TREASURING THE PRECIOUSNESS OF JESUS MORE THAN A MAN SERIES

Transcription

1 Now if you grew up in a traditional church, more than likely you have heard of Charles Wesley, the great hymn writer. But if you didn t grow up in a traditional church, and you have been a Christian a long time, more than likely you have heard of John Wesley. John Wesley was the great evangelist of the First Great Awakening, along with George Whitefield. But Charles Wesley was the great hymn writer of the First Great Awakening. Charles Wesley would go on to write 6,500 hymns. That is like one a day for almost twenty years. I haven t done the math, but it is insane. Many of us would be lucky to pray 65 God enhanced prayers in our lifetime, but Charles Wesley wrote 6,500 hymns. Can you imagine that? That is tremendous. Even some of our great songwriters today, if they wrote a hundred songs that were caliber in their nature, it would be quite a victory. But Charles Wesley wrote 6,500 songs. One of the songs that Charles Wesley went about to write is a song, O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing. And he wrote this song on his one year anniversary of being a Christian. So Charles Wesley had been a Christian for one year and he sits down and pens, O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing. Now when you first hear that you could wonder if he is talking about having a thousand different people in praise and worship to God? Well, that wouldn t be nearly as impressive as what he was really getting at. O for a thousand tongues to sing to my great redeemer is the first line that he writes. What is he getting at? He is getting at this idea that he wished that he had a thousand different tongues to praise God. As Matt Redman said in relationship to this song, One tongue is not enough. And that is what Charles Wesley was saying, I wish I could express my passion, my love for God by having more tongues. Have you ever been so caught up in worship, has your heart ever been so stuffed with the grandeur of God, with His excellence, with His majesty, that you felt as though you could not describe what you were feeling on the inside? And it created a deep burden in your heart. I will tell you if you have ever had an intensive season of chasing the heart of God you know exactly what Charles Wesley is talking about. I can remember when I was in Bible College and I would go into the chapel at times to spend time in prayer. And one day while I was crying out to God in prayer, I remember saying, Oh I wish that I knew more adjectives so that I could express how I feel about you. I was limited by the English vocabulary to describe what my heart felt for Jesus. My heart was inflated, it was pumped up with His glory, and I wanted to pour out praise, but I had a limited vocabulary. And since that time any time I can get ahold of a word that has great meaning or richness, I have tried to bring that into my vocabulary so that I can increase my praise vocabulary for God. Page 1 of 13 pages 8/29/2010

2 Charles Wesley says, O for a thousand tongues to praise Him; one alone is not enough. He wished he could express himself more on his one year anniversary of being a Christian. He was so full of gratitude for the fact that Jesus Christ had forgiven his sins that he wrote a song to show how much he treasured the preciousness of Jesus. Do you treasure Jesus? Do you treasure Jesus more than anything else in the world? Charles Wesley could not put his pen down because he treasured the priceless name of Jesus Christ so much that he could not stop writing music that would express and expound the glory of God; that would highlight and paint and demonstrate and characterize the person of Jesus Christ. If you were to ask those who are closest to you, your wife or your husband, could they say about you, There is no greater treasure than Jesus in my spouse s life then Christ alone? Could your parents say that about you, children? That Jesus is your treasure. Today we are going treasure seeking in John Chapter 12, and we are going to see a passage where two characters, one by the name of Mary and the other by the name of Judas, could not be more antithetical in their view of Jesus. One sees Jesus as more than a man, worthy of worship. The other sees Jesus and treats Him as just a man and not worthy of worship. We just came out of John Chapter 11 last week where Caiaphas obviously does not treasure Jesus, and we learned that Caiaphas wanted to do away with Jesus. But today you are going to see this picture of treasuring Jesus that can change your life. How would you like to know that Jesus is truly your greatest treasure? How would you like to leave here today going on a treasure hunt for the rest of your life in pursuit of the heart of Jesus Christ? Well, in this passage you are going to see that Mary realizes King Jesus is more than a man. And if He is more than a man, He is worthy of the best that she has, and that is what she will give Him. So pick up with me in John Chapter 12 and verse 1. And let s remember what has happened up to this point is that Caiaphas has pronounced a death sentence on Jesus. Caiaphas has decided that Jesus is now a dead man walking. Caiaphas did not treasure Jesus and he wants Him dead. And people are waiting around because Passover is just around the corner a few days away and they are wondering if Jesus is going to come. Jesus had always come to Passover before, but will He come this time when He is on Jerusalem s ten most wanted list? Will He still show up? But before He shows up at Passover, He is heading back to Bethany. He is heading back to the place where He raised Lazarus from the dead. You will remember that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and that Lazarus had two sisters by the names of Mary and Martha. And now Jesus is going to a special dinner they are having for Him when we pick up in verse 1. Six days before the Passover Jesus therefore came to Page 2 of 13 pages 8/29/2010

