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John Sermon

Loving Obedience – John 14:15

As a church, we’ve been going through a series titled “Gospel Renewal”. The topics that we’ve covered so for this series are as follows:

In fact, all of these topics are probably taught in our moral science classes & certainly in other religions. But what’s the difference here? While in all the other cases, people teach and talk about how we need to do so many things to achieve a prayerful life or a humble life or a satisfied life.

In contrast, what we’re saying is that the good news of Jesus in fact empowers & enables us to do all of these things!

And continuing in this series we have a wonderful theme this week called “Gospel Obedience”. I’m presuming that some of you as soon as you heard this…you were like “it’s going to be another sermon on how I need to do this and that and then by the end I realize how I fail to do all of those things”.

And I just want to let you know that I understand that sentiment. I remember a few years at a camp that I attended, the speaker spoke on obedience and the title of his message was “the thrill of obedience”.

And I remember being a little taken off guard by the title because I never thought obedience as something thrilling or enjoyable or something to look forward to. And that happens because of some baggage that we carry with us.

We view God as a Rule-book keeper

All of us have had a strict teacher at school or a headmaster or a parent or a pastor –  and we sometimes think of God as being like that – Like a very strict headmaster who is making a list of all our moments of obedience and disobedience and waiting to punish us for every mistake that we make.

And although God is Just and Righteous in everything, but He’s not like the Headmaster that we think He is.

We see ourselves fail to keep up with the rules

The other reason why a topic like obedience could be discouraging for us is because we know how we fail in our attempts to obey God’s Word. Some days might be good in our performance – I read the Bible today, I had no arguments with people today, I completed my daily work on time and I even managed to share the gospel with one person.

But then there are quite a few other days where we don’t do any of them and then suddenly, we realize that we cannot keep up with the performance.  We keep missing the mark. We keep falling and failing. And we keep looking up at the “headmaster” wondering how angry he is.

Has anyone ever been there? That’s why I think today’s sermon is going to be important because it’s going address our baggage that we’re carrying and also push us forward to gospel obedience.

Our main text passage is from John 14:15:

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

If you notice it doesn’t say – if you go to church, you will keep my commandments. Or if you read your Bible, you will keep my commandments.

What does it say? If you “LOVE” me, you will keep my commandments. Love for Jesus is the motivation for obedience!

We express our LOVE for Jesus by keeping His commands. So the real question is do we truly love Jesus? That’s the real question.

Let’s begin changing the way we ask ourselves questions about our obedience. Obedience is not about Do’s and Don’ts but it’s about loving Jesus. Do we love Him? What does it mean to love Jesus? How can I love Jesus?

1. Loving obedience is always a response to God’s love

19 We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

Our love for God is always a response to His love for us! When we obey God, it’s not to do Him a favor neither is it a way of us to receive favor from Him. Gospel obedience is the result of a deeply thankful heart for what Christ has done for us!

Tim Keller mentions there are two types of obedience:

Religious: I obey, therefore I am loved and accepted by God

Days when I read my Bible and I try to live a good, spiritual life and I’m active in the church and that’s why I think God loves and accepts me. Days when I’m not able to live a good, spiritual life – those days I’m fearful and insecure. My spiritual performance determines God’s relationship with me.

Gospel: I am loved and accepted by God in Jesus, therefore I obey

God has loved me infinitely through His Son Jesus and He accepts me wholly as His child. His love and acceptance doesn’t change based on my spiritual performance but on His Son’s perfect life.

Because God’s love and mercy is sooo great….because the worth of His sacrifice is immeasurable – I want to joyfully serve Him in obedience.

A few years back when I was in full time ministry, I remember getting really discouraged after doing 9 months of ministry. 3 times a week I would go to different business parks around Mumbai trying to share the gospel with different people.

And even though some people would initially show positive response but after 9 months no one believed and I found no seekers as well. Plus I would go for all these conferences where people would come and say that they planted many churches in year and I would think “it’ll be good if at least 1 or 2 people believed in my case”.

