35:49

  Well, if you're going to do that, you need to ignore Judas.

  35:51-35:51

  Ignore Judas.

  35:52-35:53

  Number three, seize the opportunity.

  35:55-35:55

  Seize the opportunity.

  35:57-36:04

  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.

  36:04-36:05

  Did you know that?

  36:05-36:06

  I bet you knew that.

  36:06-36:08

  Deuteronomy 15.11 says that.

  36:08-36:12

  Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 15, 11, to say you're always gonna have the poor with you.

  36:14-36:21

  Jesus said, "Whenever you want, you can do good for them, "but you will not always have me." Seize the opportunity.

  36:22-36:24

  And it's funny how quickly people jump onto this.

  36:27-36:29

  You know, that could help the poor here.

  36:30-36:31

  You're talking about this Romania thing?

  36:31-36:37

  I promise you there are gonna be people that say, "Oh, we're talking about like helping people in Romania.

  36:37-36:42

  "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?

  36:44-36:47

  We have hungry people in Pittsburgh, when was the last time you helped those people?

  36:48-36:51

  And look, it's not one or the other, right?

  36:51-36:52

  Jesus made that clear, right?

  36:52-36:53

  Everybody saw that.

  36:53-36:56

  Jesus wasn't like, forget the poor.

  36:56-37:01

  Jesus said, "You always have opportunity "to minister to the poor." That's an always thing.

  37:02-37:03

  That's expected.

  37:04-37:06

  And we should always be feeding the poor.

  37:06-37:17

  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.

  37:18-37:23

  It's just funny how people jump in with, that could go to the poor here.

  37:24-37:32

  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.

  37:34-37:40

  opportunities for special, lavish, extravagant worship they don't come by every day.

  37:41-37:46

  Like this Romania thing, this isn't an opportunity that's going to come by every day.

  37:48-37:52

  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.

  37:53-37:56

  We're going to take an offering for three months to try to get this thing going.

  37:57-37:59

  Is there going to be a longer sustained relationship after that?

  37:59-38:02

  I hope so, but I honestly, I don't know.

  38:02-38:04

  And you can talk more to one of our elders.

  38:04-38:07

  talked about this in our elder meetings, and we said we made a three month commitment.

  38:07-38:12

  We wanna give to this and see if we can sustain in our church a longer term relationship.

  38:12-38:14

  But I can't promise you that.

  38:14-38:15

  But here's what I can promise you.

  38:15-38:18

  We have an opportunity right now.

  38:20-38:22

  You have an opportunity right now.

  38:24-38:28

  Mary saw her opportunity, Mary saw her chance, and she said, "I'm not gonna miss this.

  38:28-38:30

  "I'm not going to look back.

  38:30-38:48

  "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.

  38:50-39:06

  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.

  39:06-39:06

  I missed a chance.

  39:06-39:09

  I really wish I'd been part of that.

  39:09-39:10

  I really wish that I...

  39:11-39:12

  Seize the opportunity.

  39:13-39:15

  If God calls you to give sacrificially, do it.

  39:15-39:16

  Break the flask.

  39:16-39:17

  No regrets.

  39:19-39:31

  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.

  39:31-39:32

  Seize the opportunity.

  39:34-39:35

  And finally, do what you can.

  39:36-39:37

  Let me rephrase that.

  39:38-39:40

  Do what you can.

  39:42-39:43

  Look at verse 8 again.

  39:44-39:45

  I love this phrase.

  39:46-39:47

  Do not miss this.

  39:48-39:50

  We saw this in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

  39:51-39:58

  Look at verse 8, Jesus said, "She has done what she could." She has done what she could.

  39:58-40:02

  Mary made a very common act, this anointing, she made a very common act.

  40:02-40:04

  An act of worship.

  40:06-40:13

  And then Jesus said, "She has anointed My body beforehand for burial." That phrase always intrigued me.

  40:13-40:15

  Do you think Mary knew what she was doing?

  40:16-40:28

  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?

  40:29-40:32

  Did she know that this was more than a gesture of kindness?

  40:32-40:34

  That this was actually anointing for burial?

  40:36-40:38

  I've thought about that a lot this week.

  40:39-40:44

  My conclusion is, she must have believed Jesus when Jesus said He was going to die.

  40:44-40:46

  She must have believed that.

  40:48-40:51

  All the times Jesus said, "I'm going to Jerusalem. I'm going to die.

  40:51-41:00

  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.

  41:02-41:03

  It seems that the time is near.

  41:03-41:04

  Jesus has been talking about this.

  41:05-41:06

  It seems like the time's ticking down.

  41:06-41:09

  Now's my chance to do something completely out of the ordinary.

  41:11-41:12

  Look at this phrase.

  41:13-41:14

  Jesus said she has done what she could.

  41:16-41:18

  She has done what she could.

  41:18-41:19

  And church, I want to leave this with you.

  41:21-41:24

  Just like when we talked about giving, Remember the very first sermon.

  41:25-41:26

  You have something to give.

  41:27-41:33

  You might not have as much as the next guy, and you might have more than the guy after that, but you have something.

  41:33-41:37

  In the same way, you have something that you can do.

  41:38-41:40

  You have something that you can do.

