John: Worship or Waste?

Pastor Fletcher preaches from John 12:1-11 about Mary anointing Jesus with perfume. Discussion points: Mary knew who Jesus was and knew that he was worth her best, we don’t have to pit extravagant worship against helping the poor, spending time with Jesus and knowing who he is helps us learn to be generous people.

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  Scripture reader: [John 12:1-11] Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had 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. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denari and given to the poor.

  He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and having charged with the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. 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. 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 had raised from the dead. So the chief priest made plans to put Lazarus to death as well. Because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

  This is the word of the Lord.

  Preacher: A church in Brookhaven, Mississippi just made the news this week. It was kind of everywhere. I saw it in multiple different places. They erected a new giant cross and when I say giant, I mean, giant now they didn't want the attention of, of constructing the largest cross of all time. So they constructed the second largest cross of all time because obviously what they're looking for is not attention as you have a glaringly white cross that can be seen. They made it this large because they wanted it to be seen from the interstate. And, the interstate was a, a little ways away from there. The cross, it, it is 100 and 50 ft tall. It's hard to really get a grasp on that, but that's half a football field. Ok. So 50 yards tall, it's really, really tall.

  It weighs 52,000 pounds, 52,000 pounds. It's also hard to have a grasp on that, but that's like 26 cars. Ok. If not more than that, it's a lot, it's a very, very large cross and I don't know about you guys, but I mean, this feels pretty excessive to me. I mean, when I read this, I thought it was an April fool's day joke. Ok. because it, that's when I read about it, I thought it was an April fool's day joke and it's really hard, to justify something like this in a state that's in Mississippi, in a state that leads the country in poverty.

  I grew up in poverty in Mississippi. And, you know, I see things like this. I'm like, oh, what are we doing guys now? I'm here. I'm not here just to throw shade at that church. But I do think that that after they received some online push back, I thought that the pastor had something really funny to say and he said, we're excited about it. I know that in the Bible, we shouldn't be surprised that people push back because first Corinthians says, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved is the power of God. Now, you might wanna call me a fool. But I'm not sure that when the Apostle Paul wrote that verse, he had in mind 100 and 50 ft statue of the cross as the power of God. So I just thought it was humorous the way he said that.

  Now when we see that and it made its rounds around the internet and the critique was all the same. And again, I'm not here to throw shade really. That's not my church. Those aren't my people. I don't know what's best for them. I'm, I'm not here to judge, but the question that's always posed with us is shouldn't the church be focusing prioritizing, you know, more helpful things than giant crosses that can be seen from the interstate. Churches spend money on crazy stuff. Sometimes we've seen it and I think that that's actually one of the reasons why many people are leaving the church, why younger people are leaving the church because they see the way that the church uses its finances and it leaves them feeling disgusted, right? We oftentimes feel that way and we think about the, the self consumption that they see in the churches and the leaders.

  And we just think what, what could this church do? What could we, what could we have done if, if this church had directed that money toward something beneficial, like the alleviation of the poor, like the help of the poor? And I hate to say it, but that is the first thing that comes across my mind. And when you look at this passage, all of a sudden, you find yourself really resonating with someone in this passage and it's not the person you want to resonate with. Ok, so we're gonna get there as we go. It's true that many churches could spend their money better. But it's also true that each of us here could do a little bit more to, to care for the poor. Is that true? Is that not true?

  Earlier this week, it was my birthday. Thank you for all the birthday wishes. April 3rd. So that was Wednesday and I, I turned a young 38. Ok, so you guys can all just call me dad. I know that I'm, you know, that much older than you all. but uh, so I convinced my wife, I, I asked her and did convince her to take a little bit of time off of work this week. even though she just got a new job and I was like, hey, come on, let's, let's, let's, let's take a little bit of time and go celebrate. And we went and did something we had never done before. We went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It's really beautiful, very cool story. I got home. I was like, how many documentaries can I watch on this thing? It was really interesting to me. But why didn't we go help at the soup kitchen instead? I mean, we could have, we had the time, wouldn't that have been a better use of our time to go help at the soup kitchen and actually help someone instead of doing something pretty purely for me. Right? Just walking around looking at art or just take another step forward.