3 Bethany. So He is getting closer to Jerusalem. Where Lazarus was, whom Jesus has raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for Him there, Martha served and Lazarus was one of those reclining with Him at table. They felt no intimidation whatsoever in giving a dinner for Jesus. Here is the one who could snap His fingers and provide a meal in a moment. He could have whatever He wanted. Jesus is the one who has already been doing a fish and chips extravaganza. So I wonder what Mary and Martha are cooking for Him? They don t tell us that, do they? Are they going to have a special entrée? You can count on it. But we can t smell the yeast rising or the meat being cooked, because we don t know what it is. We can only imagine it is probably a nice buffet. But here Jesus is and they are putting a dinner on for Him. And it says Martha served. That is just like Martha, as we have been studying that Martha is the servant. But here there is something different. There is a nuance compared to Martha in the Luke account where she says, Jesus, will you get Mary to quit the worshipping, we have work to do. She is not saying that now. Why? It is because now she has a much greater perspective of the worth of Jesus. Jesus has raised her brother from the dead. So they are here in Bethany and Martha is serving. And it says, Lazarus was one of those reclining with Him at the table. And we think, That is all you are going to tell us, John? Come on, I want more. And what do you think we could possibly want more of right now? Well, I want to know what they talked about. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and it wasn t long before He took off, and now He is back and I would like to know what they talked about. And here is Lazarus, can t you just see him sort of just reclining there with Jesus? He is just hanging out with Jesus. Is he asking Him questions like, Hey, why didn t you show up before I died and heal me? Why did you wait four days? Why did you raise me and then take off so quickly? I wanted to talk to you. But now Jesus has shown up at a RSVP dinner. There are special guests there with Jesus being the highlight guest. And it just doesn t say what they are talking about. It is kind of like a situation at Hospice this past week. My little grandma is dying right now at Hospice. You have probably seen my grandma when she came to church, and seen my dad putting a special big chair in the back for her, because she is 93 years old. And she would sit out there after the service. My grandma moved into my home when I was 6 ½ or 7 years old. Tim was 6 ½ years younger than me, you know the one who plays the guitar. So Tim is the one that had her basically from the time he was born, and I have had my grandma living with me since I was 6 ½ or 7 years old. I just loved Page 3 of 13 pages 8/29/2010

4 my grandma; she is a very sweet wonderful woman. If any of you got the chance to know her you would know that she was just precious. And about 13 days ago they found her unconscious in my parent s house. They took her to the hospital and she hasn t been able to speak since. She is now at Hospice and she has a bladder infection and all sorts of other problems. It is just a matter of days or hours until she dies. While I was at the hospital talking to her, at first she could understand me and kind of make gestures, but now she doesn t understand much as she is in and out. One moment my brother and I were there talking and my grandma kept trying to say something, but we could not make her words out. And it was so frustrating. I looked at my brother and I said, Lost words, lost words. We are going to have to wait until we get to Heaven to find out what those were. And there I was feeling like grandma wanted to bless us, wanted to tell us something, but we couldn t understand her. And in the same way in this passage there are lost words as John doesn t give us the full story. John doesn t tell us all of the details. He just lets us know that Lazarus is there reclining next to Jesus. And we don t get the conversation. I was there with my grandma, I was reclining by her, we were in fellowship, but I can t tell you what she was trying to say to me. And that happens sometimes when you read the Bible. You want more. Half the fun of getting to Heaven will be getting the details filled in from Scripture. And in these verses we would like to have all the details of what Lazarus and Jesus were talking about, but we don t have them. Verse 3, Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment, made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus. Now at this point it is important for me to share that John is a non-synoptic gospel. The synoptic gospels are Matthew, Mark and Luke. So check this out. Here is this idea that is taking place right here. The synoptic gospels mean that the content of Matthew, Mark and Luke are similar. But in John there is not a lot of overlap in the content of his gospel that you see compared to Matthew, Mark or Luke. And there are only a few places in the gospel of John where you see some carry over stories, like the feeding of the five thousand. You will find that in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In fact it is the only miracle that is in all four gospels, except the resurrection of course. Now what we want to understand here in John then is this story is actually seen in Matthew and Mark as well. If you are not used to the Bible, know this. There are 66 books in the Bible and four of the books are called gospels that give different portraits of the person of Jesus Christ. They help us to understand a full picture, a fully orbed picture of Jesus. So now this story in John 12 that we are studying today can also be found in Matthew and it can be found in Mark. Page 4 of 13 pages 8/29/2010

