 Good morning church. How are we doing today? I'm so glad to be with you. It's it's a joy to be here. Yes The Lord through an interesting journey has has us currently just north of Kansas City in Missouri But I grew I was born and raised in Chino And so it's always good to be back home graduated from Chino High School and always good to be back in Sun and No, actually Missouri is a great place It's a very underrated but beautiful place and God is doing a great work there But I tell you God's doing a great work everywhere these days. Isn't it exciting time to follow Jesus? Yeah, and and I'm just glad to be here with you guys I I had the opportunity to visit Your church a little while back as you were celebrating 40 years of ministry And I just want to applaud and commend a pastor David and the leaders and and all of you here at this church You have stood as a beacon a true to the gospel of Jesus Christ and Anchored in the word of God for so many years in this community and that is just worth Saying thank you and it's I'm humbled and honored to be able to share God's word with you today Well with that said yeah I'd love for you to grab your Bibles and turn to John chapter 12 That is where we find ourselves this morning Do my best here after first service I? did a little tour of the courtyard and I got talked into one taco and then three tacos and one played a nachos later I'm feeling moved this morning, so I Don't know exactly what your practice is here But I love for the congregation to stand while we read God's word So if you would mind standing with me and look at John chapter 12 this morning as I read from The gospel of John verses one through eight John chapter 12 verses one through eight Then six days before the Passover, so this is the week leading up to Jesus's crucifixion Jesus came to Bethany were Lazarus who was excuse me Let where Lazarus was who had been dead whom he had raised from the dead there They made him a supper and Martha served But Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spike Nard anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and The house was filled with the fragrance of the oil important point to note there But one of his disciples Judas Iscariot Simon's son who would betray him said Why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? This he said not that he cared for the poor But because he was a thief and he had the money box and he used to take what was put in it But Jesus said Let her alone She has kept this for the day of my burial For the poor you have with you always But me you do not have always Father we thank you god for your word to us this morning We ask by the power of your holy spirit That our hearts and our minds would be attentive and open to what you are speaking challenging encouraging exhorting us today and so lord we ask that you would Have full reign in this place that this house would turn into a sweet Dwelling place of the lord as your church is gathered here this morning and We look to your word for the truth that we need This morning in jesus name. Amen. You can be seated I'd like to start off the message this morning by asking you two questions Don't answer them out loud, but ponder them as we move through this passage this morning The question number one is simply this What do you want? That's a fairly broad question. What do you mean? What do I want? It's supposed to be I want you to think about things that you want in life Things that you're pursuing things that are valuable and important to you And the second question following is what what do you want is what's it worth to you? What's it worth to you? Every person every human being lives their life makes their decisions builds their priorities Around the things that are most valuable to them The things that are worth something to them Everyone does this and what we call that is a value System all right and every person has a value system by which they live Different people value different things. There's different schemes different priorities But everyone has a has a order of what is valuable to them and here is a true statement regarding the value systems in life That the more valuable something becomes to you The harder it is to give that thing I need interaction so there's no trick questions this morning. It's just it's pretty obvious The more valuable something becomes to you the harder it is to give it Up in a way, that's right When it comes to the things that we value It's interesting how something can shift your view on on on what you value so quickly A few years back a couple in our family in our church was moving to Africa To become missionaries and so they were selling their home beautiful home in northern california They were getting rid of all their stuff and they gave us a call So we have some bikes we want to give give them to the kids come pick them up And if there's anything else you guys see here that you want, uh, it's just just come grab it And so we went over to their house and When I was in high school. I like to collect baseball cards It was a bit of a hobby of mine during my high school years And so I walk into this guy's garage and every single wall is lined and stacked with with boxes of baseball cards and he said you want these and I I thought about it and then I looked at my wife and I thought about my garage and I said no not not really But he said take this take this little I don't know what's in it Just take this box and so he gave me this little shoe box And it was all taped up So I threw it in my car packed up the bikes who went home that evening I grabbed out the shoe box and I