  Why are any of us here this morning? We could all be out there doing something, we could all be out there serving somewhere, helping people finding people if you think this way, I understand it. It is a rational way to think. But I will also say that where do you ever draw the line? Where do you draw? There's tension there, we feel that that like there's a, there's a line somewhere where I have to be able to rest, I have to be able to worship. But also I want to do good and I want to help people and I understand why you would get there. Where is the balance? Where is the balance? Let's look at today's passage. I think it is insightful and informative for us.

  Today, we're going through a series on the book of John. Last week, we looked at Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It was a really powerful passage this week, we're kind of moving forward just a little bit into. He's still hanging out with Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. But today Mary anoints Jesus feet. So let's look at this passage in more depth. starting in verse one, we just are gonna walk through it verse 16 days before the Passover. Jesus therefore came to be Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So Jesus, I guess left Bethany for a little while and then he came right back and it says six days before the Passover. And so if you wanna do the math, this is probably the Saturday before Good Friday. So this is about a week and one day before the resurrection, that this is occurring right here.

  So Jesus knows that he's about to enter Jerusalem. And when he enters Jerusalem, he knows that the end is nigh. And so he has that in mind as he's coming to Bethany verse two. So they gave a dinner for him there, Martha served and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table and when they say reclining, they mean reclining. So back in ancient times, there weren't high tables like we would use. But instead the tables were very low and you would recline at the table. You wouldn't sit in an upright chair, that was not a part of the culture whatsoever. Instead you would recline and your legs would be extended to the side. Oftentimes you wouldn't even put your legs underneath the table. You would be reclining to the side of the table. Think if you were in your living room and maybe everybody surrounds the coffee table table on the floor, to, to eat lunch or dinner. And that's kind of how they're hosting Jesus here.

  And verse three, Mary took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Now, a pound of this expensive ointment is about 11 ounces. So think, think of like a soda can Ok. And she anoints his feet with this stuff and it is smelly. The fragrance is all throughout the air. And can we all agree on something this morning? And that is that no one should call a perfume? Nard? Ok. That is just a word. If my wife came home, said I got some New Nard, I would be like, you need to take that home or take that back. Ok. That is not a name for a perfume. It's a terrible name.

  But it is, it is an oil extracted from the root of the Nard plant which is grown in India and it was very, very, very expensive. Now, when I say it's very expensive, I mean, on a scale that you are not thinking at the moment it is very expensive. I know that Judas in a few moments calls says that it's worth 300 denari. It's hard for us to get our minds wrapped around that idea of a denari, but 300 denari is a whole year's worth of wages. Ok. So you would generally make a day laborer would make one denari per day, but they would not work on the Sabbath and they would, they would take high holy days off. And so you got about 300 other days left in the year and that's about their salary for the whole year.

  So this, this ointment, what he's trying to say is that that's a whole year's worth of pay that is worth in that one little soda can worth of pure nard that we have over there. It's extremely expensive. The most expensive wine that I could find at Total wine online was called Petris Pomeroy 2006. It's from Bordeaux France and is described as full bodied and full wallet. It is $4999.97. Thank you very much. Now, if you had me over and you pulled out the Petris Palmer roll, I would say you think I am someone that I am not, I am not that important. That would be wasted on me. I'm like a two buck chuck kind of guy. Like that's not, that's not for me. Ok. Don't pull out the Petris Palmer roll. Ok. I wouldn't be able to appreciate it. Now, the perfume that Mary is using is at least worth 10 times a Petris Palmerro.

