The Woman Who Saw What Everyone Else Missed

All right, well good to be up here again. Hopefully I still remember how to cook a meal to give you a little food today. A few calories that's what I'm aiming to give you spiritually speaking.

Let's pray. Father, Lord of all the people in the earth to be to be saved. It's just a miracle that we're here.

It's a miracle that we have an appetite for the word. Lord, we do want a hunger and thirst for righteousness. We do want you to show us great and mighty hidden things that we have not seen.

Lord, we want all the young people here to be young people who can say they've kept themselves pure by guarding themselves according to your word. Lord, we want to be people who had said the word of Christ dwells in us richly. Lord, not partly.

Not pathetically, but richly. Lord, we want to be people who have the mind of Christ. Lord, we're here today to worship you.

Lord, we want to be people who can rightly discern what true worship even is. Lord, there's so many activities. There's so many thoughts, actions that our lives are filled with.

And Lord, what if we've wrongly valued certain things as being very worshipful towards you and they're not? And so, Lord, I pray even in this time ahead, you'd use these passages we look at. You'd use this woman that we're going to consider from your word to teach us something, Lord, that we have not seen. Lord, you know the areas where we're blind right now spiritually and we have blind spots.

Father, we don't know what those areas are. We'd fix them right away. And Lord, you've told us that you're going to cleanse us of all of our idols.

You've commanded us to renew our minds. And so, Lord, here we are. Would you use your word to renew our minds right now that we might be able to think in a deeper, more spiritual way about certain areas that we might just be too shallow in right now? And so, Lord, I just pray, meet with us right now.

Lord, meet with the teachers in the back. Lord, we long to see our children converted. Lord, we're not having this teaching and the teachings in back just to have them.

But Lord, we're hungering for you to open the eyes of the blind. We're hungering for you to set the captives free. Lord, we're grateful we have a baptism today.

Lord, we pray there'll be many more, even among our children. Lord, as a year or two years ago, Lord, multiple kids were converted. Lord, we pray, would you bring forth another wave of young people's conversions? I ask this in Christ's name, Amen.

Amen. All right, I do want to consider a woman from the New Testament. This is not Mother's Day, is it? No.

So tell me who this lady is. Twice this woman discerned the right response while those around her, they failed to see it. Twice she was rebuked and scorned for what she did by those who had an opposing view, who were Christians, by the way.

Twice those who reproved her were overly focused upon works. And twice Christ openly defended this woman and agreed with her position and denounced the position that the others had. Who is this woman? You can't just say Mary.

Yes, Mary of Bethany or Mary the sister of Martha. So let's first turn to Luke 10 just for a moment and then we'll primarily look at Mark 14. You could possibly title this the woman who saw what everyone else missed.

Luke 10. And we when we get to Mark's account, it doesn't mention her name, but you know from the John 12 parallel, this is Mary of Bethany. But in Luke 10, we have one of these occasions and I've preached on this text before dealing with self-pity.

We're just going to briefly look at this, but Luke 10. Let's just read 38 to 42. Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet. But you find Mary multiple times at the Lord's feet. She listened to his teaching.

And then it contrasts Mary with her sister. Martha was distracted with much serving and she went up to Jesus and said, Lord, can you not care? My sister has left me to serve alone. Tell her to help me.

But the Lord answered, Martha, Martha, you are anxious. You are troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.

So we've got our first passage and I turned to Mark 14, Mark 14. But there you see her in a crowded house, quietly abandoning the work that Martha thinks is urgent just to sit on the floor and listen to Christ. And her sister, as it could be rendered, scolds her for that.

So apparently Mary discerned things rightly there about what was the most appropriate action or way to worship to honor Christ in that moment. Right? Martha had a certain perspective. Mary had the right perspective.

Mary's trying to get... Martha's trying to get Mary rebuked. And in the end, Christ corrects Martha. So Mary was thinking in a way that Martha was not.

And we're going to find the same thing here in Mark 14. Let's start in verse three. And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at a table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment.

And again, if you go to John 12, it seems clear there's a parallel there and that this is referring to the same situation. It's the same Mary. An alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, basically a year's labor of work.

And she broke the flask and poured it over Christ's head. So here you find this lady doing something again. And what is those around her's response? This is not the unbelieving Jews.

This is the disciples. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, why has this ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. Now in John, who specifically does it mention says this in John? Judas.