started to open it up And I took off the tape and I opened the shoe box up and as soon as I opened it up The first card I see is it says mickey mannell willy maize Jota maggio and the whole box Had these cards and these thick cases and there and and all of a sudden I was not just tossing around a little cardboard box You know, I was like dusting it off and putting it on the shelf very carefully and all of a sudden it gained value it gained worth and I I treated it differently And value doesn't always have to be monetary, right? I mean I remember when I was cleaning out my garage to take things to the goodwill and I I took that old rusted out pogo stick Boy about broke my daughter's heart. I took her greatest treasure But not to mention All the white bags that we're sitting there to go to the goodwill drop them off come back And my wife says, have you seen that bag of our brand new snow clothes from trying to get ready for the winter? Are my 200 dollar jackets in there? I can't seem to find it Um, let's just say I spent the next couple weeks at every goodwill store Around and someone got a really good deal Um for the winter But anyway This message isn't about um clothes and it's not about money and it's not about those types of things What the message today has to do with deal with is is worship and how does worship relate? Well in the in the english the word worship is a compound word That is is much like we have friendship and relationship and then we have worship. What's war? W o r in the in the english it's worth worth Ship and so worship happens when I attribute value or worth to when it comes to the highest thing of my highest value of my highest worth Those are the things that I worship and typically The only time you find people giving up the things that they value And that are worth something to them Is when they find something that is worth More or that is more valuable the minute they find something that is worth more valuable The the they measure the cost and they say okay, it's worth me giving up this In order to obtain this that is more valuable Jesus in fact gives a series of analogies In matthew chapter 13 and yes, I'm selling my introduction here, but you don't need to turn there I'll have it on the screen if you'd like matthew chapter 13 Jesus discusses this regarding the nature of God's kingdom Verses 44 through 46 listen to this. He says again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field Which a man found and hid and for joy over it. He goes and sells all that he has and he buys the field Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls Who when he had found one pearl of great price? He went and sold all that he had And he bought it Now we could do an entirely in-depth study right on that passage But for the sake of this morning's message, here's one principle. I want you to take away That the treasure in the field And the pearl of great price Were more valuable to the finder Than everything else they possessed right to the point where they would say every all of my treasures I will get rid of them in order to purchase this treasure this pearl this field For that's where I found my greatest joy and of course the the application For that is the fact that God's kingdom through the person of Jesus Christ Is the greatest treasure that a human being could ever land upon Is there anyone who can testify in here that the reality is that you were in darkness You were miserable you were trying to find anything in this world that would fill the gaps and voids in your life You felt manipulated you felt lied to you felt like you were always confused And then all of a sudden the light of the gospel shone and Jesus came into your life and you said wow I found what I need He is what I need He's the answer But think about those looking in from the outside Those looking at these people not not knowing not having the knowledge of the field or the treasure or the pearl Going what on earth are those people doing? Selling everything they have to buy a field Well today I want to go through this story in the bible in john chapter 12 A story of worship where someone specifically marry sacrifices And pours out her most valuable treasure On the feet of jesus as an act of worship The title of this morning's message if you're taking notes is in the form of a question Wasted worship Can worship be wasted? This is a story of sacrifice of courage of embarrassment of humiliation of praise But it's an incredibly relevant story for us today Why because the story of mary forces us to ask the question how much is jesus really worth To me And so if you're taking notes We'll go through four points in the form of four questions that I want us to ask ourselves today as we look through this passage Question number one is simply this Is jesus worth more than what I value the most? Is jesus worth more than what I value the most verse three again look at it with me Then mary took a pound Of very costly oil of spikernard Anointed the feet of jesus and wiped his feet with her hair And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil I want you to focus for a moment on the oil itself This is a very rare rare oil spikernard. It comes actually from india. You can actually buy it today Like doTERRA young living all those essential oils still still make it but back then it's it's still expensive today I looked up a bottle of spikernard. It was like $418 But back then even it was even more rare. It was reserved only to anoint those of highest honor and and for mary Many people believe that this would have been for a single jewish woman who did not