5 Now there is an anointing story by a woman in the gospel of Luke, but it is not the same story as the one that is found here in John, Matthew and Mark. And so I want you to know that. That is an entirely different story. So these different stories that you see in the synoptic gospels and in John, when you pull them together it is the same story but it gives different details. For instance, it doesn t tell you in John Chapter 12 where they are, where this anointing is taking place where Mary is anointing Jesus. But if you go over to Matthew and Mark it tells you that they are at Simon the leper s house. And so if you were preaching through Matthew or through Mark, it wouldn t tell you who was anointing Jesus. But when we are in John it tells us that it was Mary that was anointing Him. And so these details help us to understand what is taking place because the different gospel writers feature or focus in on different aspects that they want to highlight. Just like on a news story at night, you might listen to a story and one broadcaster might feature this angle of the story and another broadcaster might feature another angle of the story. But there is one angle here that can really throw people for a curve ball. And it is this. In John s account, look with me if you will in verse 3, Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed Jesus feet. But when you read in Matthew and Mark, she anoints the head of Jesus. So some people go, See the Bible contradicts itself. We have a Bible contradiction here. What is the deal? And frankly at first blush, you could think that. And there are many professors in colleges that will tell students that, and they walk away not realizing that if they had searched enough, if they had the right people in their lives, the right resources in their lives, they could have reconciled those questions. Now if you spend the rest of your life just trying to reconcile questions, you could drive yourself crazy. I do that sometimes myself. But it is important to understand this why the difference? First, let me try to explain the difference by helping you understand the amount of ointment, and that will lead to it. It says, Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment. Now it is not like our English word pound; the word pound comes from the Greek word litra which is basically a Roman pound, and that is 11 ½ ounces. So Mary has 11 ½ ounces of very expensive perfume in her hand. All I know is if I get out some Acqua Di Gio and give it two pumps, I am good to go. But in this particular situation, this is the fine stuff, and you need to understand folks, that this is not Brut, this isn t Old Spice, this is good stuff right here. So what we have here is 11 ½ ounces of very stellar perfume. Now we know by the other accounts that she breaks the neck of this bottle and she pours it over his head. So why does this account talk about his feet? It is because it wasn t like Mary came up and said, Let me give you a little dusting, and just sprays Him, right? That is not what she did. She broke Page 5 of 13 pages 8/29/2010