And what does it say his motive was for saying this? Yeah, because he took money from the treasury. And so he didn't want to, you know, thought if they sell it more money in the treasury, more money for me to tap into. And if you got more money, it's going to be less noticeable.

I'm taking it. But here in Mark, is this just Judas? Is this just about Judas's perspective here? It's not. All right.

It doesn't even mention him specifically right there. So that's important for us to realize this isn't just the one crooked stick thinking this way. So they're viewing here.

This is a stewardship issue. And if we would have sold it, this could have been given to the poor. Mary, you're not thinking right.

You're not thinking right. And it says at the end of verse five, such a lovely phrase, they scolded her. That's not a lovely phrase.

Verse six, none of us have ever scolded any fellow Christian, have we? Has Jeff ever scolded me? I don't know. Maybe once for preaching too long. Better not do that today.

Six, it was a fatherly scolding. Six, verse six, digging a hole. But Jesus said, he'll scold me for saying what I just did right now.

And he's justified if he does that. Verse six, Jesus said, leave her alone. So again, both passages, Jesus defends Mary.

And one question I'd ask myself, what if, what if there's no Jesus? What would have happened to Mary in both of these situations? I mean, if you're Mary, and you've got the disciples correcting you, you're probably going to go with them. Not what you thought was the right decision, right? She could have, her whole life could have been changed through false ideas. And what was pure and holy and more honorable to the Lord than the other's perspective, Martha or the disciples.

Mary could have had her mind not renewed, but infected with a wrong way of thinking that would have had a negative impact on her. I think that's very important to realize. Because you could have people in your life who seem far more spiritual than you are.

And you actually discern something that's really worshipful to Christ. They come along and correct you. But since there's no Jesus there to correct the people correcting you, you end up going on.

You could go on. There's people going on for years with a wrong idea that is unbiblical. So that's something we've got to recognize is a danger here.

Let's finish reading the text. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. And then he has a conjunction.

Verse 7, for you always have the poor with you. And whenever you want, you can do good for them. So he's saying do good for the poor, but you will not always have me.

She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. So he's acknowledging she knew, she knew very clearly about this cross, about the Savior's death, all these disciples, these different ones, they're hearing about it.

She is very much convinced of this. She's anointed my body beforehand for burial. I think in John, there's a way it can render it that she was going to hold on to this ointment until after he had died.

But here it's like she couldn't do it. She just overwhelmed with love for the Savior and worship poured this out on him now. Verse 9, and truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what Mary has done will be told in memory of her.

And then notice verse 10, then Judas Iscariot, who's one of the 12, who's going to betray him, sought an opportunity to betray him. That will matter for one of my points later on. So there we've got Mary of Bethany.

Mary of Bethany. She stood out to me recently. For men and women alike, Mary of Bethany is a pattern to imitate.

And I know that dogmatically, because how that text ends. Verse 9, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. So we should be talking about what happens here.

We should understand what happens here. The Lord wants you and I to understand what happens here. The Lord does not want us to be the 12.

The Lord does not want us to be Martha. And so there is a way of thinking that Mary had. She had repeated spiritual insight when others kept misunderstanding what was the most appropriate thing to do in the way to worship Christ in the situation.

So that makes me stop and take notice, right? This woman had repeated spiritual insight when everyone else missed it. I want to learn something from this lady here in the Word of God. And for Christ to say what he says in verse 9, that makes me ask these questions.

So, so first, let's just work through some, some questions, and then we'll have some lessons, hopefully to apply to our own hearts. But the first thing I just want to ask is what did Mary see that the others missed? In Luke 10, we're not, I don't want to focus on Luke 10, but the greatest thing she could do, she recognized was to sit at Jesus's feet and hear his word, hear his word. She listened to his teaching rather than letting service take a wrong place.

So she valued his word. But then we get to Mark 14 right here. What did Mary see? Mary saw very clearly that Jesus is heading to the cross and this is her last chance to honor him.

And you could, you could say she outsees what the apostles and the disciples should have seen in a clear way. The 12, they heard repeated predictions of Jesus's death, his resurrection, but they time and time again, I mean, as Craig has even been dealing with earlier on in Mark, they just don't see it. And that's something you and I can hear something plainly again and again and again.

And we don't, we miss it or we miss the right way to respond to it. Right? Peter, even in the garden, trying to keep Jesus from going and doing what he should do and turning the thing into a battle and cutting the ear off. It's like, Mary's not doing that.