  41:40-41:43

  I'll be honest with you, I never wanted to be a preacher.

  41:44-41:45

  Ever wanted to be a preacher.

  41:47-41:49

  I want to be a worship leader.

  41:51-41:52

  Because worship leaders are cool.

  41:54-42:01

  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.

  42:04-42:06

  And I wish I could be a worship leader.

  42:07-42:12

  But I can't sing or play the guitar, and those are two things on the top of the list of job requirements.

  42:15-42:16

  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.

  42:29-42:30

  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?

  43:39-43:43

  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

1. 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.
    

2. 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.

Because Giving Glorifies God

Review:

1 Corinthians 10:31 - ...whatever you do, do all to the GLORY of God.

How Does Giving Glorify God?

1. Giving results in THANKFULNESS . (2 Cor 9:11-12)


2. Giving proves AUTHENTICITY . (2 Cor 9:13)
   
   
3. Giving grows RELATIONSHIPS . (2 Cor 9:14)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:01-00:08

  So this month, really, we've had one message, and the message is this.

  00:09-00:10

  I love to give.

  00:12-00:19

  You know, we pass these little, you know, goofy looking felt bags, those little blue bags with the handles, and we pass those around.

  00:20-00:22

  And like, why do we do that?

  00:23-00:24

  Because we love doing that.

  00:25-00:27

  It's not the obligatory, "Oh, this is the part.

  00:28-00:29

  Every church does this.

  00:29-00:30

  This is where we're supposed to give.

  00:31-00:32

  That is so not our attitude.

  00:32-00:34

  Our attitude is we love this part.

  00:34-00:36

  We love seeing those goofy little bags come around.

  00:36-00:36

  Why?

  00:36-00:38

  Because I love to give.

  00:40-00:41

  Like, why are you so fired up about giving?

  00:42-00:44

  Well, that's what we've been talking about this month.

  00:44-00:50

  Remember in this passage, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 is really the key passage in the New Testament about Christian giving.

  00:51-01:01

  Recall that there were all these poor Christians in Jerusalem being persecuted for their faith and losing their jobs and their businesses.

  01:01-01:05

  So there's thousands upon thousands of these poor Christians.

  01:05-01:19

  And Paul and some of these churches were taking up an offering from the outlying regions saying, "Let's support these Christians in Jerusalem." And what we've seen through this series is giving is about the heart.

  01:20-01:21

  Giving is voluntary.

  01:22-01:26

  Giving isn't about a percentage or about an amount.

  01:26-01:36

  It's about voluntarily choosing, deciding in your hearts, a biblical portion of what God has trusted to you.

  01:37-01:38

  And it's between you and the Lord.

  01:40-01:41

  So why do I love to give?

  01:41-01:42

  Just as a recap.

  01:42-01:43

  Why do I love to give?

  01:43-01:45

  This is what we've seen in this passage.

  01:46-01:47

  First of all, I love to give because I'm a steward.

  01:49-01:50

  I'm a steward.

  01:50-01:51

  Nothing is mine.

  01:52-01:53

  Right? Nothing is mine.

  01:54-02:25

  Many of you know a couple weeks ago, accident and I was really sad. I loved that car and it was a reminder to me, God just let me borrow that car for a few years. It wasn't mine. I wasn't going to drive that car to heaven. Okay? Nothing is mine. Nothing is mine. And remember Ben, remember how fun it was to give away somebody else's money? Remember that? Like we took money from the Fredericks and we gave it to you and said you could give it to anybody. Wasn't that See, it's fun when you give...

  02:26-02:29

  He was like, "Yeah, this is great." Because he didn't have an attachment to it.

  02:30-02:31

  It came into his lap.

  02:32-02:35

  And I said, "You can give it to anybody." And he did.

  02:36-02:37

  You know why that's fun?

  02:37-02:38

  It's because there's no attachment.

  02:38-02:38

  Nothing is mine.

  02:40-02:49

  And until you understand that principle, that everything in your possession is really God's, and God gave it to you to use to glorify Him, give it away.

  02:52-02:55

  Until you do that, you're not going to understand why people love to give.

  02:56-03:00

  So I love to give because I'm a steward. I love to give, secondly, we talked about, because Jesus loves to give.

  03:03-03:04

  Jesus loves to give.

  03:05-03:19

  If we had Jesus personally, physically, in the flesh, right here, right now, sitting with us, and we said, "Jesus, what's your favorite thing in the world?" He would say, "I love to give." How do we know He loves to give? Because His life was typified by that.

  03:20-03:49

  himself. He emptied himself, and that was that beautiful verse, remember? That He became poor for us. He emptied himself so that He could give Himself fully, even all the way to the cross. And even beyond that, God is a giver of gifts. He gives us His Holy Spirit who gives us His peace, His joy. We are fellow heirs with Christ. God loves to give, and Because God's people, we love to give.

  03:50-03:52

  God is conforming us into the image of His Son.

  03:53-03:55

  So because He loves to give, we love to give.

  03:57-03:58

  Then last week we talked about why do I love to give?

  03:58-04:00

  I love to give because God gives to me.

  04:01-04:08

  And at the risk of sounding like some liberal, charismatic TV preacher, we looked at what the Bible actually says.

  04:09-04:15

  The principle of sowing and reaping that's true for agriculture is also true with money.