And I remember feeling very insecure because I wasn’t sure if God was pleased with my ministry. Maybe I was doing something wrong. And I was talking to this one pastor friend of mine who said this “There’s nothing more you can do for God to love you more, and there’s nothing less you can do for God to love you any less.

He loves & accepts you fully and completely in Christ Jesus”. And a weight of pressure and condemnation just left me. In fact that day…a new freeing joy entered my heart to share the gospel! Not because I wanted to gain acceptance from God but because I’m already accepted in Christ.

This is different from antinomianism which means “God loves and accepts me for who I am so it allows me to do whatever I want to do”. No, that’s heresy.

God’s love and His acceptance in Christ – humbles me and makes me want to joyfully, willingly obey Him. I hope you understand this very key point on obedience.

We obey from love not for love! We obey from acceptance not for acceptance!

Not only is Loving obedience a response to God’s love but

2. Loving obedience is always whole-hearted

 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Matt 22:37)

It’s not partial obedience like 50% or 80% or not even 90% but loving obedience toward God is 100%. It’s all or nothing. I’m sure some of us might be thinking “I’ve heard this verse numerous times but what does loving God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength actually mean?” I think it could mean two things:  

  • Delight in God:

Have you ever thought of delighting and enjoying God? For some of us it sounds like a strange thing because we think of God as the “rule book keeper” and we never think about God as someone we would be enthralled and delighted in! I remember when I was in my teens how me and one of my friends from school would end up watching full 5-day test matches.

Sometimes when these matches would be played in New Zealand and Australia, I would also wake up early in the morning to watch it. And this was during regular school days! Quite crazy but at that time I enjoyed watching cricket! It didn’t seem burdensome or tiring to me. 

And now when I think about this – it was for something of very little value (sports and entertainment)…how much more should I delight in the One who Created me and Redeemed me from my sin? He wants us to enjoy our relationship with Him.

As we grow in our understanding of what Jesus has done for us, as the beauty and radiance of Jesus becomes brighter to us, as we see God answering our prayers, as we see God use us to minister to our brothers and sisters, and as we see ourselves looking more and more like Jesus everyday – God’s desire is for that to thrill our hearts and our minds.

God’s desire is for us to be in awe – and realize that we are in a relationship with an amazing God! God doesn’t desire begrudging obedience – that doesn’t bring Him any glory…what He desires is delightful obedience.

  • Not Delayed

Have you ever thought of Delayed obedience as disobedience? I realized this some years back as I was having a conversation with my brother in Christ. At that point I was 8 years into the faith but still not baptized. This brother asked me what my thought was about baptism?

And I explained how I believed in believer’s baptism but wasn’t sure if the time was right. Maybe I would want to do it sometime in the future. That’s when he told me this – “Delayed obedience is disobedience” and it just made sense and convicted my heart immediately. Similarly, I want to challenge you which ever area God is calling you to right now in obedience, what would it mean for you to obey right now?

What would it mean for you to not delay? To not give this excuse or that reason but actually obey God. In some cases I know it might be painful or hard, but would you obey God no matter how difficult the cost?

Not only is loving obedience a response to God’s love & wholehearted but :

3.  Loving obedience is always self-sacrificial

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments (1 John 5:2)

For me this was a little strange verse initially because I kept thinking what’s the relationship between loving the children of God and my obedience? The two things seem separate and contrasting.

How is my obedience or disobedience related to loving someone else? Well, that’s the biggest myth we need to put out. Our personal obedience is not just between us and God. Our obedience/disobedience is always affecting other people- our families, our church and the people we interact with on a daily basis.

Let’s say for example I’m harboring unforgiveness against someone else. I know I need to repent & reconcile but I’m disobedient, what happens? I’ll keep a distance from the church. I’ll try to be isolated. But am I truly being loving?

