 We are so excited about what God is doing and what He's gonna do through the different sessions that we are offering through True North this conference. This is obviously not what we had planned but that's kind of what 2020 has been, isn't it? That none of us have planned for what has come in our direction, what we've had to deal with, how we've had to adapt and adjust as the church. And you know, traditionally we do these conferences in person and we miss all of you. They've been the highlight over the last couple of years of the different things that we've done here at Radiant. And we're so looking forward to having all of you come back and the convergence of different ideas and people from different regions and states and churches, different streams, different creative outlets, whether you be a graphic artist, a worship leader, song leader, production, editor, videographer, cinematographer or a preacher for that matter, all the different artistic expressions coming together to really set our eyes on Jesus as our True North. And obviously here we are, 2020. I mean, the longest decade of our life, right? The last 10, 11 months has just been something right out of a book, right out of a dystopian fiction book. And yet here we are, the church, still here. Which just think about that for a moment. That's a beautiful thought because what that means is we've been able to face off against a once in a generation pandemic. We have seen an economic collapse, unlike anything that we've seen in American context since the Great Depression, we've had our streets filled with rioting and protests. We've had to face up to some of the unfinished business of racial reconciliation and justice for some people who have not been able to experience the freedoms on the same level that some of us who have. We've had to deal with all of these issues all at once. And by the way, I don't know if you've heard about it, but there's like 90% of the West Coast is on fire and we're in an election year. So lest you got bored with the first handful of things, trust me, there's been so many other things on top of all the micro issues that all of us in our local churches, in our companies, in our families, and in our own personal health have had to confront and have had to deal with. And so I say that not as an excuse for why we're doing this online. We're all very accustomed now to Zoom and online and all the different platforms. I think we've all also recognized the significance and the importance of that interpersonal relationship. I'm not using any of that though to paint a picture for why we're doing this or to even justify why it's not gonna be the same. Actually, it's a very essence of what I wanna share with you in this session that I have with you because what I believe is the beautiful thing out of this last season has been the church and the church's ability to adapt and adjust in our high calling. And especially those of us who are on the front lines of leading or creating or innovating, communicating. It's in our ability to beautify the presence of Jesus. That's the title of this session I wanna share with you is beautifying the presence of Jesus. And I wanna draw from the story of Mary of Bethany that's found in Matthew chapter 26. And I'm a preacher, so I'm gonna read the Bible. This is where we come back to as our grid and as our chart, our metric. And it says about Jesus in verse number six of Matthew 26. Now, when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon, the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask, a very expensive ointment. And she ported on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant saying, why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor, but Jesus aware of this said to them, why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. And truly I say to you that wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. I know that John, the apostle in his gospel tells the story a little bit differently. And it's in his gospel though that he identifies this woman as Mary of Bethany. And obviously the city that they're in is Bethany. Mary is the sister of Lazarus. And John's version of it tells us that Mary and Martha are there as well as Lazarus reclining at table when this extravagant outpouring of this very costly ointment is poured out over Jesus and the indignation rises in the disciples and others that are in the house about this event. What we see in this particular story is an act of extravagant worship. We've all heard messages or thought and pondered about what it means to be extravagant in our worship. And some of you who are worship leaders, you actually, or songwriters, you've written songs about this because it just, it captures us. And I want you to think about that. Here we are 2,000 years later in a whole different culture, a whole different language in a time period, so drastically and radically different from that time period. But yet, just like Jesus said, this woman's story is still being told. Here we are at True North. We're talking about what this woman did in beautifying the presence of Jesus because that's what she did. Jesus is in her house or the house of Simon the leper and she beautifies his presence