have a husband This was her savings account her retirement her future marriage everything that she possessed in in the world was wrapped up in this sealed jar container of this very expensive oil Many people believe that it would have been for her dowry. That is the the cost that she would have brought into her marriage paid into her husband reserved for that marriage day And when we when we see this lavish way that mary expresses her love to jesus by literally some would say wasting or pouring out Her greatest treasure upon jesus doesn't make earthly sense. It didn't make sense to the people who were in the room We're going to find that out in a minute Only two people it made sense to at the moment were her and jesus But this isn't really what they teach you to do in like dav ramsey financial peace university, right? Like just go take just go, you know, just go throw it all out And here's the thing about this oil I want you to recognize I don't know if any of you are into essential oils or not My my wife got into essential oils a while back and my life's never been the same You know, but here's the reality. She has these diffusers, right? And and you put you put just like two or three drops of oil into this water And you turn it on and your whole house smells like stuff Trees and flowers and all sorts of things But here's the point oil of that Nature is very potent. It's very strong Only two or three drops if mary would have taken a sliver And just poured out a few drops and anointed jesus feet that would be a high act of honor Of worship that even would have drawn attention of like wow, what's she doing? But notice that mary doesn't just take a few drops She takes all that she has a whole pound of it and she puts it all on jesus Not even reserving anything for herself not reserving anything for her future And what speaks to me from this passage the most is maybe what is unspoken Because notice what jesus does not say Mary stop That's enough keep some for yourself. I'm not really worth it. Does he do that? There goes the oil more and more and more and the tears are flowing and the hair is and she's totally vulnerable before jesus and And and I don't know but jesus i'm sure had this intent look Of love And and joy In this moment of adoration And here's the thing i found About jesus jesus never and shouldn't ever apologize For the fact that he is worthy of our greatest sacrifice Of our submission of our obedience of the worship of our lives We give our worship to so many other things Except for the ones sometimes where it's the safest And yet it's when we give our worship to jesus that we find ourselves most complete isn't it? But jesus doesn't apologize that he's worthy he's worthy and paul would recognize this In seeing that jesus who being The very essence the very nature of god Who humbled himself had no obligation to do so but gave his own life for our sins paul would say i beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of god That you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable which what which is your reasonable logical understandable obvious Act of worship He is worthy of our greatest sacrifice Sometimes i think there are people who really walk around life be grudged Bitter and angry at god Because i gave god something And he took it And then what i hoped would happen What i dreamed of happening what i expected to happen with my life didn't go the way i had hoped and now i'm angry at god for it This is a very regular pattern that people live in they live in a lot of bitterness at god because it didn't go the way They had hoped when they gave themselves to the lord But i would suggest that many people in that state are miserable not because of what god didn't do But because they never really entered into the place of full surrender They never really understood the joy And the contentment and the satisfaction of giving their themselves to jesus simply because jesus is worthy Simply because he's enough Self-preservation never yields true joy or contentment or eternal fruit I sadly think about times in my life Where i have said no to jesus Because of the fear of what it might cost me And of course that never ends better But how many times is that our initial response right god prompts our hearts I want you to go. I want you to share the gospel with the guy. I want you to go reach out to that neighbor I want you to go to the hospital. I want you to go on the mission trip I want you to serve in this area of ministry. I have a plan for you I want you to step out in faith and the first question that pops into our carnal sinful ruined minds is well What's it going to cost me? What's it going to require? What am I going to have to give up? Can i do this and still maintain my comfort and still maintain my ambitions and still if i can fit it All into my box and i'll say yes That wasn't mary's thought at all She was so consumed with jesus that the sight of him the reality of who he was and what he was doing Eclipse The value of everything else This is why viewing every act that we do as an act of worship to god will Make those acts less burdensome Right paul said three separate times Whatever you do whether you eat or drink Word or indeed Do it all for the glory of god Giving thanks to the father do it all in the name of jesus. Why because when i'm directing my worship to jesus everything else falls into place I think this can even affect our corporate worship. We gather together in this place. It's just a building, right? It's just an empty shell until the church of god comes in who's in how Who are inhabited by the spirit of