No, I’m actually withholding the church members from receiving my gifts, my encouragement, my comfort and service that God has given me. So my disobedience is actually not just grieving the heart of God, and affecting the other person but also the whole church. This is just one example.

Similarly, what the area in your life where God is calling you to obey Him self-sacrificially? You know that your disobedience is not just affecting your relationship with God but also the other people that are doing life with you.

In the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the fruit – with that one act of disobedience idolatry, adultery, immorality, murder, theft, lies and every other kind of sin and wickedness flowed into their hearts.

And with that the guilt and shame associated with disobedience.  And we all were born with that very same nature of disobedience. But when Jesus Christ the Son of God came to the earth, unlike us he did not have that nature and lived a perfect life of obedience.

And through His death and resurrection – he paid for our lifetime of disobedience once for all and not just that but reversed and began the restoration process for us who believe so that one day when He returns we will be like Him perfectly obedient to God – not out of our will or efforts but totally by the grace of God. So let that encourage our hearts today – if we have repented of our sins & truly trusted in the finished work of Jesus, then where we are today is not where we will be when He returns.

He will fully and completely finish the work of reversal and restoration that He began at the cross. Let that be our hope. Amen!

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Mark Sermon

3 Lessons from the Grave – Mark 15:40-47

Good morning church! I’m humbled with every opportunity I get to share from the Word because unlike any other skill set – when we preach we also preach to ourselves as we preach to the church. I know I need these truths from God’s Word like all of you. So it’s humbling! As a church we have been studying the gospel of Mark over the last year.

We are on the last few passages of this gospel and as we arrive at the closing passages of this gospel, we see themes of abandonment – disciples abandoning Jesus, we see betrayal – Judas, we see humiliation in the manner of torture and mocking, we see injustice where Jesus is being chosen as more deserving of death than even a murderer, and finally we see the death of the Son when he is hung on the cross. And we find ourselves today in that in between time – those three days between Jesus’ crucifixion and His Resurrection. Let’s turn to Mark 15:40-47 [Read]

I know for most of us we are probably very excited about the Resurrection story. And we want to jump right to it as quickly because we might wonder “how can a passage like this encourage me?” And so even as I prepared my notes, I kept asking this question “What can the story of burial tell me about Jesus?” Because all of Scripture is talking about Jesus so what can we learn. What is the hope mentioned in this passage? The title of my sermon is 3 Lessons from the Grave.

Christ invites unlikely people to follow Him

V40 & 41 : Mentions the names of Mary Magdalene (Mary from Magdala), Mary the mother of James the younger (the mother of James son of Alphaeus) and Salome (who was the mother of James and John the sons of Zebedee) along with many other women who were followers of Jesus. Now we might think that’s normal but it wasn’t normal for women to have that kind of participation in ancient Jewish culture. It was a patriarchal and oppressive culture.

 A woman’s place in society was to be only at home, responsible for bearing children and taking care of them. Men were not greet women in public. Women had very little access to property or inheritance. Whatever a woman earned would go the husband. Men were allowed to legally divorce a woman for any reason by just handing out a written notice of divorce, however a woman couldn’t divorce a man. Even in terms of religious practice – men were encouraged to pray certain prayers daily and study Scripture while women were not permitted to do the same.

 In fact so bad was the situation that an unfortunate prayer that men would pray would be on the lines of “Praise God that he has not created me as a woman”. Women were not given the kind of dignity and freedom and opportunities as men. It was very oppressive.

It’s in that context we see Jesus totally flip things around and interact with them with dignity and love. Something that women never experienced in their time and culture. How did these women experience love?