in a way that was so extravagant that those who were the closest to Jesus even were upset about the waste. And here's what I wanna zero in on today in this session. For those of you who are artists, creators, communicators, worship leaders, singers, musicians, audio producers, people that are running lights, running cameras, what you have done in this last season out of complete and utter desperation and no alternatives available has actually beautified Jesus. And I believe it's actually stretched the collective consciousness of the church to see how we can make the presence of Jesus more beautiful than we ever have before. And my dream and my desire is that long after we come out of this era into whatever else God has on the front lines of the next era, that we don't abandon that but actually we carry that with us into where we are going and we retain the ability to beautify him even more and to realize that what was a limit in our creative abilities to see how to do that before is actually only our limit, it's not God's limit. And there's always new ways that we can do that. One of the things that as I was reading this story and thinking about what all of us have been doing cause I've been preaching in front of a camera and now we're back live but still doing camera stuff like this conference. And I would have never ever thought in a million years that this would be something that would become norm. I mean, if this happened 20 years ago none of us would have been able to pull off what we've pulled off. Technology has given us an on ramp into doing some crazy new things. Teaching, more people are engaged, more people are worshiping with us from their living rooms, it's beautiful. But in the midst of this process I have been thinking about what is it about pressure? What is it about recognizing the moment that we're in that causes our creative juices to begin to flow or our prophetic imagination begin to expand about how we can worship Jesus. And at the same time I was thinking, okay on a normal day-to-day scale in our normal lives why is it that we get caught up in our norms? Why is it that we get caught up in just kind of our rhythms that we're used to? And we get stuck in boxes or in ways of doing things. I think we refer to that as ruts. What is it that gets us into that that we need to be shaken loose out of that so that we can make massive quantum leaps forward? And here's the thing. I think the greatest enemy that opposes or limits our ability to further beautify Jesus and his presence in the church, in our midst in everything that we do is pragmatism. It's pragmatism. Well, what do you mean by pragmatism? Let me give you a definition of pragmatism. Pragmatism is a way of dealing with problems and solutions that focus on practical approaches and applications guaranteeing success. So we keep things too practical. We are constantly looking at solution-based answers instead of creative ideas. We're looking at, okay, what do I know is going to work? What do I know that I need to do today? And that's the nature of ruts is it's pragmatism. What's cheapest, what's easiest? What can I do that I've already done that I know if I do this and I apply this is going to produce this because it's playing it safe and it's practical. It's like, okay, what's the application of it? Even in our preaching, so much as a preacher, as a communicator, so much of what I far too often think about is, okay, how can I take this text and make it applicable to somebody's life today instead of being okay with inviting the mystery into that moment of that conversation and letting the Holy Spirit disrupt normal. Because that's what we need. That's what the kingdom of God is about. That's what Jesus does when he sits down at the table, he reclines to have dinner and Simon the leper's home. He's disrupting the normal. He's disrupting it. And what does this woman do when she comes in, this Mary of Bethany and she takes this alabaster box and she pours it out on Jesus? What is she doing? She is disrupting the normal. You see, pragmatism is mechanical. It's like, I wake up, coffee maker goes off. Okay, I got to get in the car by this time and I got to go to the office. I've got this to do. I've got to write this set list. I've got to make sure that these lights are working. I've got to make sure that my volunteer teams are coming and listen, I'm not saying that we neglect those things. We need to do those things. But here's what I am saying. We cannot be limited by the pragmatic. The pragmatic has to become a foundation that we build on, not an apex that we climb to. The disciples, they were upset. It says, don't waste this. When they saw this woman's extravagance poured out on Jesus, their response was, what waste? Why are we wasting this? This money could be sold and given to the poor. They could not capture the beauty of what was happening in this moment. That for all intents and purposes was so over the top. It stopped everybody in their tracks. It froze them and it shook them out of normal. Now what they were worried about was, hey, that could have met a need. That could have been used for this. What was their problem? Pragmatism. They were being pragmatic and they were being