god and they and who are dwelling place of god in the spirit And we all begin to sing forth the praises of god We have these songs that declare his majesty and his glory and his goodness and his worth I personally think that that ought to be that ought to be such a special moment of interaction with god And many times for many of us it's like we're so distracted, you know, we're so Well, we can just skip that that's just the music. We got to just get there for the message Well, you know the drums are too loud. Well, I don't really like that song. Well, you know And we're singing about a clap your hands clap your hands and we're just like, oh, when is this going to be over? It's a special time So for our lives to be poured out simply we have to ask ourselves that question Is jesus more valuable than the things I value the most second question Verses four and five teach us is we need to ask ourselves this is jesus worth more than the opinions of other people Is jesus worth more than the opinions of other people Verse four But one of his disciples judas is scary it Simon's son who would betray him Said why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 nanari and given to the poor certainly The murmuring in the room Would have been incredibly humiliating You have to understand the context Of that culture right women didn't really have a place now jesus Changed all of that It was a patriarchal society and so and so women didn't really have a place they were to be beneath Right and so judas and we're going to talk about his motive in a minute He he verbally in front of her and in front of jesus and in front of the disciples and in front of lazarus and in front of everyone Who's at this meal that they're enjoying in bethany He says What a waste Why can't we do something more productive? With that oil that that money What does that do? Well, matthew's account tells us that all the other disciples started saying the same thing Because it only takes one little voice right complaining and Planting seeds and then all of a sudden. Oh, yeah, that's judas is right Oh, what a waste and and so put if you can try to put yourself in the position of this woman She's on her knees in a vulnerable position. Her hair is loosed already. She's making herself completely Transparent she's already putting everything on the line. Her greatest treasure is now being spent on the feet of jesus She's in this moment of worship and everyone around the in the room is like, what is she doing? What a waste and and they're mocking Expecting jesus to agree with them This woman sacrifice I mean if that happened to anyone in this room today, it would probably be enough for you to get up Out of the room and run out crying But she doesn't does she Notice that mary remains completely unfazed By the opinions And the criticisms of those around her Her eyes are on jesus Her worship and attention is focused. She knows what she must do and she is focused on the purpose and the mission at hand She was not distracted by the awkwardness or the discomfort of her act of worship that caught that that caused the others around her Sometimes I really have to think if if many of the disciples criticism of mary's worship Didn't actually come from a logical argument, but rather from a place of conviction I never worshiped jesus like that I never thought about giving jesus a treasure like that and instead of admitting And praising mary for her sacrifice they criticized her to make themselves feel better about their lack of commitment to jesus You know people still do that today This was not the first time mary was criticized for her worship decisions She was criticized once by her own sister. You remember that? In luke chapter 10 where we read that martha had a sister called mary who also sat at jesus's feet and heard his word But martha was distracted with much serving and she approached him and said lord Do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? therefore tell her to help me And jesus answered and said to her martha martha you are worried and troubled about many things But one thing is needed and mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her Notice how jesus constantly comes to the defense of those Whose eyes are fixed on him and who are who are more concerned with obeying him than being swayed by the opinions of the people around them And jesus comes to mary's defense for her obedience He praises her for her priority prioritization of him above everything else even above serving Because jesus didn't die just for a bunch of workers He died for a relationship Yes, we do need to serve. Yes, we do need to work. But our priority must be to be with jesus To worship him to offer ourselves to him I believe this is why paul during his ministry made it clear as he wrote to the church in galatia in galatians 110 He says do I seek to please men? For if I still please men Would I would not be a bond servant of christ? So he basically says you you can't be torn about who your ultimate allegiance is to You can't walk through life always Worrying and being concerned about how everyone else is going to think About your decisions to follow jesus. No, your decision to follow jesus Is first directed towards jesus your allegiance is to him first And on a side note, and I won't I won't try not I'll try not to get too much on a rabbit trail here But I think we live in a day and age where the church needs to be more committed than ever before than christians Individually need to be more committed than ever before To jesus and his word and his truth Regardless of what you know, we've lived in a