Mary has resigned that this, he is the Messiah and he is going to go and he's going to die. And it shouldn't shock us that Mary picks this up in Mark 14 and that she has this mindset because we saw earlier in Luke 10, she sits at his feet. And I think a lot of our failure to comprehend the ways of Christ is we fail devotionally to sit at his feet.

And if we would do much more sitting at the Lord's feet and much less busyness in our lives, we like Mary would have observations about the Lord and understand his ways more than we do. So Mary was a woman who listened to Christ. She didn't get caught up in the busyness.

And she was one who was willing to worship him. Even in both cases, even in both cases, it led to a scolding and that didn't bother her. You and I should be willing to do what we believe is right before God, even if others are going to scold us for doing it.

Um, so secondly, let's think what about verse nine, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory. So Christ tells us what she has done be proclaimed wherever the gospel is proclaimed. What does that mean? I mean, when you go downtown evangelizing, you're sharing the gospel, do you bring this up? Do you feel like, oh, wherever the gospel is proclaimed, I'm supposed to proclaim this.

Let's go talk about Mary of Bethany. Has anyone ever done that? I never have. So what does it mean? What does he mean right here? Um, think about what this, what does this show? Mary's comprehension of Christ death that's about to come of who he is and her willingness to take a year's labor of resources.

And not just what would you usually do with ointment or this anointing? What would you use? How much would you usually anoint someone with anywhere in the old Testament? Do they break the whole flask open and pour it all on Saul's head when he's being anointed King? Oh, you got, you got a smaller portion. Um, so we see here what a love and knowledge of Christ, the whole heartedness it will produce in an individual. I think that's what the point of this, this is an example of worship and the extent a Christian believer will go to, to show their view of Christ and his worth and his value.

Right? And so that we're trying to show that corporately as a church to the world, not just in one instance in our life. We want people to come here and they hate these people say they're Christians. Well, I've known a lot of people who say they're Christians throughout my life.

What sort of devotion and value of Christ do people see that we at GCC have when they come into these walls. And if you see someone take a whole year's worth of resources, basically, and just pour that out out of worship for Christ, where the disciples of all people are scolding this individual for doing that, that shows a value of Christ. And we want to be that sort of people.

This passage is not just a call for doing more. I want to emphasize this because so much of what Mary did, she didn't prioritize working in the kitchen with Martha and she didn't prioritize giving to the poor. She prioritized who? Christ.

This is a very subtle war that we all face as Christians. I actually think this passage rebukes the idea of having all these impulses to just do a bunch of stuff in the Christian life. I don't think that's the point.

The point is to value Christ. And as you value Christ, it will lead you to do works of great sacrifice. But you're not looking to do the works.

You're looking to Christ and it's the overflow. So Martha and Luke 10 is consumed with serving and wrongly perceived Mary is neglecting duty. The disciples in Mark 14 are consumed with usefulness and being good stewards, it appears.

But Mary is consumed with Christ. So in both passages, you've got well-meaning Christians consumed with doing good works and they're rebuking and scorning the woman who's consumed with knowing and being near the Lord Jesus and showing him worship. And so, brethren, I think all of us in subtle ways, we fell in this area at times.

Mary shows us devotion to the person of Christ should outrank all activity done in his name. Right. Another thing to consider, I already hit on this, but Jesus defends her twice.

What if Jesus wasn't there? Yeah, you get a bunch of young people together. So let's say you get five young people together. One of them, I mean, one of them is going to have the greatest powers of discernment, right? Or maybe you got to have equal power discernment.

They're all going to, if they're talking about, let's say they're talking about creationism or theistic evolution or whatever, they're talking about that whole debated topic there in the beginning of Genesis. Um, they're going to only be able in that discussion to live up to the person as the greatest knowledge and discernment on what the word teaches. And they can't go higher than that, right? They're stuck with that level of understanding.

If Christ isn't here again, you've got a level of understanding that needs to be increased in their lives. Now Christ was there and Christ has put this in his word. So we can have this level of understanding.

Um, Jesus defends her. She understood Jesus and what he desired. Even when his closest followers did not.

That is amazing to me. Yeah. Is there, you know, I've seen this with kids, um, someone that I knew and really respected.

Basically, I think six, six of their kids have cut the parents off. Um, I knew them for years, long ago. And it was surprising to me as I saw, you know, the kids cutting their parents off.