practical. And that's why Jesus said, the poor you have with you always. Jesus wasn't saying that you shouldn't take care of the poor. Jesus wasn't saying that the need isn't great. Jesus was just saying those moments and those opportunities are always going to be available to you. This moment won't. The presence of God in the church is the single distinguishing factor of who we are as God's people. His presence, his tangible manifest presence that when it's experienced and encountered changes and transform people life, that's a moment that is not a pragmatic moment. Jesus in our midst. And what we all do together, whether it's the pastor in his study who's writing a message and hearing from God and grappling with how much to communicate and how to say it and crafting and smithing those words. Whether it's the worship leader who's putting together a song list for this coming weekend. If we're not careful, the writing of a message, the designing of a graphic, the arranging of a song list, those can be pragmatic ruts that we get into that will actually dry up our souls. But in the midst of doing those very things, writing the message, designing the set list or deciding the font and the layout of a graphic or arranging lights or dealing with volunteers or administrating a whole department. If we will have eyes and a heart that is extravagant in our desire to beautify Jesus, make him more beautiful than he already is in the eyes of the beholder, then what can happen is instead of getting dried up and burned out in the process, we can actually help capture moments. And in the eyes of the beholder, make Jesus even more beautiful, wonderful, more glorious than he's ever been before and arrange an intersection and an encounter with people who desperately need him. That's what you do. It's like, think about this, worship leaders. Do you write your song list because all the songs are in the right key in the right tempo? Or do you stop and ask the Holy Spirit? Holy Spirit, what songs does Jesus want to hear his people in this room sing this weekend? I can't tell you how many times I've come in and my message has been changed and it matches perfectly with the worship set that our worship team has developed and we didn't even communicate. It was just led by the Spirit of God. What does it do when that happens? In my heart, what it does is faith rises up and it just puts that extra oil on that moment and I believe it beautifies Jesus. If we just go through the right, it might be a great song list. You might have taken it from Chris Tomlin and it's like, oh, it works in a transition and it's perfect, but there's no oil on it. There's no nard, there's no spike nard of extravagance on that, that rubs off onto Jesus's body, which is his church. Instead, it's just dry and it's pragmatic. It's like, yeah, this'll meet the need. This was the attitude of the disciples. You can't create transformational environments primarily by pragmatic means. Transformative environments are not the result of pragmatic planning and design. They are the result of extravagant sacrifice and intimate proximity. That's what brings about transformative environments. This woman came to Jesus at a great cost and she had to get really close to Jesus. And when she did, when she broke the seal on that alabaster boss and poured out the spike nard, the fragrance filled the room. It transformed the environment. What did it do? Jesus was already beautiful. I mean, how do you get more beautiful than the words that Jesus said, the miracles Jesus performed, the compassion that Jesus felt, the intimacy that he had with the Father? I mean, Jesus is beautiful, but in that moment, she made him more beautiful. By her extravagance, pragmatism doesn't do that. That's why you can go into some churches, and I know you don't know this church, but there's one church out there among 350,000 churches. That's why you can go into that one church and they'll do the same song set. They'll have the same graphics, the same bulletin. They're preaching the same message that they're doing in another church. But over there, people are getting saved, healed, transformed, and delivered, and it's not happening over there. Why? It's because an alabaster box was broken over here, and a kit was opened over here. A kit is pragmatic. An alabaster box is costly. It's beautiful. Beauty in and of itself. And that's what you and as an artist are. As you were designed by God to recognize and to create beauty. Beauty is sacrificial. Beauty is sacrificial, and sacrifice is transformative. Beauty is sacrificial. It costs to create beauty. It costs. It's beauty is sacrificial, but sacrifice is transformative. Think about the cross. The ultimate expression of sacrifice. What does it produce? Transformation. It's the transformation that gives it the value of beauty in the first place. The reason why we hold the cross to be beautiful is because we've lived on the other side of the transformation. And you are a creator of beauty. What you give to the body of Christ, what you pour out, what you lavish on the body of Christ with your skill, with your gift, with your sacrifice is actually beautifying and adding to the beauty of the presence of Jesus in the midst of