  So imagine just the most like it's just the most expensive liquid that I can think of here and she's dumping it on his feet. We can either assume by this that Mary is either very wealthy or that this is a family heirloom that they've had for quite a while that they've been holding on to for a very special occasion.

  And so Mary makes her way over to Jesus and she anoints Jesus with the oil and as she anoints him with the oil, it says that she anointed his feet and she wipes his feet with her hair. Now, this would have been a bit scandalous as well. Women don't normally let their hair down in public in this culture. One commentator said that for a woman, for a woman to let down her hair and this culture would be on par with appearing topless in public. And so this is very scandalous. She's very much kind of putting herself out there and the fragrance is filling the air.

  One interesting thing that I found as I was studying this passage is that the word Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah idea and both Christ and Messiah mean the same thing, the anointed one. And so here Jesus is leaning into his title of Christ, his title of Messiah. He is the anointed one. Now, why did Mary do this? There's only one reason and it's very obvious from what we can see is she knew who he was. She might be the only one in that room who really knew who was before her. Because if I have an important person over you, better bet I'm gonna get the good wine. Ok? I'm not gonna be grabbing the two buck Chuck, I'm gonna be getting the good stuff and it's gonna become a better wine depending on how much better that person is. Ok, no matter how, how important that person is.

  And Mary knows that Jesus is the son of God himself and because she knows who is standing before her, who is reclining at her table, she says he is worthy. He is worthy of all my worship of all of my praise. He is worthy. I'm going to use this on him now.

  Judas Iscariot, verse 41 of his disciples, he had been walking with him for three years and I love how, how the, the gospel writers talk about Judas. We don't even know like the story hasn't gotten to the point of Judas betraying Jesus yet. But it's like the gospel writers can't stop men. It's like, like you're not gonna believe this. He's the one that betrays Jesus, that guy, that traitor. So they say he who was about to betray him.

  So Judas Iscariot. One of his disciples, he who was about to betray him said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denari and given to the poor. I hate to say it, but Judas makes sense here. This is what many of us would be thinking. I don't think he's the only one in the room when this story is told in other gospels, the other, the other gospel, the other uh disciples are looking around indignant as well. Like, yeah, why wasn't it sold? That would have made a lot more sense. And you're probably, you probably know you're getting off base though when you start agreeing with Judas. OK. That's, that's like an indicator like, oh, I might not be right on this one. Judas is a pragmatist. He's a utilitarian. He's pitting compassion for the poor, against extravagant devotion and worship.

  D A Carson, the commentator said, if self righteous piety sometimes snuffs out genuine compassion, it must also be admitted with shame that social activism even that which meets real needs sometimes makes us masks a spirit that knows nothing of worship and adoration. Verse six, he said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and having charge of the money back, he used to help himself to what was put in it. So now we get a little bit of the motivation for Judas. So they did a full audit after Judas was dead and said, hey, there's some money missing over here. So they figured out what was going on with Judas and his personal greed was masquerading as altruism.

  I think we all have that family member or that friend who always insists on being the banker in monopoly. And Judas is that guy. He's like, I'll serve you guys, I'll be the banker and he's just helping himself to a few of the ones twenties over there. Michael told me, Michael Villalopez told me that that was him as a child. Ok? So you guys can give him grief on that later. He's like the Lord has sanctified me. I've repented. Judas saw the money. So the money bag that was, that was kept by Judas was kind of seen as that. It, it was surely used to cover the needs of the disciples and Jesus. So people would make contributions to the money bag. It was like the budget for the disciples and they would use it, they, they would use eat also, they would use it to support the poor. So it was kind of like our church budget, We use it for things in the church. We also use it to support the poor. It's, it's both.

  But Judas saw the money back as his personal slush fund and he didn't want to take all the money. He just wanted to help himself to the money when he wanted it or needed it. So in a few chapters, we discovered that Judas actually betrays Jesus and what does he betray Jesus for? But 30 silver coins. And this story reminds us that sin sometimes drastic, big sin usually start small. Judas had a disoriented relationship with money far before he sold Jesus for 30 silver coins. And that reminds us to be always evaluating our lives and making sure that we don't have the seeds of evil that could grow into trees of evil in our hearts.