time where yeah, we've lived in a time Where christianity has mostly been culturally acceptable. We We sell out we remember today. We pray for the persecuted church the people that are literally Giving all to jesus and paying the ultimate price of their lives of their resources of everything they have And we haven't known that too much To that to any extent in this nation in this country But what concerns me these especially over this past year is the minute The godless culture gives their opinion on an issue You could hand pick a hundred churches Who stand from the pulpit a hundred pastors who stand from the pulpit and basically just hit the repeat button From the headlines on cnn news or the latest pressure points that people You know the loudest voice out there and all of a sudden the church is preaching it and dressing it up in all sorts of christian language The church has become so weak That we can be bullied around by the opinions of a godless world Since when is the last time you read that the that the That the church is to receive its talking points its doctrine And its messages from a godless world that doesn't that doesn't even believe that he exists that want to be their own god That's where you get it. No, this is where we get it. This is our foundation right here The opinions of the people around you when you choose to follow jesus are going to grow more and more critical in these days, trust me But don't change jesus to some culturally relevant politically correct Godless version of jesus because you want to be liked by a world that doesn't believe in him Shine as a light church Jesus said you are the light of the world A city on a hill cannot be hidden neither do they light a lamp and put it under a basket But they put it on a lamp stand for all to see What I love about that passage when jesus says this is he doesn't say you need to become the light of the world He says this is what I've made you But the frightening thing is is that what god made us? He's given us the free will to hide If we so choose But maybe you've noticed That everything in this world and in our culture is being shaken like never Before and maybe in our lifetime at least And I believe i'm not a prophet But I believe there is coming a time In this nation and in this world Where everything that the people around you have been trusting in putting their identity in putting their foundation in their jobs Their money their resources their relationships their prominence their power Whatever it is that they have tried to fill that void in their lives with it is going to crumble And the darkness around them is going to grow darker and darker and more intrusive and when they are in that place They are going to need to be able to look up And see on a hill a light and it's not a politician and it's not the government and it's not the it's not the stock market It is the church of jesus christ Brightly shining the truth of jesus being anchored in his word That's what the church of the book of acts was I have digressed a bit, but let's get back on track We need to make sure jesus is more valuable to us than the opinions of other people Number three question three Is jesus worth more Than the lives of the enemy is jesus worth more than the enemy's lives Judas pipes up with an objection That obviously to everyone in the room seemed reasonable Why don't we Why are we wasting that oil? We could have sold it for 300 denarii. That's one year's working wages Okay, now we understand why this was her greatest treasure one year's working way. We don't know how much we could have Fed the poor people with that I think Judas would have made a good politician right on the outside We need to take what belongs to everyone else and feed the poor with it when they really are interested only in money Okay, I'll stop. I promise. That's it. That's it. I'm done But notice a few things about Judas. These are important first of all Was it Judas's perfume? No, like what business it is. Is it of his anyway what she does with her own stuff? Like that's her decision between her and jesus Secondly, I want you to notice that Judas's internal motive was different than his expressed motive He expressed in front of everyone else Something that would get everyone riled up and get them critical at mary But notice the john tells us what he really wanted was that he kept the money box And he was thinking 300 denarii in the money box that I have access to would would pad my pockets So he was being deceptive Third of all, it teaches us something valuable about our spiritual adversary the devil Because I believe that Judas typifies Satan in this passage In what way Well satan too Has an express motive And an internal motive Satan will always mock and challenge the christian's commitment and worship to the lord Why don't you spend your time and effort and energy doing something worthwhile What are you really accomplishing by following jesus? What a waste of your potential? You could go make something of yourself in the world Hey, be good Feed the poor Do something moral that's all great. Just keep jesus out of it As long as you keep jesus out of it satan's fine with it. Why? Because his express motive is different from his internal motive. What is satan's internal motive? He doesn't he wants all the worship that's going to jesus for himself He wants a pickpocket that worship Satan is a worship hog He wants people's worship and he will lie to them and he will promise them things and he will do things for them As long as it keeps them away from jesus In this world But notice how he lies And his lies were intended