his people. And that produces transformation, but we have to be so careful of falling into the trap of pragmatism because sacrifice is best expressed in love, and sacrificial love actually spiritually is a fragrance. There are things that we sense in the natural, and then there are things that we sense spiritually. And from heaven's perspective, sacrificial love that is expressed is actually fragrance in the spirit. The name Bethany, which is the city of this house where Jesus has this encounter right before he's about ready to go to the cross, the word Bethany in Hebrew means house of the poor. House of the poor. What does that mean? Jesus decides to go to a place that is a house of great need. And that's exactly what our churches are. They are the house of the poor, the spiritually poor. People are coming to receive something that they can't find anywhere else. People are coming to encounter a living God that they have no currency spiritual or emotional that will be enough for them to gain access to it. But that's what you do, is you give them access. Your sacrificial love expressed through your craft actually opens doors for people to experience what they could never afford. The grace of God, the presence of God, his healing balm, his word spoken over their life. Jesus comes to a place, by the way, another definition of Bethany is also a house of answers, a house of answers. And that's what the church is supposed to be. It's a house of answers where people come into it searching for answers because they're broken and they're poor and they actually encounter the presence of Jesus. And the reason why they encounter the presence of Jesus is because there are those who are in our midst that carry the sacrificial love for Jesus towards Jesus that willingly use their craft and their skills and their blood and their sweat and their tears to make something or to give something that nobody else sees as the appropriate time and place. But in their hearts, they know that this extravagant gift this outpouring is actually gonna change the environment. And that's exactly what she does. Interesting about the gift that she gave, the extravagant beauty that she poured out on Jesus, this spike nard. It's interesting that I did some research on it. Nard, the oil actually comes from India. And it's a plant that grows at about 15,000 foot in elevation. It's about 14,000 foot elevation in the mountains. It's a plant and it takes several, it's an annual. So it takes several months for it to grow. It is harvested. Think about how difficult it is to go to 15,000 foot, climb a mountain basically, harvest these plants. It takes two to three years to process. And the way that they process the plant is by crushing under excruciating pressure the roots until there is an oil, an amber colored oil that is released. Think about how much of that you have to process in order to get just a little bit of oil. The plant has to be grown in part sun and in part shade, perfect environments. And once it is processed after two to three years, from India, it was a six to nine month journey from India to Israel. And then it cost the equivalent of one year's wages somewhere between 40 to $50,000. Why would a family, an average family do this? Because this was a status symbol that spoke not only of the value or the wealth of the family, but also it was a gift to give to future generations so that there was always, always a financial foundation or safety net. And in oftentimes it was used as a dowry for a woman who was about to get married. The father would give that to the daughter. The daughter would then give it to the husband and on the marriage night it would be broken and poured out on the bed as a gift as they enter into covenant together. So in other words, for this woman, it was a lifetime of dreams. This is the cost of what Mary took and broke the seal on it and gave it to Jesus. Over his head, one account says that she wiped his feet with her hair. Do you know this that when Jesus a few days later would go to the cross after being beaten, punched, spit on, scourged, nailed to a cross that overpowering the fragrance of fear and death and dirt, filth and blood would have been the fragrance of spikynar perfume. Literally from the cross emanating from Jesus. This woman's sacrifice beautified Jesus even in the suffering. See extravagant beauty is costly. It's a transformative gift that you and I as communicators, as artists that we give not just to Jesus this way, but week in and week out we lavish it on his body that's right in front of us in its strongest form and in its weakest form. Whether it's in the house of the poor or whether it's in the place of suffering on the cross, we beautify the body of Jesus. And we recognize and we need to recognize that the years of you developing your skill, the years of being misunderstood, of not going the pathway of the pragmatic. Come on, be a, you know, go get a real job. Hey, why do you gotta work in a church? You can make a lot of money if you moved to Nashville. Do you know what touring companies pay a lot for lighting people like you? You know, why do you have to go into the arts? I know you like to draw and stuff, but why can't you just do that as a