  04:16-04:23

  The Bible says if you sow, if you give money, you will reap, you'll receive money.

  04:24-04:29

  And your reaping is in proportion to your sowing, meaning if you sow a little, you're going to reap a little.

  04:29-04:31

  If you sow a lot, you're going to reap a lot.

  04:32-04:36

  And we saw last week that God gives you more so that you can give more.

  04:36-04:38

  God wants you to meet a need, not feed your greed.

  04:40-04:42

  So God says you keep giving it out.

  04:43-04:44

  I'll keep giving to you.

  04:46-04:48

  God gets really fired up about that.

  04:49-04:51

  You've seen a lot of reasons that I love to give.

  04:52-04:57

  All of those are great reasons, but today we're going to look at the number one reason I love to give.

  04:58-05:06

  This isn't like - Paul's like, okay, here's a bunch of reasons, and we're going to kind of round it off, kind of cap it off, and let's throw one more in.

  05:07-05:11

  This is the biggest reason that I love to give.

  05:11-05:13

  This is the biggest reason that we should love to give.

  05:13-05:14

  And why is it the biggest reason?

  05:15-05:20

  Because this reason is something that should typify the Christian's life in every area.

  05:21-05:24

  This is the reason behind why you should have the marriage that you have.

  05:24-05:27

  This is the reason behind why you should parent the way that you parent.

  05:27-05:31

  This is the reason behind why we try to do what we do as a church.

  05:32-05:35

  This is the reason that's actually the mission statement of the church.

  05:37-05:49

  And it all comes from 1 Corinthians 10 .31 "Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." And that's what we're going to see in this passage.

  05:49-05:53

  I love to give because giving glorifies God.

  05:54-05:57

  Again, that's something that should typify every single area of our lives.

  05:58-05:59

  Why are you doing it that way?

  05:59-06:01

  I'm doing it because this is the way that glorifies God.

  06:02-06:04

  So why do we give the way that we give?

  06:04-06:06

  We're going to see it very clearly in this passage.

  06:09-06:10

  Because we want to glorify God.

  06:10-06:12

  But what does it mean to glorify God?

  06:13-06:15

  To glorify God means to manifest His presence.

  06:17-06:19

  To glorify God means to make Him known.

  06:20-06:24

  In other words, glorifying God means you're letting people see God in you.

  06:24-06:31

  Jesus said, "Let your light shine before men so they may glorify God in heaven." Now, your light isn't your light, right?

  06:31-06:33

  It's God's light shining through you.

  06:34-06:42

  But Jesus said, "Live your life in such a way that people see God at work through you, And then they're going to glorify Him, not you.

  06:43-06:45

  Because you're manifesting His presence.

  06:47-06:52

  The biggest reason that we give to the work of the Kingdom is it glorifies God.

  06:52-06:58

  The way that we give magnifies the Lord.

  07:00-07:04

  So today, the question is how does giving glorify God?

  07:04-07:07

  There's three things I want to share with you.

  07:08-07:10

  is giving results in thankfulness.

  07:12-07:13

  You're going to see this again straight from the text.

  07:15-07:16

  Giving results in thankfulness.

  07:17-07:18

  Look at verses 11 and 12.

  07:19-07:30

  Paul says, "You will be enriched in every way, to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

  07:32-07:39

  For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.

  07:42-07:43

  You see it right there in the text.

  07:43-07:45

  Like what's happening with this giving?

  07:45-07:46

  What's happening?

  07:46-07:47

  Paul's like, well, a couple of things.

  07:47-07:52

  We're meeting the needs of the saints, but that's not even the main thing that's happening.

  07:52-07:57

  The main thing that's happening is all these people are thanking God because of this giving.

  07:58-07:59

  That's the main thing that's happening.

  08:01-08:02

  And biblically, this is so important.

  08:02-08:04

  I'm gonna say this quickly.

  08:04-08:07

  We could spend a whole sermon series on this topic.

  08:08-08:09

  Just write this down.

  08:09-08:11

  Thankfulness glorifies God.

  08:11-08:13

  Thankfulness glorifies God.

  08:13-08:14

  It does.

  08:14-08:27

  2 Corinthians 4:15 says, "For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God." Thankfulness glorifies God.

  08:28-08:31

  In Romans 1:21, just write the reference down.

  08:32-08:39

  But you have to see The Apostle Paul in Romans talks about how faith is linked to thankfulness.

  08:40-08:45

  Meaning this, you find me somebody that's not thankful to God, I'll find you somebody that doesn't have faith.

  08:48-08:51

  You find me somebody that says, "I don't think God's ever given me anything.

  08:52-08:56

  God's never done anything for me and I'm not thankful." Well that guy doesn't have faith.

  08:56-08:59

  But you find the guy that says, "You know, God has been so good to me.

  08:59-09:00

  Yes, life has been hard.

  09:00-09:02

  I've had to deal with some very hard things in my life.

  09:03-09:04

  It's been very difficult.

  09:04-09:10

  But you know, God has been so good, and He has sustained me, and He has taken me through some very hard times in my life.

  09:10-09:13

  You find me that guy, and I'll say there's somebody that has faith.

  09:14-09:21

  But you have to see, biblically, faith and thankfulness are connected.