6 the bottle and boom pours it over Him. Now if I took a water bottle, which is 12 ounces, and poured it over my head, would that just remain on my head? Where else would that water go? It would go all over my body and all over my feet. And Jesus even says in the Mark account and in the Matthew account, She has prepared my body for burial. What was that? She has prepared my body. In other words the perfume got all over the place. Now we will talk about the burial idea later. But what I want you to be aware of is it is very plausible then to get an image where the perfume is poured over His head and it also goes on His feet. Why would John focus in then on the feet of Jesus, and why would Matthew and Mark focus in on the head? Well, I can tell you that we know that when we read I Samuel for instance, when Samuel goes out to anoint Saul as king, he pours oil on what? It was on his head. So Mary, in a sense, was recognizing that Jesus is the king. She treasured Jesus as a king. She knew that He was the precious king. And that is what they would do. In Matthew, this is the gospel that describes Jesus as king of the Jews. And so we see that Mary prepares and anoints Him as king. But the perfume goes down to His feet and in this situation then, John wants to zero our attention in on the fact that since He is the king, Mary sees that He is worthy of treasuring the preciousness of Him. And she bows down at His feet and she worships Him in a beautiful act of humility. If He is the king, then I will serve Him. If He is the king, I will humble myself before Him. And so we see Mary taking a pound, 11 ½ ounces, a water bottle full of that amount of expensive ointment. And this was really expensive. It says it is pure nard. Nard is a plant in northern India. And in northern India they would go and they would basically extract the oils from the plants in order to make perfume. And this perfume was expensive. One of the reasons it was extremely expensive is the cost of travel from northern India all the way over to the Palestinian world. And they didn t have Amtrak back then. It was like getting a few donkeys and going from northern India to Palestine and it was going to take a long time. This is the situation here. So this made for very precious perfume. It is expensive because we see in verse 5 that it is estimated that this perfume is worth three hundred denarli. Now I am getting at, so you will pay attention to me here, how awesome Jesus is and how much Mary treasured Him with this sacrifice. This ointment was estimated at a cost of three hundred denarli. A denarli is a day s worth of pay for a common laborer. So three hundred denarli would be equivalent to a year s worth of pay. Well, why not 365? Because you would need to subtract Sabbath days and Holy Festival days. And when you subtract those you are left with about 300, which gives you an annual amount of work for a common laborer. Page 6 of 13 pages 8/29/2010

7 So in today s terminology, this bottle of perfume was worth $30,000. Now in my brain I just couldn t wrap my head around it. I am thinking, You know, honey, can you pick me up some of that stuff. It s ten bucks. Great. We re good. Or even at twenty bucks or thirty, it still would be a great day. But $30,000, does that happen? So I go and I start looking stuff up. And I find the ten most expensive perfumes in the world. One of them was Chanel No. 5. It was about $3,500 for that perfume. Another one was about $1,600 for a bottle of that. And there is another one called Baccarat, I don t even know if I am pronouncing it correctly. This stuff was $1,700 for a quarter ounce if you wanted to buy it. So if you want one ounce of Baccarat, you will pay $6,800. I m thinking I better be smelling really good if I spend that much, right? This is the kind of thing you get when you are going on this date you have hoped for forever, and you are hoping it will really work. If you don t have confidence in your personality, have confidence in the Baccarat. So we are talking $6,800. So then I started going well, let s average this out then by 11 ½ ounces. You are talking approximately $78,000, and that is without taxes. With tax you could break $80,000. Can you imagine it? Doesn t that just sound absurd? I am thinking if someone is wearing that today, do let us smell you! But we better be seeing stars when we are done, right? I mean I am just saying this stuff better smell really, really good. And that is only the sixth most expensive perfume in the world. I discovered that the most expensive perfume in the world is Clive Christian. How many of you have ever heard of Clive Christian? No one? I feel so much better about myself. If I had heard of Clive Christian before the One Life Campaign, than all we needed would be eight bottles of Clive Christian and we would be set because it is $215,000 a bottle. Can you imagine that? If I was spraying myself with that in the morning I would be going, There goes five grand. It would cost five grand to smell good, and if you want to smell really good for a date night, it might take a couple of squirts and ten grand. This is expensive stuff. You could buy a house in the Lake Norman area, a really nice house, for that. You could buy a Ferrari Testarossa for that. I am just picturing myself standing at the Clive Christian counter going, Ferrari Testarossa or 16.5 ounces of this. And you can keep your Clive Christian, where is the Brut? So here is what is going on then. Mary has this extravagant perfume. She has the equivalence of an annual amount of labor in this bottle of perfume. And what we can gather from that, and scholars seem to imply this, that there is a good chance then that Mary comes from a wealthy family. Or that it was an heirloom that was left to her. And as someone mentioned to me after church this morning perhaps she really worked hard herself for it. We really don t know. But we do know it was costly, and it was valuable. Page 7 of 13 pages 8/29/2010