hobby? Why don't you go be an accountant or a lawyer? Make some real money. All the times you've said no to the pragmatic and said yes to the extravagant has been like climbing the mountain to 15,000 foot to find a plant and then the process under intense pressure. And then to collect that and all of us have gone on a journey of ministry. Over the last year we've gone on a journey of six to nine months and we've collected tears, wounds. We've honed skills like a fine perfumer. And then we take all that, pour it out over Jesus' body to beautify him. Listen to what Jesus said. You will not always have me. The poor you always have, you will not always have what's Jesus saying is you will never get this moment back. You will never get this moment back. Every time you get up and lead worship, worship leader, musician, you'll never get that moment back. Every time you design something that people go, oh, how long did it, how long did it take you to design that graphic a lifetime? Because when you didn't know that I was doing it, I was climbing a mountain. I was under intense pressure. My skill was being honed. I could have used it for a whole lot of other things, but I've taken my life of dreams. I've taken all of my skills. I've taken my wealth. I've taken my time. And I've got this and I've given it all to beautify Jesus because I'll never get this moment back. It's recognizing this particular moment. And the reward, here's the promise. Jesus said that what she's done for me is a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing about that. Jesus, he says that what you do for him, it's not just going through the motions, trying to make the donuts, do it again, check the boxes. Now, Jesus says that when we do it from a place of extravagant intention, that's beautiful. That's what he says about you. And that wherever the gospel is preached, what she's done for me will be remembered. Do you know that she didn't do it for that? She would have even in the moment, maybe thought, oh yeah, who's gonna ever hear about this? But here we are. Did you never know whose life your extravagance is gonna impact? You don't know, but we don't do it for that. We do it for this moment because Jesus is worth it. And what I wanna encourage you over the next few sessions, however it is that you're participating in True North and as you're meditating on the different things that are brought to you, the different messages. This is an hour more than ever before where the body of Christ, the body of Christ that is in the house surrounded by people who are in need, looking for answers. We need you. This is a moment we will never get back. And if we lean into it, what we can do is we can take the levels of beauty around who Jesus is. And like a diamond, we can begin to hold it up to the light of His word at different angles and let it refract new light from different angles of who Jesus is to reveal sides, emotions, truths, revelations of Jesus and His word and His presence that people have never, ever thought of before. This is a moment. This is a moment for the prophets. This is a moment for the priests. This is a moment for the skilled, for the musicians, for the Levites. This is a moment for the artist, for the painter, for the filmmaker. This is a moment for the communicators and the writers and the journalists to rise up and to take that which you have worked your whole life, and Jesus has worked your whole life to develop in you and it's time for us to break the seal. And to pour out our extravagant love on the body of Christ, His church, His people so that Jesus is beautified through you. That's my dream. That's my desire. That's what I believe the spirit of the living God is speaking in this hour. That we do not fall, beloved, into the trap of pragmatism, but we pay the cost of extravagant beautification of the presence of Jesus. I wanna pray for you before I end my session. Wherever you're at, I just wanna ask you, you might be by yourself, you might be with a group, you might be with your ministry team, spouse, you might just be you and your dog. Wherever you are, would you just allow right now the presence of Jesus and the fragrance of Jesus to right now meet you where you're at. Lord, how beautiful are you and how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Lord, today I'm asking for a flood of your presence. To right now invade every office, every living room, every conference room, where your people, your artisans are gathered. And Lord, here we are sitting as we are in the house of the poor in our own Bethanese. And what we want more than anything is for Jesus for you to come and recline at our tables. Come and recline, come and find a resting place in us and before us and give us the ability to move beyond pragmatism, but to pour out our extravagant and costly sacrificial love through the skills and the gifts and the callings, the words, the visions, the songs, the messages, the technical details that we carry beyond pragmatism. But Lord, I'm praying that what happens is that over the next several months we begin to see you in the midst of your house beautified. Lord, let the oil of grace flow over each and every one of us today and on into the future in your name.