  Verse seven, Jesus says, leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. I love how Jesus is defending Mary. He's saying, leave this woman alone. It's hard to know exactly what Jesus is saying here. Understand exactly what he's saying. He's probably saying this metaphorically because he says so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. But obviously, she's already used it. And so how is she going to keep it? He's probably saying something like she's kept the bottle for such a time as this. Jesus knows that his burial is coming soon and he's predicting such a thing. Mary may have had no idea that in less than a week, Jesus would be dead. But her active devotion had symbolic importance.

  In verse eight, Jesus said something really provocative. He says, for the poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me and I love how Jesus walks that line. He, he walks that line so well. He doesn't say the poor aren't important. He says the poor you're always going to have, but you're not always going to have me. What Jesus is saying is that there's something even more important than taking care of the poor, taking care of the poor is very important. We all wanna get behind that, but there's something even more important than taking care of human needs. And it's Jesus himself, it's Jesus himself.

  Now, a lot of churches focus on worship to the exclusion of caring for the poor. They just focus completely insular and a lot of churches do the exact opposite. They focus completely on caring for the poor to the exclusion of true worship. If we're following, if we're faithfully following Jesus, we're doing both. We're doing both. We don't have to pit extravagant worship against helping the poor. And in fact, I would declare, and I would argue that extravagant worship fuels the care for the poor, that it actually empowers the most radical way to care for the poor that your worship fuels the way that you're able to care.

  Because one reason, there's one reason why I don't throw shade on our friends in Mississippi. If you look at the most generous States in the United States. Number one is the most impoverished state. The most religious state is Mississippi. They're the most generous state also. It's, it's pretty amazing when you think about it. The most religious state also, the most generous state. Christians have historically radically cared for the poor. We've been there for the poor. It's been something that's been important for us far before it was important to local governments. Christians have been caring for the poor starting hospitals. The first public hospitals started by the Christians, the first we, we were caring for orphans far before that was the interest of the state.

  Christians have been doing this sort of thing and there are plenty of non-christian people out there. I'm not trying to say that there aren't plenty of non-Christian people out there who really genuinely care for the poor. But what I have noticed over the years of seeing people really lay down their lives to care for the poor is that they will become burnt out. That burn out comes because taking care of the poor is not easy. It means that you have to sacrifice yourself to care for someone else. I have to give up my time, my resources, my personal comfort to care for someone else. It is a difficult thing. You are constantly sacrificing.

  But Christianity I believe gives you the N word resources to care for the external needs around you. It allows you to be able to be cared for yourself and Christ through your extravagant worship and that fuels and motivates your radical generosity. May we be a people that are fueled and motivated for radical generosity? Not because of guilt, but because we've received the generosity of God. Amen. We have received this gift, which is the Holy Spirit. We have received this gift, which is the Son of God, living the life that we should have lived, dying, the death that we deserve to die and then being risen from the dead and through our faith in Him, we are given the gift of life of resurrected life. And because of that eternal spring of joy and that eternal spring of life, we're able to care for others.

  Self consumption and following Jesus are like oil and water. Those two things don't go together because Jesus is constantly laying down his life for others. And So as we follow Jesus, we're constantly laying down our life for others. This woman sacrifices an expensive bottle of perfume at the feet of Jesus. But in another story, I don't want you to see that Jesus doesn't care about caring for the poor because in another story, he tells a man to do exactly what Judas wants Mary to do. He tells a rich young ruler to go sell everything he owns and to give it to whom not to the money bag, but to the poor, go sell everything you own and give it to the poor. He tells him to go sell everything he owns and not to build an altar for worship, go sell everything you own and give it to the poor.