  1. He showed Compassion: Mary from Magdala was actually a demon possessed woman at one time. Mark 16 and Luke 8 mention that she was cured of evil spirits by Jesus. Seven demons came out of her! She was in a terrible condition when Jesus found her and yet Jesus showed her great compassion by delivering her from the demonic spirits.
  2. He revealed His Transforming power: Mary – the mother of James son of Alphaeus and Salome mother of James and John were mothers of disciples of Jesus. I really think it was the changed lives that they saw in their children that drew them to Jesus. Parents know about their kids inside out. And if anything changes about them, they are the first to notice that too. Similarly, you can imagine what it would’ve been for them to see their sons change up close.
  3. He gave them the Privilege to serve: Women had a very low status and place in society. If a group or organization was made, they wouldn’t necessarily approach women to join it. And here we see Jesus inviting them to follow Him, get to know Him and also “minister” to Him! Luke 8 says they provided for Jesus out of their means. They were given an opportunity to serve the Son of God. And it’s not because Jesus couldn’t help Himself. He is the Son of God! But He allowed them to participate in serving Him so that they could experience the joy of fellowship with Him and the privilege to serve Him.   

We see how Jesus’ interactions with women was counter-cultural at the time. They were the unlikely ones but they were still invited to follow Him. When I think about my testimony…I grew up in a Christian home and we went to church regularly but it was mostly to satisfy the social norms and my parents. By the time I reached my teens I began questioning if church was really important to me.

I thought I knew the gospel – I thought Jesus died for us in general – I assumed for the good people especially but my life changed when I realized that He died for me! Really? Me? I’m the worst! I’m so unlike what a good Christian should be? I don’t even look like a proper Christian? And He died for me!!! Astonishing. And that’s true of every believer seated here.

How many of us knew that we were going to believe in Jesus someday? How many of expected that to happen? How many of us looked like the perfect person going to church and had the perfect life? None of us could’ve ever imagined but yet Christ invited unlikely people like us to follow Him.

This changes the way we look at the people in our neighborhoods and our colleges and our workplaces. One of the verses that brother reminded us last week on prayer was 1 Tim 2:1 – which tells us to pray for all people! Which means that even the ones that annoy us, hate us, frustrate us…the ones which we consider are “hopeless cases” are the unlikely people who Christ invites to follow Him. Why? Because it’s not their efforts but His grace and power to save them.

 For some of here who don’t know Jesus yet because you think that you are an unlikely choice…you think that you don’t look like or behave like a so called Christian, let me tell you that Christ invites and he infact pursues the unlikely people and candidates. You are in the right place to follow Jesus!

Christ produces willing sacrifice by knowing Him

 In verses 42-46 we are told of a man named Joseph of Arimathea. What do we know about him? He is a respected member of the Jewish council. He’s a wealthy, high standing, leading member of the council. And it also tells us that he was looking for the kingdom of God.

Which meant that he was looking forward God bringing His heavenly reign on people’s hearts and minds. He believed that God was going to do something to bring His rule and reign over all of us. In a similar account in Matt 27, it refers to him as a disciple of Jesus. And we see him do something that the other famous disciples of Jesus didn’t do…

  • He took courage and asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now we might think – oh, because he was an influential man he could talk to Pilate and exert some influence. But we forget that the death of Jesus was a public event that was seen and promoted by all of the Jewish leaders. Joseph was risking his reputation by asking for Jesus’ body. Not just that but he was also risking his life…because he was declaring his allegiance and friendship to the man they killed. It’s with reason that the writer mentions that “Joseph took courage”. It was a big deal.
  • We also see him wrapping Jesus in an expensive linen shroud and then placing Jesus in a newly cut tomb. What I also read was that rock cut tombs were quite expensive in those days – people would purchase that for themselves and their family and he uses that very same tomb to bury Jesus. Why? Because I think he knew Jesus as much more than a Teacher or Leader…he knew him as family! Jesus knew him and had close fellowship with Joseph. Jesus had invited him into a familial relationship – way deeper than just friendship or acquaintance. Because if he knew Jesus only superficially, he would never willingly sacrifice his reputation, his expensive shroud, or his expensive tomb or even his life. It was that relationship that mattered at that point.