  09:22-09:23

  You can't separate them.

  09:25-09:27

  People thankful to God have faith.

  09:27-09:30

  People not thankful to God exercise faith.

  09:30-09:45

  That's Romans 121. Because you see, it's all from God. You see, when we give, it's because God moves our heart, and the recipient of the gift thanks God for the gift.

  09:47-09:53

  Don't thank me, thank God. You see, that's how that works.

  09:54-10:05

  The person gives, and And the recipient, while acknowledging that God used that person to give, the recipient ends up thanking God because God's the one that moved the heart for that person to give.

  10:05-10:06

  You following me on this?

  10:07-10:08

  This is so important.

  10:09-10:13

  The point is, it's not the person that receives the glory.

  10:14-10:17

  Like I gave this to you man, you should thank me.

  10:17-10:18

  No, you should thank God.

  10:19-10:24

  Because God is the one who, He gave it to me in the first place, right?

  10:24-10:33

  Everything I give came from God, so you should be thanking Him anyways because I'm just giving you something that He gave me in the first place.

  10:34-10:47

  That's something I like to say to people the times that we're out and I treat somebody to lunch or coffee, "Oh no, no, let me get that, let me get that." Something I like to tell people is, "Oh no, don't worry about it, my father owns everything." Meaning what?

  10:47-10:51

  Meaning everything in my wallet came from God in the first place.

  10:51-10:54

  It's not like it's mine anyways.

  10:55-10:57

  So, it's all from God.

  11:00-11:18

  Think of Moldova last February, when we took an offering to help rebuild the pastor's home that was a communist block apartment that was crumbling, and the pastor and his family were living in these horrible conditions, and we took an offering to help rebuild his home.

  11:19-11:20

  What resulted from that?

  11:22-11:25

  Does the pastor and his family have a picture of me on their wall?

  11:26-11:30

  And every morning, "Kids, kids, it's time to sing the Pastor Jeff song, come on!

  11:31-11:35

  We're going to praise Pastor Jeff because Pastor Jeff got the church to send us money." Does he do that?

  11:36-11:38

  He absolutely does not.

  11:40-11:40

  Nor should he.

  11:42-11:43

  Take a guess what they do.

  11:44-11:49

  Do you think that they thank God because of the gifts that you gave?

  11:50-11:51

  Absolutely.

  11:51-11:53

  So much praise has gone to God.

  11:53-11:54

  Thank you, God.

  11:54-11:56

  Look what God provided.

  11:56-11:59

  Yes, He did it through Harvest Pittsburgh North and Harvest Pittsburgh East and some other churches.

  12:00-12:04

  Yeah, that's how, those are the channels that God used, but it's all from God.

  12:04-12:09

  So the thankfulness went to God, not to me, not to you, not to Jeremiah in Pittsburgh East.

  12:09-12:10

  The thankfulness went to God.

  12:11-12:14

  You see, and that's why I love to give.

  12:15-12:20

  Because when I give, people praise God for the gift.

  12:22-12:26

  We can talk about the concepts of this all year.

  12:27-12:31

  But you know, we have an opportunity to actually put this into practice.

  12:31-12:36

  We have an opportunity right now in front of us, and I've been teasing it the last couple of weeks.

  12:37-12:38

  We have an opportunity.

  12:40-12:48

  Just as these churches were giving to help support this ministry in Jerusalem, Harvest Bible Fellowship has approached us about an opportunity.

  12:49-12:56

  They're building a training center in Romania like the one that I attended in Chicago to train ministers to plant churches all over Europe.

  12:56-13:04

  And they're coming to us, and they're saying, "Can you partner with us in this mission?" An absolutely incredible opportunity.

  13:05-13:09

  It is to be on the front end to do something like this?

  13:10-13:12

  It's a staggering opportunity.

  13:13-13:15

  I mean, it's one thing to invest in a ministry.

  13:15-13:17

  It's another thing to plant a church.

  13:18-13:26

  But to invest in a ministry that is training pastors to plant churches - think of how far those offerings are going to go.

  13:27-13:32

  We're talking generations of people, as Jay said, starving for the Word.

  13:34-13:39

  We have an opportunity now to give to get this going.

  13:39-13:42

  Isn't that just an incredible thing about giving?

  13:42-13:47

  See, not everybody here can say that's great, I'm going to jump on a plane and head over there for three months and build it.

  13:47-13:49

  Not everybody can do that.

  13:49-13:53

  But, every single one of us have something in our pockets that we can give.

  13:54-13:55

  To say, you know what, I believe in this.

  13:55-14:01

  And I believe God is calling me to give like the Macedonians, according to my means, beyond my means.

  14:03-14:10

  And we want you to be prayerfully considering you're going to give to this ministry to get it going.

  14:10-14:18

  And prayerfully consider you're going to be one of the people to head over there to be a part of getting things built.

  14:19-14:20

  Much is happening.

  14:21-14:22

  Incredible opportunity.

  14:23-14:29

  So I love to give because giving results and thankfulness - people praise God for His provision through you.

  14:29-14:29

  Do you know that?

  14:30-14:34

  For generations, people will be praising God through this training center.