8 So now we have an idea of how awesome in value this perfume is. And in verse 3 we see that Mary takes a pound of this expensive ointment made from pure nard, And anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. It was very uncommon for a woman to let her hair down in the ancient world in public. So in this scene, Mary pours this oil on the head of Jesus. It falls all over His body and goes down to His feet. And feet were considered the filthiest object on a body in that world, because you walked on dusty roads all the time. And what would happen is, you would show up at a home and if you were a guest for dinner, a servant might wash your feet with a basin and a towel. And here in this passage Mary is going to wash Jesus feet, or anoint His feet, with very expensive perfume. In the next chapter Jesus is going to be washing His disciples feet. Stay tuned for that. But in this particular situation, here is Mary taking what is most valuable, and what is considered most beautiful on a woman, her hair, and she rubs it against His traveling feet. And she wipes them clean in this beautiful act of humility, as she treasures the priceless name of Jesus Christ. As she treasures the one who raised her brother from the dead. And now everyone is just elated with her sacrifice, right? No! Let s check out Judas. Verse 4, But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples,(he who about to betray Him). John just wants us to know before you hear his statement that Judas is the one who was about to betray Jesus. Now what does Judas say? Verse 5, Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarli and given to the poor? O Judas, you philanthropist. You are always thinking about how to help others who are in need. And that is why I think what John said was in parenthesis, (the one who was about to betray Jesus.) He didn t want anyone to buy into Judas garbage. And we can often sound so spiritual in our Christian statements, can t we? Oh, you should give this to the poor. Judas wasn t thinking about the poor. But before we give Judas too hard a time, how would you have responded? Watching someone take a bottle of perfume that is worth an annual amount of labor and just freely dumping it all at once over Jesus. Would you struggle with that? Because Judas wasn t the only one who struggled. When you go to the Mark account and the Matthew account, the disciples did as well. But here was the big difference. The disciples genuinely did have a concern that the money could have gone to help the poor. Judas was probably thinking, Man I was hoping to snag that later. I could have used that for something. Well, what would make me think that? Why would I even dare think that? It is because of the next verse. Verse 6, He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the money bag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Judas was a thief. Judas did not treasure the Page 8 of 13 pages 8/29/2010

9 preciousness of Jesus. Judas treasured money. And Judas, the one who is going to soon betray Jesus for chump change, thirty pieces of silver, couldn t possibly imagine that Mary was dumping out $30,000, in today s equivalent, of perfume all over Jesus. Mary valued Jesus as priceless; Judas valued Jesus as basically nothing. He is going to betray Him, he doesn t value Him and he doesn t know how to treasure Him. Judas is using Jesus; Mary is serving, loving, worshipping and sacrificing for Jesus. Not because he cared about the poor. Judas dipped into the money bag often, grabbing money out. Judas problem with money started way before the betrayal happened. We don t crumble overnight, folks. We don t crash and burn in a moment. It starts with pickpocketing here and there, dabbling here and there. And what happens is he began to take more and more and more, helping himself to the money pot. And before he knew it, he would give up the most priceless treasure in the world for his addiction to money. That is what addictions do. You use Jesus, you trade Jesus, you will do anything for your addiction. And that is what Judas did. He did not treasure Jesus Christ. Verse 7, Jesus said, Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. Now it can be both and sometimes, can t it? Sometimes you will bump into people and they can be great philanthropists, but they have no heart for Jesus. They may really care about the poor, really care about doing good things, about being a great servant, but it doesn t necessarily mean they love Jesus. And then sometimes we find those who are so focused on worshipping Jesus, staying in His presence, singing to Him, loving Him and adoring Him, that they don t give thought of service, or thought of ministering to the poor. And so it is important that we do balance those out. But Judas could not fathom how Mary could possibly do that. And Jesus says, Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. And in this moment we know that Jesus is saying something deeper is happening here. I don t think Mary knew that she was preparing Jesus for His burial. Just as I don t think Caiaphas last week knew it would happen when he said the amazing prophetic words that Jesus would die. I think sometimes we say things and do things that have greater meaning than we really realize. And I think that is what took place here as Mary was anointing Jesus. Jesus knew there was a deeper meaning here. Verse 8, The poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me. Mary had her priorities right. She is willing to sacrifice anything for Him and she was giving her best. Jesus knew that He was going to die soon. And we see Judas grumbling because his priorities were about himself. Next when we look at this next passage we are going to see that there is a large crowd of Jews coming. Verse 9. When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of Him, but also to see Lazarus, whom He Page 9 of 13 pages 8/29/2010