I thought that, you know, the parents were very godly Christians, right? Well, I was wrong. They weren't very godly. A bubble of understanding and thinking that even though they went to church, the ideas of their parents from the Bible held such gravity on their mind.

It was almost like they couldn't break away from it. Few should be teachers and preachers for we will be judged with a greater strictness, right? I have the ability as a teacher to fail and legalistically bind your conscience in a way that is putting you into bondage. It's just one example, right? You as parents have that same thing.

You could put an idea in your child's mind where you're like the disciples scorning Mary, when you should actually be encouraging Mary and not scorning her. You understand? And so we've got to just be careful in the life of the church and parenting in any area where we're teaching. This is something we need to be aware of.

What if the way I think, and in this case specific about worship unto Christ, what if something's wrong about the way I think? All right, another thought. The text says you will always have the poor, you will not always have me. And, you know, Jesus is not belittling care for the poor, right? Praise God.

We just had the food ministry this past week and helping people who might not have as much resources to obtain food. Jesus is not belittling that. What is he doing? He's insisting on what? A proper order, right? Christ himself must be preeminent, and then all ministry flows out of the Lord.

So remember that. I know I've already said that, but that's a massive point we've got to realize. All right, what next? Yeah, let's think about the cost of the ointment.

The ointment, the pure nard, was extremely costly, about 300 denarii, basically a year's wages. Now we all know that. We've heard of that.

But let's think about this. Judas, Judas who comes along, how much did he sell the Lord Jesus for? Why 30 pieces of silver? And in fulfilling prophecy, what in the Old Testament would you need to pay 30 pieces of silver for? Yeah, the price of a slave. It's just very, very incredible.

Exodus 21. If an ox gores a male or a female slave, the owner will give to their master 30 shekels of silver, and the ox will be stoned. So Judas received 30 pieces of silver, the price for a slave who was accidentally killed.

Mary takes a whole year of labor and pours it out and is accused of being wasteful. Judas takes the price, the lowest price, legally assigned to human life in Mosaic law. That's what Judas took to betray the Lord Jesus Christ.

Honestly, that contrast is shocking. Mary effectively says, he's worth everything I've got. I'm going to break this whole thing and pour it all out.

Christ is worth everything I've got. Judas effectively says he's worth no more than the compensation for a slave who's accidentally killed. Isn't that amazing? Now it's no wonder the Lord had that price to fulfill prophecy.

The one who came to serve is sold for the price assigned to a servant's death. I mean, to me, this gives new meaning to Philippians 2, 7 to 8. He took the form of a slave. Wow.

And humbled himself to the point of death. I'll tell you, was Jesus Christ's death an accidental death by the goring of an ox? No, it was a predetermined plan in all of eternity that the father would send his son. The suffering servant of Isaiah is valued by Judas at a slave's rate.

And Judas is, from John 12, one of the main ones chewing out Mary. Stop wasting this money and hear what Judas traded Christ for. It's incredible.

Brethren, like Mary, there are people throughout church history, they have given massive sacrifices for the Lord Jesus Christ. They've given up scholarships for Christ, sold homes, they've let their careers be interrupted and ended for Christ. They've, like C.T. Studd, they've redirected entire inheritance instances for Christ.

They've sacrificed much for the Lord Jesus Christ. When that sacrifice is not just being radical for the sake of being radical, but it's actually because of a personal worth in the value of Christ, we've got to clarify that, right? Because what does 1 Corinthians 13 say? You can give your body to be burned and if you have not love it, prophets absolutely not. You can go get martyred and go to hell, right? But there is a genuine pouring forth of all one has where you're even scorned by others and that is absolutely a right worshipful response to Christ.

Think a little further about Judas. The disciples prompted by Judas called Mary's devotion what? A waste. A waste.

Later, Jesus calls Judas the son of perdition. And guess what? It's the same word. From the same word there, waste.

He calls him a son of waste. A son of waste. So Mary is accused of wasting money on Christ.

Judas actually wastes his life and loses his soul in betraying the Lord Jesus Christ. Mary pours out a year's wages and receives Christ's praise. Judas cleans to his silver and loses his soul.

Isn't that kind of shocking? You could be in this church and end up being like Judas, a son of waste. And you know what's interesting? What was one of the evidences of the path Judas was on? I realized the other disciples scorned Mary. I realized that.