  You know, sometimes God calls us to worship with an alabaster jar to give our best to Him, to lay down our lives as an act of praise and worship to him. And sometimes God calls us to sacrifice everything for the sake of the poor. And for most of us, it, we're somewhere in between those two extremes, ok? Somewhere in between those two extremes where we have to figure out how to care for ourselves because look, you had to be able to care for your own family. The scripture says that the man who doesn't care for his family doesn't provide for his family in time of need is worse than a non-christian is what the scripture says, which is pretty bad if you think about it in that terms and the way that Paul is saying it. And so we have to be able to provide for our own basic needs, but also live this exceedingly generous life.

  May we be known as people that live this generous life. We're called to live a life of worship and worship means sacrifice, worship means sacrifice, whatever you worship, you will sacrifice for. If you worship your body, you'll sacrifice calories and time in the gym, you'll sacrifice money to have doctors. Make it look the way that you want you. If you worship your job, you'll sacrifice your family and your personal time. If you sacrifice, if you worship your money, you'll pinch pennies and become a cheap person.

  But when you worship Jesus, you actually are given the freedom to live life the way that it is intended to live by denying yourself and living for his glory. Because you're given this internal resources. You see these gods, the, the money, the, the body, the, the job they don't care for you in return. But when you lay down your life for Jesus, he's already laid down his life for you. He sacrificed himself to care for you. So personally, I'm still working through what this looks like for me.

  So when Megan and I got married super young, we were, we were younger than most. I don't know if I would recommend it for all, but you know, we lived in Kentucky at the time and that's, that's the way you do it there, I guess. and, we got married really young. We were very, very poor for the first several years, of our marriage. I remember when we got married, I went to my boss. who some of you guys might actually anyways. I, I won't go into all that, but I was working at a church and I went to my boss and said, hey, I'm not gonna be able to provide for my family. And he's like, ok, how much do you make? And I was like 10,000 a year and he was like, yeah, yeah, that's called abuse. And I don't know why we're doing that to you right now. And he was like, how much do you need? And I was like maybe 18, which is a bit comical now and it was 14 years ago, you know, it was in the 2000 tens. and he was like, ok, we can certainly do that. So I got a big raise when we got married to $18,000. And our rent was only 450 a month though. So for a little two bedroom house, I know you're jealous. It's kind of crazy here. We had a little yard. It was, it was, it was not far from downtown, it was great. nice, nice little spot.

  But then God called us to move to Boston and I made a little bit more money. But let's just say we were so poor. And why were we poor? Because rent is too high. It is too high. Amen, too high. But from those very early days, we were, we were still poor in Boston for, for a long time. We, we had to go find a place to live. And I'm telling you guys, we, we, we liked where we were living, but some of our friends did not like where we were living so much so to where I think some people were a little afraid to go to our house. At times, our house had four different colors on the outside. OK. It was nice on the inside. Jesus gave it to us. Literally, my landlord's name was Jesus. So Jesus gave it to us. I saw the listing in Craigslist. It was like one of the only apartments we could afford no pictures. It was just like two bedroom apartment with a study in this neighborhood and it said, and it just had a few details and it had the the price and I was like, that's a pretty good price. So I picked up the phone and called it said call Jesus and I said, and then I called him and, and it, it turned out to not be a scam somehow. So we, we had this little little house. It was, it was not in the greatest neighborhood. We heard gunshots regularly and whatnot.

  But we, we made it work, we made it work and our, our, our commitment from the very early. So in those days, I remember our budget for clothing was $20 a month, Megan. And I really strung it together there for a while. We would say for four months just to be able to buy like a pair of pants. Ok? We were really trying to make it. In fact, we got so we got so annoyed sometimes because we would have friends who would be having money problems, they would go find the richest people in our church to talk to about their money problems and how to make their budget. And we're like, they should be talking to us. We're poor, we know how to be poor. Let us teach you how to be poor. Ok? They're just gonna say make more money. Of course, duh, like that's so easy.