  14:34-14:42

  And think of the churches out of this training center of these passionate worshippers of Jesus Christ and people coming to Christ.

  14:43-14:45

  And all this worship going up.

  14:45-14:47

  And how did it start?

  14:47-14:49

  It started because God did something through you.

  14:50-14:52

  And that's what Paul's talking about here.

  14:52-14:54

  Giving has a way of doing that.

  14:56-14:59

  God using you to make all of that worship happen.

  15:01-15:07

  You mean I can give money and the end result of this money Is there going to be people worshiping God?

  15:08-15:09

  Who do I make the check out to?

  15:12-15:15

  It's an amazing cycle, isn't it, when you consider what we talked about last week.

  15:16-15:21

  So we give, and then it results in thankfulness to God.

  15:21-15:32

  So because we give, God gives us more to give, and then we give more, which results in more people being thankful to God, and God is glorified even more.

  15:32-15:38

  So He gives us more to give so that we can have even more people thankful to God, and God has glorified more.

  15:38-15:41

  Do you see this incredible cycle of grace?

  15:42-15:43

  Awesome.

  15:44-15:46

  Giving results in thankfulness.

  15:46-15:47

  #2 - Giving proves authenticity.

  15:49-15:50

  Giving proves authenticity.

  15:50-15:51

  Look at v. 13.

  15:53-16:08

  "By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the Gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all the others.

  16:10-16:12

  Giving proves authenticity.

  16:12-16:19

  See, this would have been very important for the Corinthian church, because let's be honest, the Corinthian church - they were a messed up church.

  16:19-16:20

  They were messed up.

  16:21-16:22

  Read 1 Corinthians sometime.

  16:22-16:23

  They were messed up.

  16:23-16:26

  1 Corinthians 5 - do you know in the Corinthian church?

  16:26-16:35

  There was a guy in the church who's having an illicit affair, a physical illicit affair with his stepmother.

  16:36-16:44

  Okay, so his dad gets remarried and this guy is messing around with his stepmother and like the church was bragging about it.

  16:45-16:47

  Okay, and I'm not trying to be crass, read 1 Corinthians 5.

  16:47-16:49

  They were boasting about it.

  16:49-16:54

  There were a lot of high fives and pats on the back and oh man, look at this guy.

  16:54-16:56

  And Paul's like, what are you doing?

  16:56-16:58

  You shouldn't be bragging about this.

  16:58-17:00

  Paul's like, "What in the world is going on in that church?

  17:00-17:05

  Throw him out!" Bragging about such a gross sin.

  17:05-17:06

  Throw him out.

  17:06-17:07

  That's 1 Corinthians 5.

  17:08-17:10

  So the point is, it was a messed up church.

  17:12-17:13

  It was a messed up church.

  17:13-17:25

  And I'm sure as word got around of these kinds of things, there are probably people wondering, I wonder if there's even any really like born again people attending the church in Corinth.

  17:26-17:31

  I mean, you really think that there's anybody here Christian, I mean, obviously, all their salvation's in question now.

  17:31-17:35

  If this is the kind of garbage that they're doing, well, Paul knew.

  17:36-17:41

  Paul knew, listen, they're born again people that are like us, still learning, still growing, right?

  17:41-17:43

  Anybody here have it all figured out?

  17:44-17:45

  Anybody, anybody at all?

  17:45-17:46

  Like, yeah, it's all figured out.

  17:46-17:49

  I'm like as good as I'm going to get, not me.

  17:51-17:52

  We're all on a journey, aren't we?

  17:52-17:53

  And Paul knew that about them.

  17:53-17:59

  He says, they are born again and they're growing And Christ is doing something in them.

  18:02-18:06

  And that's why he says, "Look, this giving is going to - what's it going to prove?

  18:07-18:08

  How's it going to glorify God?

  18:08-18:09

  Look at this phrase.

  18:09-18:18

  Because of your submission flowing from your confession of the Gospel of Christ." What's he saying?

  18:18-18:25

  He's saying that one of the ways that giving glorifies God, Giving is a demonstration of true faith.

  18:26-18:29

  Giving is a demonstration of true faith.

  18:31-18:36

  It's not as if giving is what gets you saved.

  18:38-18:39

  That's not the point at all.

  18:39-18:43

  Paul is saying that giving is a demonstration that you truly are saved.

  18:43-18:47

  Because you did confess Christ, giving demonstrates salvation.

  18:47-18:49

  How can you tell if somebody is saved?

  18:50-18:53

  Can you tell someone, say, what's the fruit of salvation?

  18:53-18:56

  Is it based on what they say or by what they do?

  18:58-19:01

  Well, according to James, faith is demonstrated by what people do.

  19:02-19:13

  James says, "Faith without works is dead, but faith with works is alive, and giving is one of the most beautiful acts of worship." Want some evidence?

  19:15-19:15

  Let's look at the disciples.

  19:16-19:18

  We're going to be jumping back into Mark here next week.

  19:19-19:24

  And we've already seen this in our study through Mark, where the disciples were always arguing about stupid things.

  19:25-19:27

  Like, which one of us is the greatest?

  19:29-19:31

  While they were walking around with Jesus.

  19:31-19:33

  But then something interesting happens.

  19:33-19:35

  They're arguing about which is the greatest in Mark.