I was reading the story of CT Studd yesterday. In the 1800’s, he came from a very wealthy family with a huge empire and at the same time he was a budding English cricketer. Some people compared him as the Andrew Flintoff of that time. He got saved when a visiting preacher came home one day and shared the gospel. Right then “peace and joy entered his soul….the Bible which he thought was very dry to him before became everything”.

A few years after he got saved, his brother George became seriously ill. And it was at that time that he was confronted with this question “What is all the fame and flattery worth…when a man comes to face eternity?” He actually admitted that the last six years of his salvation was in a backslidden state. It’s at that point where he said he knew cricket and honor would not last, and nothing in the world would last but it was worthwhile living for the world to come”.

So he gives up his cricketing career and becomes a missionary to China. After his father died, he sold off his inheritance worth 24K pounds at that time and gave it to various charities and mission organizations. Some people might see this and be like “Are you crazy? Why are you wasting your life? Why are you wasting your inheritance?” His famous quote was “If Christ be God and He died for me, then there’s no sacrifice too great for me to make for Him”.

Those are the words of a man who knew Jesus up close. Sometimes we get into this zone thinking…oh – but if I need Jesus, then I’ll need to give this up and it’s so hard. And we always think in terms of what we are going to lose instead of who we are to gain. The reason why we struggle to give up is because we don’t enjoy close fellowship with Jesus. Let this truth stir up our hearts once again…unless we know Jesus and love him and enjoy obedience, we will always struggle to give up stuff…we will always think about what we are to lose.  

Christ enables holiness when we die with Him

V44-45 tells us that after enduring 6 hours on the cross, Jesus breathed his last and died. He didn’t faint on the cross neither was his body exchanged at the last moment before his crucifixion – two worldly theories out there…Jesus died and his corpse was given to Joseph on his request.

What is the significance of Jesus’ burial for us as believers? Jesus’ death on the cross meant that he bore the full wrath of God and the full payment was made for your sins and mine. But what his burial means is that the position of your sin and your old life in the sight of God is “Buried”! Who get buried? A dead person. That burial tomb is a reminder of where your sin & your old way of life lies.

That famous verse in Romans 6 asks this question “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (Our baptism is a picture of our union with Christ) 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For those people who think that grace is an excuse to continue in sin, how does Paul remind them of the gospel? He points to the fact that when they believed in Jesus, they were united to his death and burial – which means that your old life and my old life has been buried! That’s the position. That’s where it remains.

Christian, you are no longer the same person! You may be in the same body but if you’ve believed and surrendered your life, that old person has been buried and now you have a new life in Christ. And so the picture of the tomb for a believer isn’t a discouragement but rather an enablement – enabling you to live a holy life unto God. God’s grace enables us to live in holiness. We aren’t living in holiness for God’s grace rather we experience God’s grace which results in holiness.

It’s like a thief who stole a huge sum of money and got caught and landed up in jail. Due to the enormous amount he stole, he deserves lifetime imprisonment. Now there’s a really kind wealthy businessman in the city who hears about this thief and has compassion on him. He decides to pay the full penalty of the thief and release him out of jail. Now he’s no longer viewed as a thief or because he has been set free.

 The wealthy businessman takes him in and gives him a new life. The man sometimes comes to the businessman and tells him how he has temptations of stealing again and other times it’s the guilt of the past. Guess what the businessman does? He pulls out the receipt of the payment that was made on his behalf with the seal that says “Penalty is fully paid. He is Free”. Will that discourage him or enables him to live honestly? It enables him to live honestly.

Brothers and sisters, our time with the Word – especially gospel passage like Romans 6 and others. Being part of a Gospel Community where other believers are telling you this is vitally important. Why because we tend to forget that we are not thieves anymore and so we need to be reminded “Penalty is fully paid. You are free”…Here is the receipt. And that will bolster our spiritual lives and our walk!