But notice Judas, you could say, had a hyper-critical spirit. And he had ulterior motives. But I just caution you, even as God dealt with me in my own life early on for a hyper-critical spirit, if you find yourself scorning people, belittling people, having a hyper-critical spirit, you don't find that path ending in a good place for people in the Bible.

And Judas being one of them. Well, let's think of a few. I mean, there's been lessons in what I'm sharing, but let's think of a few more lessons right now.

In the text, they said this could have been sold. This could have been sold for a large sum of money. So lesson one, could have, would have, should have.

I think it brings up an interesting point. Have you seen someone in the church do something and have you had the thought cross your mind, huh, they should have done this. They could have done that.

You could have done this and you didn't. Have you ever had that happen? I mean, in a way you should. Why should that happen? Because we're people of discernment and we are analyzing our own actions, the actions of our dear brethren.

But I think there's something here. Do we dwell on this? Could have been. And we miss what should be.

How many of us can fixate on the hypothetical good that could have been and we miss the actual good we could currently be doing in our lives, right? And so I'd say another positive with Mary is she didn't think, well, I could have done this. I mean, again, some would say in John, she was actually holding on to this, you know, the break it there after Christ's death. But she didn't wait for that.

She poured forth this act of worship upon the Lord right here, right now at this point, and she gets scorned for it. And so don't fixate on hypothetical good. Mary had a once in history chance to honor the Lord before he was slain and she did it.

There's certain opportunities in your life, brethren, you only have one opportunity to do that act. You're not going to get an option two. You're not going to get an option three.

She didn't do it right there. She never would have had that opportunity again the rest of her life. And again, was the disciples' alternative view about giving to the poor? Was that an evil view? Was that a bad idea? No, it's good to give to the poor.

So this is kind of a situation of you have something good and you have something that is best. So rather than, here are the applications, rather than ask what else could this have been used for, ask, Lord, what should I do with it now? What if you've got this flask of pure nard in your life right now? It could parallel money you've got in your life. It could parallel skill and ability you've got in your life.

Are you holding on to it? Or is there some way you could worship the Lord and break that and pour it forth unto Christ? And in doing that, you would actually be doing verse 9. When you now proclaim the gospel to someone down the street in your neighborhood or a lost family member, they're going to see the worth and value of Christ. All right, another lesson. Let your devotion to Christ greatly outrank your devotion to stewardship and being productive.

Is stewardship good? Yeah. Is being productive good? Absolutely. Is serving in the kitchen good like Martha did? Yes.

Martha had the wrong time to get up and serve. You know, you're kind of trying to have a deep conversation with someone and they just get up and start doing the dishes. You're like, what are they doing? They start sweeping the floor.

So this is tricky. We want to be good stewards. Stewardship is not wrong.

It's required. But when it becomes an end in itself, rather than what you're doing out of a love for Christ, that's where we need to have a check. So be productive.

Be good stewards. Do help the poor. But don't let it get in the way of you and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Another lesson from this. Let Jesus decide what is beautiful. All right, you see that right there.

What she's done. Verse 6. We're in Mark 14. Verse 6. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.

She's done a beautiful thing to me. Jesus calls her act a beautiful thing. Not because it was financially efficient.

Isn't that interesting? It wasn't a financially efficient decision to make. Have any of you parents ever made a decision for your kids that was not financially efficient, but you did it out of a love for your kids? Has anyone ever done that? I remember we were at Terry's 70th birthday in an Airbnb. We had no plans to go to Silver Dollar City.

And we all spur the moment like, let's go to Silver Dollar City. And let me tell you, Silver Dollar City, it's not cheap. But you know what? It was the right thing to do.

It wouldn't look like the greatest steward, but it's the right thing to do out of love for the kids. Right here, we're looking at what Mary did out of love for someone far greater than parental love for kids, but for the one and only Savior, the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was beautiful because Christ was the object.

You could start some ministry. You could say, oh, there's a beautiful ministry I have. Really? Is Christ the object? If Christ isn't the object, it's not beautiful.

Is the motive love and faith? If it's not, I don't think that's beautiful. If the motive is self, if it's promotion of self, it's beautiful if what you're doing is in step with the cross. Right? Isn't that what he says? She's done this for my burial.

Right? Paul said, I've determined to know nothing among you except for Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I mean, we should be thinking in what I do and what I say. Is this going to glorify the cross of Christ? Is this going to make much of Christ? So let Jesus decide what is beautiful.