to knock mary off course But jesus silences Excuse me jesus silences jesus's contradictions and mary. He says he's doing the right thing Again by way of application. How many times have maybe we stopped short Of complete obedience to god's will Of a step of faith Because we Listened to the wrong voice We listened to the voice that magnified our insecurities or challenged Our faith or and we we gave in to that voice of the enemy Rather than keeping our hearts and our ears fixed on the word you guys sometimes especially in this world today We need to learn how to tune out and turn down the voices around us and tune in and turn up the voice of jesus And his word make sure that he is allowed his voice speaking into your life That's where eve went wrong Is that she started listening to the wrong voice and was deceived So be careful what voice you listen to Jesus must be more valuable than the lies of the enemy and his attempts to derail us The fourth and final question we need to ask Is jesus worth more than the potential lack of return? Is jesus worth more than the potential lack of return? The other thing i notice and observe about mary is that as she's giving this gift to jesus She doesn't express the mentality i'm giving something valuable to jesus. I wonder what he's going to give to me Notice that it is no jesus is worth it. I have it. I want to bless him. That's it period It's not So into so into jesus and and so jesus can do something better for your life No, it's jesus is god. He's king. He's worthy and i'm gonna give it to him and let him do what he wants with it And regardless of whether or not i see a return or understand the purpose or see the big picture i don't But that doesn't matter because i want to give jesus my obedience and my worship now What she didn't know Was that jesus was preparing a greater reward for her In fact in matthew's gospel jesus adds the words truly i tell you Wherever this gospel is preached in all the world What she has done will be told of her in her memory The story is attached to the gospel in what ways this kind of blows my mind Notice a couple things jesus said she's preparing me for my burial i find this a very interesting statement because jesus like i said at the beginning is One week out From the cross He's been telling his disciples over and over and over more more plainly and more plainly. Yeah, i'm gonna be i'm gonna be turned over I'm gonna be betrayed They're gonna crucify me and his disciples are like yeah, whatever Who's gonna be in charge? That's all i want to know right? That's his disciples apparently not much has changed because the women were the only ones actually listening to jesus And and jesus now is She is preparing him for his burial. She knows something she senses The value of what this will mean to jesus And so the week goes on The Passover comes jesus meets all of his disciples in an upper room And you remember the story they all go in there Trying to find who's gonna sit at the best place right? They all passed the big basin of water that the servant would Use to wash the feet of the people that enter in the room. They're not thinking about it. They just want to find their seats It's gonna be an exciting Passover. Jesus is gonna take over pretty soon Jesus walks in he takes off his robe. He take he he dons the servant's towel He picks up the basin of water and he goes and he systematically begins to wash each of their feet in the in the Picture of a servant in the person of a servant Even judas got his feet washed by jesus But here's here's what i want to ask Who washed jesus's feet? Any of the guys in there washed jesus's feet? Well, well mary did With her perfume And if you're walking around first century palestine You don't take showers. You don't take baths. Your feet tend to accumulate smells and such From that point mary a pound of this potent Aromatic oil on jesus's feet. He's walking his feet are not washed his feet are not washed they are the aroma He carries across he walks up the cavalry. He is nailed. He's raised up on a A tree the mocking the jeering and through the smell of blood and sweat and death Every time jesus painfully lifted himself up To take a breath The smell And the aroma of mary's worship filled his nostrils could she ever have known The value of that When paul tells us in Ephesians 5 that christ loved us and gave himself for us In offering and a sacrifice a sweet smelling aroma to god That that was an actually a picture of what jesus himself was doing As he offered up his life a sacrifice for us The aroma of life and worship permeating a place of death On the person of jesus And here's here's my point. You never know what return comes from your worship You never know the impact of that one small step and act of obedience And how it might impact that person's life for jesus and how it might bless the heart of god And how it might raise up a disciple and your son or your daughter or how it you name it It's not our job to determine the outcome of our obedience. It is our job to obey And to give jesus all See we learned from mary that it is impossible to waste anything on jesus Even if you don't see the return here and now But not only did the perfume signify the sacrifice that jesus himself was making But what about mary? In missouri hunting season starts next week. So it's deer season and in missouri That means all everyone doesn't go to work and the fields are filled with people shooting guns It's very dangerous. No But but a hunter knows something about the body that Uh that the part of the body that maintains that locks in That holds the greatest