10 had raised from the dead. I am sure there were some innocent people coming out to check Jesus out, but then we see in verse 10 that there were those who were not so innocent. So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well. Why? Because on account of Him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. Can you imagine this? Here are the ones who don t know how to treasure Jesus, the ones who want to put Him to death. They want to arrest Him. And Lazarus treasures Jesus. But because of what had happened to Lazarus, others are going to treasure Jesus too, so they think they need to not only get rid of Jesus, but they need to kill Lazarus as well. Lazarus needs to die again. And that is when their depravity became obvious because they were willing to get rid of anything that had the fragrance of worship. And so after we looked at this passage today, now is the time for me to draw out a few treasure principles. And the first treasure principle that I want to share with you is this. People who treasure the preciousness of Jesus are willing to sacrifice any earthly treasure, no matter what the cost. Mary did not count pennies before she offered this extravagant act of worship. She was glad to offer it to Jesus. People who are in love with Jesus want to grow, and to have the ability to give more and more of their life to Jesus Christ. They want to look for ways to express to Him that He is their treasure. Do you do that? Do you find in your own heart of hearts that you would be willing to give up that which is most valuable to you? Are you willing to give up that to the priceless name of Jesus Christ? When Mary went in search of value, she found something that was so valuable it was worth a year s worth of labor, and she poured it all over Jesus, not counting the cost at all. People who don t treasure Jesus are always counting the cost, like Judas. Look what we could have done with that money. People who don t treasure Jesus fail to recognize how great, how glorious, how wonderful He is. People who don t treasure Jesus worry more about taking care of their own treasures, than giving their treasures up to show the great value of Christ. The second treasure principle that I want to draw your attention to is this. People who treasure the preciousness of Jesus are willing to lose their dignity for Jesus. Mary lost her dignity more than you can possibly imagine. Do you realize how undignified it was to be in the presence of Jesus and to take your bound up hair down and dry Jesus filthy feet with a $30,000 bottle of perfume. Mary was not a dignified worshipper. I see people so often sharing about how they are going to be dignified, and they don t realize it but their statements say it. Would you get on your face in front of Jesus and other people like that? Could you do that? Is Jesus that priceless, that glorious that in worship you could fall on your face? Page 10 of 13 pages 8/29/2010

11 And I want to tell you that there are always going to be people in your life that are going to try and tame your passion for Jesus. You will always have those who will try to tame your love for Christ. But Mary was not worried about being undignified; she was just wanting to give glory to the precious one who was there in her presence. And she lost all sense of dignity doing it. And we have people today who are so dignified that they won t even raise their hands in church because they don t want to draw attention to themselves. We need to stop focusing on other people. We need to focus on Jesus. Mary might have felt like she couldn t get on her knees because people might think she was trying to draw attention to herself. But if Mary was drawing attention to herself then Jesus would have dealt with her. So if someone is raising their hands or shouting in church just to draw attention to themselves, God will deal with them. But who are we to tame people s passion for God? We want a dignified Christianity. And I am not saying you have to come and lift your hands, shouting, crying out of God, but I will say that when you recognize that your sins have been forgiven, that Jesus bled and died on a cross, that He rose from the grave, that He loves you desperately and deeply, who cares what people around you think? Don t you just want to sing your heart out to Him? Don t you just want to tell Him how glorious He is? Don t you just want to praise Him for all He is? That is what He wants. And we have dignified worshippers, professional, Candyland Christianity going on today in our culture. And we have learned how to do our makeup, and we have learned how to dress just right, and we have learned our Christianese, but our heart is flatlined for God. And we need to be excited about Christ. And we need to be passionate about Him and to give Him all of our worship. We need to realize that there is no greater treasure you will find than Jesus Christ. You can go treasure seeking all of your life and you will always have a gaping hole in your heart until you get in front of the cross. Until you travel down the road and see Jesus. Mary lost her dignity all right. But do you know what Jesus said? This is in the gospel of Mark where He said, Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. Jesus didn t think she was just doing a show. And it is not our job to judge people. They might be doing a show, but we don t know that. David s wife tried to tame him for dancing in the presence of the Lord, and he said, I will become even more undignified that this. this: Matt Redman would write a song called, Undignified, and the lyrics read like I will dance, I will sing, to be mad for my king, Nothing lord is hindering the passion in my soul, I will dance, I will sing, to be mad for my king, Page 11 of 13 pages 8/29/2010