I might do something in my life where you want to scold me, or you might do something in your life where you want to scold what I'm doing and say I'm being a bad steward. Right? That's what happens here. So that could happen in the walls of our church.

Right? Yeah, probably that could happen. Maybe it has. We've got to be careful not to scold devotion in the name of prudence.

Sometimes good stewardship is language that hide behind unbelief, coldness, and a critical spirit. Right? I say that, but I'd remind you one of my points earlier. I don't think Mary of Bethany and her life is an example.

It's not a life that emphasizes go do a bunch of good works. That's what Martha and that's what the disciples seem to have more of an emphasis on. So don't think this wrongly.

It's about seeing the worth and value of Christ, the one who was sold for 30 shekels, the price for an accidental death of a slave. And yet he is the very son of God. Another lesson, we should be willing to be misunderstood.

Sometimes the people closest to you, Martha and Mary, they're sisters. Right? Siblings did not understand each other or siblings got frustrated at her sister. Sometimes the people closest to you will not understand your worship for Christ.

Who's an example of that in the Old Testament? Who's someone in the Old Testament who really sought to worship Christ and they got misunderstood? Say again? Yeah, David. What did David go and do? Yeah, he did something. If I did it right now, you would scold me for doing it, especially since he did it in a linen ephod.

See where I got someone walking out. That was sorry. He didn't realize.

David danced before the Lord was despised as undignified by who? Just some random person, right? His wife. Hey, that's a good verse for us men to use when our wives scold us. Yeah, remember that Isaiah? If we use it in context, God didn't rebuke David.

It wasn't that serious though, right? What happened to David's wife? Got a slap on the wrist. No children. Barren.

Really? I despise someone's worship of Christ. And it's such a severe thing. My wife is struck barren.

The wife being the one who did the despise. Did you get the gravity of that? And look, I mean, maybe this is just me. Maybe it's my problem and I need to grow in this.

But when I read the passage, I almost feel like, yeah, this is kind of awkward what David is doing. Meaning I would tend to be in whose side of the camp with the wife. It's interesting.

That should trouble. It does trouble me. So yeah, have I ever criticized someone's act of devotion as being impractical, too extreme, poor stewardship? Look, are there people who will do things that it is too extreme? Yes.

But if we go around saying that too much, we're going to judge people are doing something very worshipful for Christ and we're going to label it in the wrong way. So we got to be careful here. Um, do something for Christ that a calculator wouldn't approve of, right? That's a, that's a call to action for you.

Calculator meaning you're, you're chomping up the numbers or I'm a spreadsheet guy. You got the spreadsheet. You got the positive.

Yes. Use your spreadsheets. Yes.

Think objectively about what you're going to do. But you know what? Right in that moment, Mary breaking that and worshiping the Lord. I doubt she had that on her spreadsheet.

It was a spirit of God led act in her life. I was listening to Clint Leiter the other day. He mentioned this time he saw Conrad Murrell, uh, at the Bentley camp.

Conrad just went up and gave him a big hug and a big kiss on the cheek. And Clint said, you started to weep. He thought no one's ever expressed such love unselfaware to him in that way.

I could, it was an act of worship to the Lord and loving a fellow Christian, right? Something that you could look at and say, that's a, that could be a little awkward. It was honoring to God. Another lesson.

We should do what we can for Christ. I know this verse gets quoted a lot from our texts, but look at verse eight. I think it's worth thinking about for a moment.

I did what I could. She has anointed my body before barrier beforehand for burial. I think that is a helpful phrase to remember in the Christian life, right? I did what I could.

I didn't do everything, but I did what I could. Um, the Lord isn't asking you to pour out what you don't have. It's just asking you to do what you can do, what you can.

And God's designed each one of our personalities. And you know what? All our personalities were trying to become more like the Lord Jesus Christ, right? There's ways that we can be cold, unloving. It's not like Christ.

And we need to become more like the Lord Jesus Christ, but Christ, he says, she did what she could. And so we want that to be true of us. Another lesson right here.

Um, act, and I already hit on this, I guess, but act while the window is open. Jesus said, you will not always have me. And you know what? Yeah, this is about worshiping Christ, but we should make it practical.

There's people in your life you're not always going to have, right? Shirley's not always going to have her mother, right? Her father's gone. So she's doing what she can to love her mother, right? We're not always going to have certain people. The children, I mean, think about your kids.

