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Now, turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 14.

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And I'm going to be reading from verse 1 through verse 11 of Mark, I meant.

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If I said Matthew, I was wrong, it's Mark 14.

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And we're looking at a passage that occurred on the Wednesday before Jesus' death.

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And in the Gospel of Mark, this is getting into the final sections.

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And it tells us about our Lord Jesus Christ and what he went through before his death.

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If you're reading in your Bibles, it may have a heading that says, Jesus Anointed at Bethany.

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And that's true.

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Let's also look deeper inside of this passage to see what it says to us today.

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Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away.

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And the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly

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and kill him.

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But not during the festival, they said, or the people may riot.

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And while he was in Bethany reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Lepper, a woman

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came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure gnar.

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She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

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And some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, why this waste of perfume?

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It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor.

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And they rebuked her harshly.

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Leave her alone, said Jesus.

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Why are you bothering her?

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She has done a beautiful thing to me.

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Poor, you will always have with you.

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And you can help them any time you want.

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But you will not always have me.

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She did what she could.

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She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.

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Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will

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also be told in memory of her.

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Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priest to betray Jesus to them.

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And they were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money.

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So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

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Let's pray.

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And ask God to bless what we've read for our lives.

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Our Heavenly Father, be with your church this morning.

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Help us to peer into the gospels, find out what you have in mind for our lives.

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And may we come away more dedicated to following you because of your grace.

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Hear our prayer this morning.

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Amen.

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What comes to your mind when I say the word extravagant?

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Perhaps you think of Jeff Bezos and all the pictures you can find of him on his yacht off

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the Italian Riviera and his homes.

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That's a lot of money to spend on vacations, boats and homes.

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Or perhaps we think of the stars and starlets with their great homes, their many cars, their

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entourage and their clothes.

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I would say that's extravagant.

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Think of Brad Pitt.

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I believe he owns a wine vineyard somewhere in France.

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He also has the money to spend on such vacations, which by our standard they're extravagant.

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Or remember Michael Jackson, who basically had a theme park in his backyard.

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That's extravagant.

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And usually when we think about that word extravagant, it is with negative connotations.

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Means for example, if you look up the word dictionary, going beyond reasonable or the

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proper limit.

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Unreasonable.

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Excessive.

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It's synonymous with wastefulness and lavishness.

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And if you are good middle class folk, like most of you here, we don't believe in being

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extravagant.

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It's a waste of money.

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It goes against those middle class attitudes and values.

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But does the Bible ever approve of extravagance?

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I'd have to say to you, yes.

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It approves of it when it comes to Jesus Christ, the Savior, the King, the Lord of this world.

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J.C.

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Rodd, commentator from the past said, people may think it's all right to be extravagant

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to worldly things, but to Christians they say no.

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That's simply not what the Bible says.

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Here what we've just read is a person, a woman, who gave up a very, very expensive bottle

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of perfume to anoint Jesus Christ.

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If you go back to the Old Testament and look at the expense that was given to building the

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temple, God approved.

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Came up with the designs for it.

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So here what we need to think about is the extravagance of the Christian life.

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And if you have a problem with that, then you've got a problem with the Bible.

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And as we look at this passage, I want you to notice two things.

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First is there is the antithesis of an extravagant devotion.

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In other words, there are those who oppose it, and then there's the example of that extravagant

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devotion.

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Now if you look at this passage, you've actually got three parts.

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You've got the opening sections, which tell of the Pharisees.

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Then you've got the disciples in the middle who are not thrilled with what this woman did.

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And at the end, you've got the story of Judas setting up to betray Jesus Christ.

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In those parts of this narrative here, what you have is really the antithesis, the opposite

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of an extravagant devotion.

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And let's begin here with the Pharisees and the teachers of Israel because the opposite

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of that extravagant inheritance is hatred for Jesus Christ.

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Now the Pharisees, they're the leadership and what are they trying to do?

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They're out to kill Jesus.

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It says so in verse one.

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And this is not the first time they've been up to this.

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In chapter three, verse six of Mark's Gospel, after he healed a man on the Sabbath, we know

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there there's a plot to get rid of Jesus.