  From those very early days, we made it a huge importance in our life to continue to be generous to God. And we said that we need to worship God with our money even though we're poor. And so even from the very early days when we were making almost nothing, we were still giving 100 $200 a month or something like that. And it's just because it was a huge priority for us. We wanted to make it a priority. Now, I was making my money from the church, but that doesn't mean I'm exempt from giving to Jesus. I need to be radically examining my own life and considering how I need to worship Jesus through my resources, whether that to be selling things I own, to give to the poor or laying down alms at the feet of Jesus, whatever it looks like for me and look, we're in a much different situation now. Ok.

  And this is why I'm still trying to figure this out. My pay has increased as the years have gone by as the church has grown as I've changed in education and position in the church and role and everything. And my family has grown so much exponentially, not quite, but, you know, linearly. and my, I, I make more than what I did then, you know, we're, we're fairly comfortable with that and my wife works in biotech. So we're definitely fairly comfortable with that as well. And it opens up a whole new idea of what we should be doing and we're trying to figure that out still and we're working through it. Megan's gone from stay at home mom to, to this new job and, and we have more resources now than we've ever had.

  And there's a part of my soul that wants to hold on to more and more as I have more and more available to me. You know, when you're poor. It's easy to say I don't have much anyway. So take all that I have. But when you start making more my my soul, it wants to hold on to more and more and I want to come up with excuses like student loans are expensive. Amen. Child care is expensive. Can't I get an amen. The US medical system is expensive and my guess is that many of you are in a similar place of life as to me. And I'll just tell you this in my life. I feel a temptation to selfishly overconsume for myself in every corner of my soul. I fight that. I'm having to fight that regularly. I want to eat in better restaurants. I want to take fancier vacations. I want better furniture. I want a nicer car, I want more stylish clothes, but I don't want to pick those stylish clothes. So I want a stylist as well. Her name is Megan. So thankful for that.

  The life of comfort and ease is very spiritually dangerous, very spiritually dangerous. And Jesus warns us over and over again of that in the scripture. This is especially true for those of us who live in Camber. This is a spiritually dangerous place to be. I'm looking at my life and I'm thinking with so much opportunity for selfish overconsumption. How do I live for Jesus? What do I do? What's God calling me to? How do I give my all to Jesus? What does it look like for us? What do I need to lay at the feet of Jesus?

  And I think each one of us has to answer that question for ourselves. I don't think I've actually solved that problem for me. I'm still working it out for myself. But here's what I do know that I want to be known as a man who is radically generous. I want to be known to God, at least as a man who lays down his life for others and who pours out as much as he's been poured into. I wanna push back on this overconsumption in my life. And I want to live a radically generous and worshipful life. When you think of the seven deadly sins, each one is a sin of overconsumption, selfish, overconsumption, greed, gluttony, lust, wrath, swath pride, envy. And we need to push back on the overconsumption in our life so that we can live radically generous worship, full hearts.

  Now, you can't do that unless you're first looking at Jesus. Let me apply this just a little bit to you. Give you a few practices, things that you can do from here to, to figure out what this looks like for you first, the first step here and if you don't get this, you don't get it. You, you have to understand who Jesus actually is.

  That was Judas's problem. Judas was following Jesus for a few years, but he actually didn't understand who Jesus was Mary De and where did she learn who Jesus was? She observed? And she got down at the feet of Jesus. And so a practical application for us is to get down. If you wanna be a generous person, you need to get down at the feet of Jesus and see who he actually is. What does that look like? You finding a little bit of time for a little bit of solitude? A little bit of silence and praying, actually talking to him. He is available to you. And if you speak to him expecting that your words would make it to him. You know, sometimes it feels like our words don't make it past the ceiling, but God comes down underneath that.