You're not always going to have your kids. You get taken at any moment through death, through Christ's return or other circumstances. Are we doing what we can? You know, it's an act of worship to the Lord, to love those in our lives that he's given us.

Did I do what I could from my next door neighbor, Robert, who died last year? You know, he came to some of the men's studies. He came to my grace group a few times. He came to church a few times.

You know, I'd be out in my front yard. I'd see Robert. And I knew if I go over there, we're going to get in a long conversation.

And I did many times. There's sometimes I didn't. We want to act while the door is open.

The local church, as it is right now, you know, we heard my grace group, Keegan and Susie, because of work, he's going to end up, they're going to get relocated next year because he's in the military. So act while the window's open. Love Keegan and Susie while they're here.

They're going to be somewhere else, another state probably. We want to be those who act while the window is open. Mary did that.

Mary did it, even though she got scorned for it. She got chewed out for it. She didn't hold back.

Christ is worth it. And this applies in our relationships. Our children, our parents, our neighbors, those in our church, there's going to be a season and it's going to be gone.

And the only regret you'll have is that you refused to waste, in quotes, because it's not a waste, right? You refuse to waste anything on Jesus and those that He gave you. So I'm preaching this to myself. I mean, I feel it.

Kids are growing up fast. You've got this season. Don't waste it.

I read a lot of books. As you know, this is a book. I've been reprinting it.

This is the original. To What Purpose? To What Purpose? And that comes from this text. It's a biography of a man named Emil Fischbacher.

In 1931, he picked up China's Millions, which was a magazine by China Inland Mission, and he read An Appeal to Young Men. And he went to Chinese Turkestan with George Hunter and Percy Mathers. The journey was grueling.

He was a doctor, well-trained, a surgeon. The town had no hospital. There wasn't a hospital for, I think, three to four days' journey.

And you're a doctor in a town with no hospital. And guess what happens in Chinese Turkestan? A war breaks out. Immense medical needs, removing all manner of bullets from people.

And Emil and his co-worker, Percy Mathers, they contracted typhus, and they died. When he died, it had been almost two years since he read that article. He'd only been in China, I think, a year and a half.

And people asked the question, this young doctor who was incredibly skilled, and they said, To What Purpose? To What Purpose? But you know what? A long line of missionaries have died like that. Ion Keith Falconer, he was a famous cyclist, very intelligent. Him and his wife, they went to the Middle East.

They made a mistake many missionaries of their time would make. They got a house in the wrong part of town where it was very humid, and they got sick all the time, and he died shortly after getting to this very unreached place in the Middle East. So what do we make of that? Emil Fischbacher, Ion Keith Falconer, these young people who die so young right when it looks like they're going to have massive ministry opportunities.

Listen to Emil's sister what she wrote. She said, From every point of view, I'm satisfied with God's choice for my brother. I'm completely satisfied.

I would have never dared to choose anything so good for him, but I'm glad that the one who loves my brother far more than I made the choice to take him at this point in his life. What made it interesting at Emil's farewell meeting in London before he ever sailed, the preacher spoke on this very story right here in Mark 14. And he contrasted the disciples' words, To what purpose is this waste? With our Lord's words, She has done a beautiful thing to me.

So when you think about Emil, or Ion Keith Falconer, or David Brainerd, or Henry Martin, or these other people who it seems like their lives were cut too short, it was a beautiful thing what they did for Christ. There's nothing wrong with that. It's honoring to Christ.

Isn't our Lord the one who said whoever desires to save his life will lose it? Whatever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. Isn't that what we have right there in Mark 14? Truly I say wherever the gospel. This is about the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ who was not an accidental servant being killed by an ox, even though that's the price Judas took.

But the very Son of God who the Father sent and poured out His wrath and indignation upon that we might have eternal life. So the earth looks at a lot and says it's a waste. That one missionary we have heard at the conference before, I believe he had one class left in medical school, if I'm remembering right, don't quote me, to get his certificates and everything and he felt like it was too much of an idol in his heart and he didn't finish that last course.

He didn't want to get it. You know, a faithful person, you won't be a waste to give in to his cravings and his idols and not worship Christ as he's worthy of. And then he'll look back and see how his heart was pulled in a direction it never should have gone.

That would be a wasted life. I think again about the Wilkinsons leaving the mission field to go back home to take care of Matt's mother. That is not a waste.