  19:36-19:45

  And then you get to the book of Acts, and they're like giving everything for the common good of everybody.

  19:45-19:55

  And you're like, wait a minute, How did they get from these self-serving, sort of arrogant people to pouring themselves out for Jesus people?

  19:56-19:57

  What happened in the middle?

  19:57-19:59

  What happened in the middle was the Holy Spirit came.

  19:59-20:01

  And the Holy Spirit changed them.

  20:03-20:05

  I believe that's one of the ways the Holy Spirit transformed them.

  20:07-20:14

  They were, you know, in Jesus' day, so much about themselves, their glory, their attention.

  20:17-20:23

  After Jesus' death and resurrection and after the Holy Spirit came, they were about giving.

  20:23-20:25

  Read Acts 2. Read Acts 4.

  20:25-20:26

  That's what the church did.

  20:26-20:28

  They gave. They gave. They gave.

  20:29-20:30

  So that everybody was taken care of.

  20:30-20:33

  It says that there was no needy among them.

  20:34-20:35

  They shared everything that they owned.

  20:37-20:41

  Church, nothing fires a Christian up more than seeing Jesus change a life.

  20:42-20:49

  That giving generously is one of the most visible and tangible ways that demonstrates that Jesus has changed a life.

  20:51-20:55

  Because God truly has a person when He has their money.

  20:57-20:59

  So giving proves authenticity.

  20:59-21:01

  And finally, giving grows relationships.

  21:02-21:04

  Giving grows relationships.

  21:04-21:05

  Look at v. 14.

  21:07-21:14

  Paul says, "While they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.

  21:17-21:23

  When Jesus changes someone, the reality that the world sees is the love that we have for one another.

  21:23-21:24

  Sort of counterintuitive.

  21:24-21:35

  I would have thought that Jesus would have said, "By this, all men will know that you're my disciples by the way that you love lost people." But He didn't say it was about the way we love lost people.

  21:36-21:38

  Jesus said it was about the way that we love each other.

  21:40-21:41

  Scripture's so clear in that.

  21:41-21:49

  John 13, 35, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." So the world is looking at us.

  21:49-21:52

  Do we really love each other as Christians?

  21:55-21:59

  And that's why in this passage, we see signs of deep loving relationship.

  21:59-22:01

  Did you see that in verse 14?

  22:01-22:04

  He says they long for you, and they pray for you.

  22:04-22:12

  See, that relationship was happening to the point that they were wanting to see them, They were constantly remembering Him in their prayers.

  22:14-22:15

  And it was because of the giving.

  22:16-22:19

  Now listen, I'm not saying that we're buying friends.

  22:19-22:20

  I'm not saying that.

  22:20-22:21

  I don't want anybody to leave.

  22:21-22:23

  So I hear what Pastor Jeff is saying.

  22:23-22:24

  He's saying that we should buy friends.

  22:25-22:26

  So Tony, I like you.

  22:26-22:27

  Will you be my friend?

  22:27-22:28

  I'll buy you a dirt bike.

  22:28-22:30

  If I buy you a dirt bike, will you be my friend?

  22:31-22:31

  Tony, will?

  22:31-22:33

  Okay, that's fantastic.

  22:33-22:34

  He's a cheap friend.

  22:36-22:49

  You're a cheap friend, Tony, because I asked somebody else the other day, "Will you be my friend if I buy you a dirt bike?" And he said, "You're gonna have to up it "to something with four wheels." I'm like, "Yeah, I'm kinda buying one of those myself." And I'm not saying that you buy your friends.

  22:51-22:52

  Like, well, then what are you saying?

  22:53-23:02

  I'm saying there's a sense in which relationships form and deepen when someone is willing to give in order to ease another's financial burden.

  23:04-23:06

  And I wanna share it from a different perspective.

  23:07-23:12

  We were talking about giving to Moldova giving to Romania. But you understand that we've been on the other end of that, right?

  23:13-23:39

  Before this church launched and money was pretty tight, right Ken? You remember that money was pretty tight? Harvest Bible Chapel up in Oakville in Niagara, you know, they're just like right down the road from each other. I've told you this, they sent us somewhere between seven and eight thousand dollars. They're just like, we were going to do some missional giving, we thought you guys could use it, here you go. So how do you think I feel about those churches? You see, there's a There's a connection there with Pastor Robbie Simons and Pastor Darrell Molyneux.

  23:40-23:43

  There's a connection that I have with those people that I always remember.

  23:43-23:44

  You know what?

  23:44-23:48

  We were in a tough spot and they reached out to us by giving.

  23:50-23:56

  Now granted, we had hundreds of people that were like, hey, best of luck to you, I'm pulling for you, I'm praying for you, that's fantastic.

  23:57-24:01

  But there's something special about these people that said we are willing to invest in you.

  24:03-24:05

  It happened even more recently with Northway.

  24:06-24:11

  At the end of a baptism service, they took an offering and they gave a portion of that offering to us.

  24:11-24:11

  Why?

  24:14-24:14

  To bless us.

  24:16-24:17

  We didn't ask for it.

  24:17-24:24

  I didn't have a private conversation with Pastor Kent or Pastor Scott like, "Look, I appreciate you doing this "because we're broke." None of that happened.