12 Nothing lord is hindering the passion in my soul, And I'll become even more undignified than this, Some would say it's foolishness but I ll become even more undignified than this, Don t you want to lose your dignity for Jesus today? Aren t you tired of smug Christianity? Don t you want to be sold out? Read the book of Acts; it is an undignified Christianity. It is a bloody mess. They are dying for their faith. They are shouting aloud for Jesus. They get imprisoned. Paul goes to jail and he says, Pray for me that I can get an open door that I may share the gospel as I ought. He has already gone to jail for sharing the gospel and he is begging for prayers so that he can keep sharing in jail. It is like nothing will take away his passion for the one he treasures the most. Yes, losing your dignity can look a little bit foolish sometimes. I was thinking about my mom this week and how she is an amazing servant. I have always loved that about her. She will give up anything for you, and she will serve. She has just modeled that my whole life. I show up at Hospice and my mom has no idea that my dad and I are there. We walk into the room where my grandma is unconscious. She has no idea what is going on, and there is my mom with a curling iron and she is curling my grandma s hair. That moved me in a way that I can t even explain to see my mother serve like that. And she didn t even get what was the big deal when I said, Mom, this is really sweet. I am touched, Mom, about what you are doing for grandma. She was just serving and it was very Martha-like in taking care of others and serving and loving. A nurse could have walked in and thought, This is ridiculous. You have to be kidding me. You are curling her hair? She is going to die. Why would you do that? She doesn t know what her hair looks like. But my mom knew that my grandma valued having her hair curled and looking pretty. And Mary knew that Jesus valued being worshipped. He values us in giving Him our best. Are you doing that? Will you get rid of your dignity? I hope when we worship at the end of the service that you will lose your dignity. Don t put restrictions on how far you are willing to go because Jesus may ask you to give Him a shout out. He might want you to stand on your feet and weep saying, Thank you, Jesus. But we are so professional, we are so customized. We need to worship Him. So what is the take away today? Here is the principle that I want to drive home to you. If you want to know how to see Jesus as the greatest treasure of your life, then here is the final thought. You treasure the priceless name of Jesus by realizing that all treasures pale in comparison to Him. That is what Mary did. She knew that this bottle of perfume was nothing when compared to Jesus. Everything paled in comparison to Him. She wasn t worried about her dignity. She wasn t about the cost of her perfume. Page 12 of 13 pages 8/29/2010

13 She wasn t worried about getting her hair dirty. All she wanted to do was preform a face plant in the front of Jesus Christ. That is how overwhelmed she was with the king of kings and the lord of lords. What is it in your life today that Jesus would say, Let go and give to me? What is an extravagant act of worship that you can do for Jesus today? What can you give to Jesus today that would have extravagance written all over it? Mary poured out a costly bottle of perfume. Do you know what Jesus wants you to pour out? He wants you to pour out your life. Jesus loved us so much that He was willing to pour out His life on a cross and die for us. And the most costly perfume you could ever imagine dripped from His body as He bled and died for us. And three days later He rose from the grave. What He asks is, Will you treasure me above all other treasures, and give me your life? Do you love Him enough to walk out of this room and say, I m done. This treasure that is getting in the way of you Jesus, I m done with it. You are my treasure. Will you break open the alabaster jar and let us smell the aroma of your worship as we go into worship in a moment. Let s pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your Scriptures. I pray for anyone in this room right now that does not know you. If they want a personal relationship with you I pray that they will in their heart of hearts say this: Thank you Jesus for dying on a cross for my sins. Thank you Jesus for rising from the dead. By faith I want to commit my life to you. I want to repent of my sins and walk with you. If you genuinely called on the name of the Lord, we want to know about it. And God, I just pray that whatever our treasure is we will be willing to give it to you. God, you know I have searched my heart this week. Do I treasure you enough? Are you the greatest treasure of my life? Oh, God, I want that to be true. This church needs leadership that treasures you above all else. And Lord if we are not going to keep you as the greatest treasure of our lives, then raise up leadership that will. And I speak to myself as well, Lord. You deserve the best. You deserve us pouring ourselves out at your altar. And I pray, God, that we will love you in an undignified, professional-less, passionate way. In Jesus name. Amen. The preceding transcript was completed using raw audio recordings. As much as possible, it includes the actual words of the message with minor grammatical changes and editorial clarifications to provide context. Hebrew and Greek words are spelled using Google Translator and the actual spelling may be different in some cases Page 13 of 13 pages 8/29/2010