That is an act of worship to Christ to live out those scriptures and may God save Matt's mother. So just a few closing questions. And I forgot to mention this, but you know who else, I mean the people in the scene, you got Simon the leper, or he was, he's still being called that, you got a person healed of leprosy and a person raised from the dead at this table in this room.

But Mary stands out the most to me, not the man raised from the dead, not this former leper, but this woman here who we saw in Luke 10 and Mark 14. So yeah, are you like the woman who saw what everyone else missed? Do you see who Christ is? I mean, that's how I'd put it. She saw who Christ was and believed his word.

The others had heard about his death. They'd heard about his resurrection, but they weren't responding accordingly at so many points. But she, it seems right here, she really, really was to the point Christ is highly commending her.

He's defending her and he's saying, she's anointed my body beforehand for burial. Do you see how much Christ wants you to worship him and to not let anything get in the way of that? When you see costly obedience, do you instinctively say, why this waste? Or do you think that's beautiful? That's a beautiful thing. Another question, am I troubling people who are trying to do something for the Lord or am I standing with Christ and commending it? Again, you got to be, I get it.

There's people who abuse things. I understand that. But we don't want to be imbalanced on this point right here.

It's what I'm doing really about the Lord. It can be a tricky question to ask. Remember, what did Paul say to Timothy? I know of no one like him, who's what? Genuinely interested for the interest of Christ.

For they all seek their own interest and not those of Christ. It's always, again, Paul had one man that he could say really had pure motives at that point, at least in that context of that letter. Right? So my point is that just shows this is a battle.

This is a battle. The motives of our hearts. This is a war, brethren.

God help us. Am I holding my life, my time, my money is too precious to waste on Christ. So may the Lord give us more Marys of Bethany.

Could be a good girl's name, Mary and her middle name, Bethany. Bethany is a really good name, actually. Mary Bethany, put your last name there.

Who discerned deeply what was most worshipful act of obedience to Christ. She didn't just discern at one time, but at least two clear times in your New Testament. This woman had discernment that the apostles failed to have or other the disciples and others failed to have.

So I and Christ really commends her. So I hope this has been helpful. She was a woman who longed to know his word, and she was a woman who knew his worth.

And so I want us to hear from the Lord. You have done a beautiful thing to me. And there's probably things that you guys have done.

Acts of worship to Christ that others, us in the church, maybe haven't said that was beautiful. And I'm sorry if we failed to give you that encouragement, but you know what? Christ sees everything you're doing. And you might not hear him audibly say that was beautiful, but you can look at this in the word and you can realize, you know what? This is right.

This is beautiful to my Savior. And him seeing what you're doing is beautiful. That's the one thing that matters, not what everyone else thinks.

All right, well, let me pray. And then after I pray, I guess Jabari is going to share his testimony outside. We're going to have the baptism.

Let's pray. Father, Lord, we just thank You for Your Son. Lord, I can't imagine leaving perfect fellowship with You behind and taking the form of a slave and being betrayed by a companion, being tortured, being crucified as a slave.

Lord, there's such subtle ways we can feel insulted when people don't honor us and all that selfishness, Lord, that can enter our mind. Lord Jesus, for You to be betrayed for the price of an accidental killing of a slave. Lord, that's what an insult.

What an insult of Your beauty, Your glory, Lord Jesus. Lord, we're thankful for Mary. We're thankful for her example.

We're thankful for her acts of worship. We're thankful for her, Lord, You giving her the perception to pick up and recognize specific things. Lord, would You give us such eyes to see what's truly beautiful? And Lord, we humbly realize if the disciples, if Martha didn't process things right in certain situations, Lord, we could miss it.

And so Lord, would You give us that discernment to see what's truly beautiful? Lord, what, Lord, what are beautiful acts of worship that we can do individually and as a church for You? That right now it is the opportunity. It's this week. And there won't be another week.

Lord, give us the eyes to recognize what that is. That You would receive the honor and the glory and the praise. And so, Lord, You are worthy, worthy, worthy.

Thank You for saving us. Thank You for Your abundant mercy towards us. Lord, I even think about them scorning her.

And Lord, it just reminds me of You are going to defend us on that great day of judgment as our lawyer, and no charge against us will stand. And so, Lord, we're thankful to have You, the perfect advocate, the only advocate, the only lawyer who could win our case. Lord Jesus, we thank You for standing in our place.

Lord Jesus, we thank You for shedding Your blood. More love to Thee, O Christ. More love to Thee.

Amen.