  24:25-24:30

  They're just like, "We just wanna bless you guys "because we love you guys and we love our partnership." So they gave us money.

  24:32-24:47

  So I'm saying that being on the other end of that, I understand the truth that there's some kind of a, there's some kind of an affection and a bond and a unity that comes when ministries are being supported by other ministries like that.

  24:48-24:50

  That's exactly what Paul's talking about here.

  24:50-24:52

  When you give, that's why they're longing for you.

  24:52-25:01

  That's why they're praying for you, because you're being united and unified and knit together because you are willing to invest in them financially.

  25:03-25:06

  Thinking of what's going to happen in Romania, as I already said.

  25:07-25:10

  These churches are going to think very fondly of you.

  25:11-25:13

  There's a church in Pittsburgh that never met us!

  25:15-25:16

  Praise God for them!

  25:16-25:24

  And I'm praying for them, and I'm praying for that church, and I'm praying for that ministry because God used them so mightily in our lives.

  25:27-25:30

  So giving makes for unity and a love and a gospel like nothing else.

  25:31-25:36

  Because money used rightly can make friends.

  25:38-25:45

  But if you're still sort of like, I'm not sure about this using money to like buy friends thing that you're talking about.

  25:45-25:46

  Just jot this down.

  25:46-25:47

  Luke chapter 16.

  25:48-25:49

  This is one of my favorite parables.

  25:50-25:52

  Because it is so weird compared to the other parables.

  25:52-25:54

  But Jesus told this parable, and I mean weird in a good way.

  25:55-25:59

  But Jesus told this parable in Luke 16 that's just kind of crazy when you think about it.

  25:59-26:01

  Jesus is like, okay, so this, I'm paraphrasing.

  26:02-26:03

  I want you to read, I'm paraphrasing.

  26:03-26:08

  But Jesus is like, okay, so this guy, this guy worked for this guy that owned all this stuff.

  26:08-26:09

  And this guy was a manager.

  26:10-26:12

  And this manager knew that he was getting fired.

  26:13-26:13

  Like, you know what?

  26:14-26:16

  We found out that there's some shady things going on.

  26:16-26:18

  You're gonna be out, you're fired.

  26:19-26:20

  So this guy knew he was getting fired.

  26:21-26:25

  So what this guy did was he called in all these people that owed his master money.

  26:25-26:45

  He's like, "What's your bill?" The guy's like, "Well, I owe 100." He goes, "Cut it in half, write down 50." And he called in the next guy, "How much do you owe?" And he's like, "Well, I owe like 100 or whatever." And he's like, "Write down 80." So he called in all these people that owed and said, "Cut your bill down." It was like, you know, price to sell, price to move.

  26:45-26:47

  We are cutting debt here today.

  26:48-26:49

  Why did he do that?

  26:51-26:54

  because he knew he was about to get kicked to the curb.

  26:54-26:56

  He didn't have anywhere to go.

  26:57-27:02

  But all of a sudden, he just made for himself a handful of friends that were sort of indebted to him.

  27:04-27:09

  That's why the Bible says, Jesus said the master commended this manager for his shrewdness.

  27:10-27:15

  I'm sure he didn't commend him for what actually happened in the sense of, you just ripped me off a lot of money.

  27:15-27:16

  That wasn't the commendation.

  27:16-27:20

  The commendation was, dude, that was actually kind of clever what you did.

  27:21-27:30

  Because when I can you here, you're going to have all these people that are going to let you stay with them because you looked out for them.

  27:31-27:33

  Why did Jesus tell that story?

  27:34-27:35

  Jesus made the application.

  27:35-27:40

  He says, by the way, worldly people are a lot smarter about using money than kingdom people.

  27:40-27:47

  He says, but I'm telling you, you can win eternal friends with unrighteous mammon, which is money.

  27:48-27:51

  Because you can win friends for eternity with money.

  27:51-27:52

  You can win people.

  27:52-27:54

  Jesus said they're going to welcome you into heaven.

  27:55-27:58

  There are going to be people in heaven waiting for you when you cross over.

  27:58-28:01

  And they're going to be like, "It was because of your giving.

  28:02-28:10

  It was because of the way that you invested in me and this ministry that affected me that I'm here in heaven right now." Jesus said there are going to be people in heaven greeting you.

  28:10-28:10

  Why?

  28:11-28:18

  are willing to give money in the name of the Lord to advance His kingdom.

  28:19-28:22

  So can you use money to win friends according to Jesus?

  28:22-28:23

  Yes.

  28:24-28:27

  Not only yes you can, but Jesus said yes you should.

  28:28-28:31

  Invest your money in people.

  28:34-28:36

  And that grows relationships.

  28:37-28:40

  I know that sounds very weird to hear in church.

  28:41-28:42

  I encourage you to be a Bible student.

  28:42-28:44

  That's what it says here in 2 Corinthians 9.

  28:45-28:46

  Read the parable in Luke 16.

  28:48-28:50

  Okay, and then we have verse 15 as I close.

  28:51-28:52

  Look at verse 15.

  28:53-29:05

  Paul says, "Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift." "Thanks be to God for his," what kind of gift?

  29:05-29:06

  He says it's inexpressible.

  29:06-29:08

  So what do you think he's talking about?