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And 1111, after he clears out the temple, there's a plot there to get rid of Jesus.

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And why do they not like Jesus?

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They fear him.

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If you look, it says they're not willing to do this during the festival or the people

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may riot.

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Because they realize the people are starting to follow Jesus and they're not following

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the established religious rulers of the land.

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In fact, in chapter 11, verse 18, it says, the chief priests and the teacher of the law

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feared him because the crowd was amazed at his teaching.

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They are losing prestige.

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They are losing power.

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And ruling authorities don't like that about Jesus Christ.

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Now back in the 80s, there is a story of a pastor, a reverent chief from China.

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Because of his devotion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he was sent to prison where he was

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harshly treated and he was beaten.

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And on his release, you could still see the marks of those who had mistreated him in prison.

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And why was that true of him?

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Because the government authorities fear Christianity and what it means.

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Because Christianity says there's a greater ruler than whoever is running China at the

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time being.

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And here is what one of their newspapers said.

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Because the Chinese saw what was happening in Eastern Europe when all of those nations

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were revolting against the Soviet Union.

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And it was because of the church in many instances.

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Here's what the Chinese newspaper wrote.

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If China does not want a scene to be repeated in its land, it must strangle the baby while

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it is still in the manger.

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That was from a state-run newspaper.

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Do you see what was going on there?

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Fear of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Fear of his lordship.

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And so what is the opposite of an extravagant devotion?

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It is hatred.

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It is a fear of the living Christ.

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A fear that you may lose control of your life.

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That's why people don't want to give him any extravagant devotion.

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We think today, why is it that people don't want to come to church?

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We're living in a generation that's blowing the church off.

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Why?

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Because they don't want to have anything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ who is sovereign

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over their lives.

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That's part of the reason.

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So they're not going to give him any devotion at all.

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An example of the antithesis, the opposite of devotion is hatred.

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But you've also got to look here.

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And this is what touches us a little more.

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It's not only hatred, but it's a misplaced priority that short circuits our devotion

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to Christ.

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Now look at what's happening here.

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They are in Simon the Lepper's house.

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And there is a woman who comes in.

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It's probably Mary.

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It's probably Mary and Martha and Lazarus.

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And she comes in and pours some perfume that was very, very expensive.

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That perfume may have been from India.

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And it tells us it's worth 300 dinari.

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That is about a year's worth of work.

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Now why would this woman have that in first place?

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Well, it was sort of a status symbol back then.

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You could have people over your house and say, oh, look, look at this perfume I have.

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We got it from India.

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And everyone would be impressed.

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Very expensive.

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But what does she do?

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She takes it.

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She breaks the bottle that costs a year's wage with the perfume.

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And she anoints Jesus for his death.

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And what do the disciples say?

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They grumble about it, don't they?

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They say such things as, why this waste of perfume?

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It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor.

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And that probably resonates with some of us, doesn't it?

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Because we care about the poor, don't we?

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We could give that money to the poor.

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Oh, think of how that would help them.

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But there's something else we've got to understand about the Christian life.

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There is a higher priority than helping the poor.

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It is worshiping Christ.

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That's the highest priority.

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And that's what the disciples don't get.

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Matthew Henry said this, a common cherry to the poor will not excuse from a particular

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act of piety to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Now I know we live in a world where we are to care about people.

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That is the ruling paradigm today.

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But as Christians, while we are told by Jesus to be concerned for the poor, we always keep

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in mind there is something greater, the worship of Jesus Christ.

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And let me tell you how people get misplaced, priorities confused in their lives.

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Story is told about a woman.

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She lives in Texas.

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99 degrees out.

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And she locked her daughter in the car.

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And she couldn't find her keys.

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The child is dying, turning blue, and the woman is running around.

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She doesn't know what to do.

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And she's hysterical.

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But then there was a fireman who was next to the car, who sees all this, grabs a car,

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puts a hammer, runs over, breaks the window, and gets the child out.

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Now you would think that fireman would be a hero in that woman's eyes, right?

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Wrong.

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Do you know what she was upset about?

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That he damaged the car.

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Misplaced priorities.

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What's most important, the life of your child or your car?

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In the Christian life, what's most important?

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Jesus or something else?