Categories
Mark Sermon

What Stops us from Offering our Best to God ? – Mark – 14:1-11

Our passage for today is from Mark 14:1-11 [READ]

If we stay alert and pay close attention to our passage today, I believe it reveals some of the heart idols that prevent us from experiencing the joy of living out a fulfilling Christian life.

Context:
This event takes place two days before the Passover & the feast of unleavened bread. The chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest Jesus and kill him.

While Jesus was in a place called Bethany in the house of Simon, the leper, reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and broke the container and poured it over Jesus’s head.

Pure nard is also known as ‘Jatamansi oil’, only found in the Himalaya mountain in India, extracted from the root of a tree, is one of the most effective essential oils for supporting a calm mind and balanced body. Jatamansi oil is one of the most important herbal medicines for dealing with grief after losing a loved one. It can also be used to anoint those who are transitioning from life to death.

The ointment the woman poured on Jesus’s head was one of the rarest and best in those days. The woman spent around 2 months of wages to purchase it, probably for a special occasion in her life, or as an investment for the future.

The same ointment is also mentioned in the Songs of Solomon 1:12 where the bride says “While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.”

The perfume mentioned in this verse is the same ointment the woman poured on Jesus. Probably she brought and saved it to please and attract her future husband.

In today’s context, it’s almost like our saving accounts, a fixed deposit, or a gold deposit that we set apart either for a special occasion, like marriage, children’s education, children’s wedding etc.  or as security for future.

Seeing what the woman did with that expensive ointment, some of the people gathered there scolded the woman and did not appreciate it.

According to them, it was a stupid thing to do; instead, they said the ointment should have been sold and the money given to the poor.

Jesus, instead, turns to those guys and tells them to leave her alone and says something remarkable about the woman. He says “She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

I want us to pause here for a moment and understand why it was such a significant act for Jesus.

1.    The woman knew something that others didn’t

The woman’s act showed that she learned something about Jesus that others didn’t. She recognised who Jesus really is. Just like Simeon, the man who saw baby Jesus in the temple brought for dedication and instantly recognised him as Lord, like the Shepherds who saw Jesus in the manger and was filled with Awe.

She knew she was in the presence of her true Lord and King. The one who has come to give abundant life, a peace that passes all understanding, joy unending, life eternal. One who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Just like when we first heard the Gospel and heard the story of Jesus, the veils from our eyes fell and hearts responded in faith.

2.    The woman responded in Worship.

When she recognised who Jesus was her natural response was adoration & worship.

3.    The woman offered the best Sacrifice

Like Abel who brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions to offer at the altar of God, she brought the best she had.

I could imagine this woman when she heard Jesus was in the town. She must have run into her home, looking around and thinking what the best gift she has in her house that she can offer to her Lord and Savior. And her eye fell on the Alabaster flask of pure nard that she had saved for her future. And immediately without a second thought, grabs the flask and runs towards Jesus.

The price didn’t matter to her, the people didn’t matter to her, the occasion didn’t matter to her, the place didn’t matter, her dignity didn’t matter.

All that mattered was the Jesus.

4.    The woman expressed Passionate Love.

She didn’t do it just to merely impress Jesus or show off to the people how wealthy she is. She didn’t do it because she wanted her name printed on the wall saying “Donated by Miss”.

She did it purely out of passionate love for Christ.

It was clearly seen through her act of worship.

5.    The woman Empathized with Jesus.

Imagine, Jesus as he was reclining on the table, he is dealing with the pain and agony his body is going to suffer. He could feel the weight of the sins of the whole World upon him. He is dealing with the pain of separation from this Father.

We could see a glimpse of his pain in the garden of Gethsamani when he is crying out to his Father saying “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

And there as he is dealing with all this in his mind, this woman breaks the alabaster flask with pure nard. The ointment that is meant to ease the grief of a suffering man who is transitioning from life to death.

They say the texture & aroma of the ointment is so strong that it sticks to the hair and keeps throwing out the fragrance for almost a week. Probably, when Jesus was taking all the painful lashes, beatings and piercing, he might have smelled the aroma of the ointment that woman poured on his head.