amount of scent is your hair You get you don't get your hair smelling, right? You might as well not go out because those deers have good sniffers And they're going to tell that you're not part of nature And again, here's mary with a pound of with a pound Of potent aromatic oil in her hair Remember that statement that john made? And the whole room was filled with the fragrance of the oil All of the disciples everyone that was there at the meal had a a memory marker You ever had that with smell you smells you get a whiff of something all of a sudden you're you're back in your mom's kitchen She's baking the apple pie, right? So think about it. Jesus dies His disciples are afraid. They're locked in this this room. They're they're determining what's going on next Mary walks in the room And all of a sudden it smells like jesus For weeks maybe even months every time someone was around mary The fragrance reminded them of that moment Of worship Of jesus and i wonder for myself For you, how are things smelling lately? What does your husband or your wife or your kids your co-workers your neighbors? How do they perceive your actions your words the way that you handle a circumstance a situation the way that you live your life your priorities Are you in their presence and they go something something's different about this scent? I think this person's been with jesus I can guarantee you my wife the mary for 17 years My wife knows the difference between joshu's been with jesus and joshu hasn't I stink a whole lot more when i'm not with jesus And then as i think about this again i'm i'm drawn to the words of paul He writes to the carinthians and he says in second carinthians 2 15 for we are to god The fragrance of christ Among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death to the other we are the aroma of life leading to life That is the christian is supposed to be Carrying with them the aroma of christ His nature his character what matters to him his love his compassion his truth his righteousness Is to is to be exuding out of the christian to the point that those who don't like the smell of christ because they like the smell of death And they like their unrighteousness and they don't want the light of jesus in their life go Oh man get that christian away from me But those who are being saved and those who recognize and have found jesus are saying hey, you know, you're such a blessing I want to be more like you because you're more like jesus And so these four questions Bring us to a close I want to make something clear about what this message is not trying to communicate I'm not saying today Take everything valuable that you have Go and sell it Give it all away and go live like on a hill somewhere, you know For jesus that's silly and would be unprofitable Here's what i'm suggesting i'd like you to just tune in with me for one more moment longer What we learned from mary is that the the closer you and i get To jesus the more valuable he becomes to us to the point Where all of our worldly pursuits and our ambitions and our dreams and our goods and our stuff That jesus begins to eclipse that in worth It's not that those things aren't important. It's not that we don't steward them. It's not but all of a sudden Jesus becomes more valuable than the thing i value the most And the closer i get to jesus all the sudden The opinions of everyone else around me and what they think about my commitment to jesus matters a lot less than what jesus thinks about my commitment to him And the closer i get to jesus The more i'm not interested in rooting my identity in the lives of satan But rather fixing my eyes on the person of christ And the closer i get to jesus All the sudden i'm not so concerned about what do i get out of it And what's the return and what's god going to give me But i'm so eclipsed by by who he is in his glory and his majesty that i just want to give him more That's what happens when you get close to jesus You keep your eyes on him And you stay committed to him there might be Someone in this room today who has not yet made that final decision those steps To even know jesus in this way to give your life to him To trust by faith in him as your god as your king and as your savior I can hear the question i've heard it many times Why why why on earth would i want to give my greatest treasure to jesus? Why would i want to give my life To jesus and i want to flip that question on you for a moment and ask you why would you not Want to give your life to jesus Is your next raise at your job going to give you peace with god Is your next achievement Your next goal your next dream being fulfilled going to erase your guilty conscience of sin And make you innocent before the creator of the universe Is your knowledge and your pursuit and all of the things are those things going to give you peace with god and And give you eternal life in heaven. No, they're not there's only one who can do it and his name is jesus He came two thousand years ago god from heaven our creator to the earth He died as sinners death not because he sinned but because you did and i did and he took our place So that he we you and i could be restored to fellowship with god Receive the promise of eternal life find the purpose for what for why we were created And when you trust and give your life to jesus by faith it changes everything Why would you want to continue down the path you're going? When you can experience what god created you for At the end of the day church there is no such thing as wasted worship Unless we wasted on someone other than jesus What do you want what's it worth to you?