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Our priority one in this church must always be our devotion to Christ.

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And sometimes people may look at the church and they say, oh, what a waste of time.

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Oh, what a waste of money.

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It's not.

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And to think otherwise that there is something more important than worshiping Jesus, you're

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just wrong.

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Christ is number one.

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What are we saying this morning?

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Beat out my vision.

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Or the motto of my former college, in all things Christ preeminent.

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That should be the vision of all of us.

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But now let's take a closer look at that example.

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Let's take a look at that example of extravagant devotion and why should any of us give like

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this woman gives?

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Anointing a guest, that was normal.

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But a year's worth, wages, that is extravagant.

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But look what it says in verse eight.

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She did what she could.

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She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.

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She must have known something about Jesus's future.

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She must have known he was going to die on the cross for sinners.

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Somehow or another, she knew that Jesus Christ was going to go to Calvary, stretched out,

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nailed, wrists, ankles, having to pull himself up so he could continue to breathe his side

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pierced.

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And why was he going through this great deal of pain for your salvation and for miracles?

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Mary's salvation.

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He was making a way so that Mary could live and have everlasting life.

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And when we think of what is valuable to you, isn't that valuable?

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Isn't that the most important thing in your life?

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It's not success in this world.

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It's not being first in school or work or in an athletic contest.

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It is not getting a gold medal in the Olympics.

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What it is is being in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

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And Mary, I think, has some idea of what her Savior is going to go through for her.

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And I hope we do too, especially as we come to the Lord's table.

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You don't like to suffer.

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I don't like to suffer.

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But Jesus did for you.

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And I also want you to notice another reason here why he should be willing to be extravagant

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with the Lord in his work.

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Look at verses eight and nine.

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She did what she could.

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She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.

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Only I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will

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also be told in memory of her.

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Jesus is saying what she has done is not going to be forgotten.

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I know God knows she will not be dismissed for her devotion.

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And we think of our own devotion to the Lord.

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God doesn't forget.

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John says, my Father will honor those who honor and serve me.

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The Psalmist says, a righteous man will be remembered forever.

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And so do the adults who are gathered here today.

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Why send money to this church?

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Could be using it for something else.

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No, couldn't you?

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The boat, a new car, your house?

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Why spend all that money here by giving us your tithes and offerings?

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I'll tell you why.

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Because Jesus knows and Jesus rewards.

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Why is it young people that you should give your time to the church or to youth group?

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You could be out with your friends.

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You could be doing something that is supposedly fun.

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I'll tell you why, because Jesus sees your devotion and he is approved.

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The God man who reigns in the universe, he approves.

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Businessmen, why should you spend your time on Sundays in a church?

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Perhaps for the morning service, perhaps also for the evening service.

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Why?

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You could be making more money.

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You should be at your office getting more things done.

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Why?

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Because Jesus knows of your devotion.

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And it is not as if he is rejecting that devotion.

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He approves of that devotion.

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And I want you to think now of some things that could come to your mind.

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Let's think now about God on his throne.

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Does he see the elderly woman with arthritic hands who comes to a little 20-member church

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writes that check from her retirement and gives to the kingdom of God?

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He notices.

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Or for the middle-aged Chinese pastor who is being threatened by the government, receives

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very little pay, God notices.

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Or for the aged elder who gives a large part of his time, which many would consider extravagant

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to his local church.

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God knows.

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And God won't forget.

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I think what we've got to keep in our minds is such extravagant devotion to the Lord Jesus

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Christ should not be rejected.

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Oh, there will be others who say, you can go here and you can go there and it will be

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much more exciting on a Sunday morning.

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But I can't get over the picture of Mary breaking that very expensive jar of perfume

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in her own way with her own means giving her all for Jesus because it's worth it.

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Let's pray.

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Our Heavenly Father, if we have sinned by not thinking of your extravagant grace, forgive

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us.

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And in our own lives now, in response to the good news of Jesus Christ, help us to come

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before your throne and give our all to you, Jesus.

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Be with your people and help them to know that what they have done for this church in

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their own way will never be forgotten by you, but is remembered and approved of by the Lord

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Jesus Christ.

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Here are our prayers.

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Amen.