All these reasons make the moment very significant, and only Jesus could understand it.

Immediately after this event, we read about a person who is exactly opposite to the woman. He goes to the chief priests to betray Jesus for the sake of money, for his own selfish gain.

He failed to recognise Jesus as his true saviour and master. Instead, he was so corrupt in his mind that he sold himself to the high priests.

Now, as a Christian, we are called to be like the woman in faith, in action, in thought.

James 4:8 says “Draw near to God as He will draw near to you, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Romans 12:1 Paul writes “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship.”

2 Timothy 2:8 says “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to the gospel”

And, even though we ought to live in this manner, we still fail to give our best to Jesus in our practical lives. I believe one of the reasons why we fail to experience the joy of living out a fulfilling Christian life is because we fail to offer our best to God like the woman with alabaster oil.

– It doesn’t mean that if we don’t offer our best God will not love us.
– We don’t do it to win his favour and approval.
– God has already approved us in his son Jesus, the day we repented of our sins and put our faith in Him.

But consider the words of James 2:14-17

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Matthew 25:35-36 & 40
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Whatever you do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Hebrews 13:15-16
Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Sadly, we all fail to do this in some measure or the other.

As an application point, I want to share from our passage what are the reasons some of us fail to offer our best to God.

I believe the three characters represented in this passage reveal three reasons why some of us fail to offer our best to God.

Woman

The first reason we fail to offer our best to Jesus is when we fail to see our sinful state, especially our ungodly attachments with the world and the things of this world.

When we look at the woman, the first thing that stands out is that she didn’t care about the value of the ointment, she apparently comes out as a person who has no attachments to the things of the world and second, she was desperate to be with Jesus.

Let me highlight some ways in which we attach ourselves to the things of this world that stops us from offering our best to God?

–    Our attachment with money & possessions – “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”
–    Our attachment with ungodly people – “Are we unequally yoked with unbelivers & ungodly people”
–    Our attachment with habitual / unrepented sins.
–    Our attachment with fame and prosperous lifestyle.
–    Our attachment to self.

Romans 12:2 – We ought not to be confirmed to the patterns of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. – Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The People

The second reason some of us fail to offer our best to Jesus is like the people who scolded the woman and was unable to see and understand what was going to happen to Jesus in a couple of days, we also fail to see what Christ has accomplished for us by His death on the cross.

The people failed to understand Jesus even though he told time and again that he will be handed over to the chief priests and will be killed. They expected that Jesus will defeat the Romans, establish his Kingdom & become their King. But what Jesus was about to accomplish through his death on the cross was far greater that what they imagined

The second reason we fail to offer our best to Jesus is because we fail to value and understand what it means to be forgiven of our sins and what it means to be adopted in the family of God for eternity.

And that is why we keep reminding ourselves daily the Gospel.

Judas Iscariot

The third reason some of you fail to offer your best to Jesus is because, like Judas you have stooped so low that for your selfish gains you have sold yourselves to the devil.

The reason you come to church and fellowship with people is to betray Christ and betray his people. You have become wolves in sheep’s clothing in the hands of the devil, to turn away the minds and hearts of the people, from God.

The purpose of your lives has become to cheat and destroys one another for your own selfish purpose of gaining wealth & possession.

We have become deceivers and lairs.

To those who are in this position, I want to warn and encourage you that it is still not late for you to turn back, repent of your wrongdoings to God and his people.

Don’t end up like Judas who couldn’t gather the courage to come back to Jesus and ask for forgiveness. I’m 100% sure that Jesus would have invited him with open arms.

Finally, as I end, I hope this passage has convicted your hearts just as it has convicted mine.

Our response shouldn’t be to hide our faces and run away from God and his people, rather it should be to go to God in repentance and faith, and confess our sins to one another so that we are restored back to God.

Let’s pray.