  29:08-29:09

  What do you think he's talking about?

  29:09-29:11

  Go ahead and shout it out if you think you know the answer.

  29:13-29:14

  What is the inexpressible gift of God?

  29:15-29:19

  Jesus, okay, everybody else now, what's the inexpressible gift of God?

  29:20-29:22

  Jesus, that's obviously who he's talking about, right?

  29:22-29:24

  God's given me lots of stuff that I can describe.

  29:24-29:26

  He's given me an awesome wife, an awesome family.

  29:26-29:28

  He's given me so much, an awesome church.

  29:28-29:30

  I can describe you guys though.

  29:30-29:33

  You know something I can't fully describe is how awesome Jesus is.

  29:34-29:35

  And that's what he's talking about.

  29:35-29:37

  That's kind of a weird way to end this passage, don't you think, Deana?

  29:38-29:43

  because I was thinking about this this week while you were doing what you do, and I'm thinking about this.

  29:46-29:49

  He has this section in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 that's all about giving.

  29:49-29:54

  And something they teach you when you go to preaching school is that you have to land the plane.

  29:55-30:01

  Meaning your conclusion should be tight and memorable and meaningful, right?

  30:03-30:07

  So as I was thinking about this week, "You know, how was Paul gonna land this plane?

  30:08-30:12

  He just gave this awesome, Holy Spirit inspired discourse on giving.

  30:13-30:20

  How was he gonna land this plane?" Then Paul's like, "Okay, so they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.

  30:23-30:26

  Amen." Like, no, that wasn't quite, wouldn't quite do it.

  30:26-30:35

  Or, you know, he's like, "Well, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you, "So, give." Okay?

  30:36-30:37

  No, that couldn't quite do it.

  30:40-30:43

  How could Paul conclude this series on giving?

  30:45-30:48

  He says thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift.

  30:49-30:50

  And here's the point.

  30:52-30:53

  It all goes back to Jesus.

  30:56-30:59

  It all goes back to Jesus.

  31:01-31:02

  All of it.

  31:03-31:04

  What do you mean by that?

  31:06-31:14

  Listen, if I have to forgive someone for a wrong they committed against me, who is my motive?

  31:15-31:15

  Who is my example?

  31:16-31:17

  And who is my power for forgiveness?

  31:17-31:21

  Somebody could get up and list all of the verses in the Bible about forgiveness.

  31:22-31:25

  But at the end of the day, do you know what motivates me to forgive?

  31:25-31:26

  Jesus.

  31:28-31:29

  It all goes back to Him.

  31:30-31:34

  Or, good works.

  31:35-31:37

  What motivates me to do good works?

  31:38-31:46

  You can give me all the reasons why it's important to work for the Lord, and how important good works are, but at the end of the day, what motivates me?

  31:46-31:47

  Jesus.

  31:48-31:56

  We can talk about prayer, and all the benefits of prayer, and the way that God works through prayer, but at the end of the day, going to motivate me to pray?

  31:57-31:58

  Because Jesus prayed.

  32:00-32:01

  So now we're talking about giving.

  32:03-32:09

  And here's the need, and these people have needs, and God has given you, and even if you don't have much, you have something to give.

  32:10-32:12

  But if you give, God's going to give you more, but it's an act of faith.

  32:12-32:17

  And he's talking about all these concepts about giving, but it all goes back to what?

  32:18-32:19

  It all goes back to Jesus.

  32:20-32:25

  and say, "Listen, if there's somebody here that's still like, 'Yeah, I'm not really sure.

  32:26-32:38

  I'm not really sold on the giving thing.'" Maybe there's somebody here that says, "Yeah, Pastor Jeff, I hear what you're saying, and I'm not really sure." My answer to you is, it goes back to Jesus, doesn't it?

  32:41-32:44

  Because He's the giver to me.

  32:45-32:48

  He's the example of giving sacrificially.

  32:50-32:52

  He's the example of giving worshipfully.

  32:53-32:55

  He's the example of giving lovingly.

  32:56-33:07

  And because of all He is, and because of all He does, and because of everything He promises, I say, I love to give.

  33:08-33:09

  How about you?

  33:10-33:14

  Father in Heaven, it certainly does go back to Jesus.

  33:16-33:28

  And You have taught us so much stuff in these chapters about all of the promises and blessings and ways that You work as we give.

  33:29-33:35

  And I pray, Father, the thing that we would leave with is I love to give because of Jesus.

  33:38-33:46

  Father, I pray that as we are preparing to partner with this training center being built in Romania, that You would move our hearts.

  33:47-33:50

  You would stir our hearts to be generous towards this endeavor.

  33:52-33:55

  The advancement of Your kingdom for the glory of Your name.

  33:57-34:03

  Let us be people who don't just talk about giving, who don't just acknowledge that giving is good.

  34:03-34:05

  Let us be generous givers.

  34:07-34:10

  In Your glorious name that we pray, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 2 Corinthians 9:11-15

1. How would you define what it means to "glorify God"? How does financial giving glorify God?
    

2. In 2 Corinthians 9:13, Paul says that giving is a proof of genuine salvation. How is giving an evidence that someone is truly born again?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another to grow as givers: rightly motivated, generous, and trusting God!