  So if we speak to him and we seek him in his word, we will hear from him. And so first up, get down at the feet of Jesus and seek this rhythm of praying, of reading. Second, whatever you're doing, do it completely for Christ, the anointed one. Bach is known as one of the greatest composers of all time. If not the greatest composer of all time, he might gonna argue that, I don't know, I, you know, Mozart, I don't know. I'm not a music guy. But Tom York is my greatest composer of all time. But Bach was that joke fell really flat. Everybody's like who I'll tell you later. It said that Bach wrote SDG at the top of each of his compositions, Sola Soli, Deo Gloria to God alone, be the glory.

  And we can't pit activism against worship, worship propels and informs social activism. It gives us the resources to do social activism and we do everything as an offering to Jesus, it will propel us to make the world a better place. And thirdly, if we do everything for Jesus, we have to practice generosity. One of the ways you can't be a generous person without practicing generosity. It's actually something you have to practice. You have to see an opportunity and step into the opportunity. I'm just gonna let you figure out what that looks like for you. I don't know what it looks like for you.

  Maybe, maybe you need to take steps of caring for people around you. If you call this your church home, I would encourage you to, to give something to Jesus through your local church. Whether that be $2 maybe you sacrificed a coffee this month. That's something, you know. And I, I do wanna be very careful about that though because that's falling in very close to the same thing that you just said. Is it not because Judas said she could have sold this and given it to the money back and we that and then he could have helped himself. And I am a man who makes his living off the money back. I, I I draw my salary from the church and you guys provide abundantly for us. I'm very thankful for that. But we do have policies and procedures in place to defend against misuse of those funds. I can't just go out there and spend money. I can't just go out there and do whatever I want for myself. We have lots of policies and multiple eyes looking at those things. We have a budget people. I don't set my own salary. I never have set my own salary and that it, it's just something that I have to guard against. And that's one reason why we have to have a plurality of leaders in the church people that can look at that type of thing and, and be careful with it because I need to be careful with that.

  But more importantly, I want our church to just be known as people with generous hearts at all times. I want us to walk through life and worship to Christ Randy Alcorn said five minutes after I die, I wanna ask myself this question. What will I wish I had given away five minutes after I had died because you can't take it with you, right? What is Jesus calling you to lay down at the feet of Jesus today? Maybe it's money, maybe it's something else. Maybe it's a relationship that you just need to lay down at the feet of Jesus. Maybe it's an unhealthy obsession with something that you just need to lay down at the feet of Jesus. So you just need to give this thing up.

  Maybe it's some distraction in your life that you just need to lay down. One time. I was walking down the street and I had been praying about this and I heard not audible but as close to it as I've ever heard it, say you need to delete the game on your phone that I've been playing. I pulled out my phone as I walked down the street and I deleted the game. I never regretted it. My life was better from there forward because I was just wasting a lot of time on that. Maybe it's some sort of prejudice that you need to lay at the feet of Jesus. Maybe it's some type of grudge, whatever it is. Let's hand it over and let's, let's find ourselves in the place of Mary worshiping Christ, preparing to receive what he's given to us. Let's hand it over.

  We're gonna have an opportunity for you to evaluate that and to respond to Christ this morning to this next song. One of the invitations is through a communion meal that if you are a Christian, a believer here with us this morning, we'd invite you to come and participate. with that being said, let me invite you to stay in church as we prepare our hearts to, to respond to Jesus this morning.

  Father, we we pray that you would bring spiritual life and vitality to each one of us and that the grips of greed would be loosened today and that the rhythms of generosity would flow. And God, we pray that you would lead each and every one of us, guide us to how we can live at your feet. And what it means to know the God of the universe. What it means to know who you actually are. May we praise you for who you actually are? May we be filled with your Holy Spirit anointed by Him that we receive these promises, we worship you as the anointed one. And we ask that you would pour into us a special anointing of the Holy Spirit that we might enjoy who you are and live in accordance with that make us radically generous people. We ask this in Christ's name, Amen.