NOV 12 2017 | Mark 14:3-9

Sea Change Church · "Mark 14:3-9" · Adam Stadtmiller · November 12, 2017
Mark 14:3-9
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Today we're going to be reading out of Mark 14, 3 through 9. And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon, the leper, as he was reclining at a table, a woman came up with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it all over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 nari and given to the poor.

And they scolded her, but Jesus said, leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? 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 that. 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 world, in the whole world, what she has done will be told in Mary of her.

I'm not going to bite you, bro. Don't worry. You see, Andy was like this. It was funny, I walked out the church the other day. I was going to lunch or something. The woman was walking her dog. When I walked out, she jumped back like this. And she goes, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there. You scared me. I said, first thing that came to my mind, I said, you know, the church hasn't a way of doing that for years. So I thought that was funny.

I thought it was funny, too. Hey, quickly, before we begin, I just want you to know, and I want to let you know what we're doing in regard to church security. That's important. We won't get into all the picadillos of it, but we are going to be starting a ministry in regard to having a service and security team. They'll probably wear some kind of t-shirt, looking at two people, men and women, that will walk the campus during service, one to walk that side of the campus, and one to be in the sanctuary.

We're going to be getting professional consultation to do that, and I'm doing a ton of studies. So just so you know, on my watch, we are thinking about that. We're very aware of it. We know you're aware of it. It is very important, and I just want you to know that. So be aware. If that's something that you have training in or something like that, we would love to have you be a part of that, and we will be asking you, whoever would like to be a part of that, in the coming months as we prepare.

We want to do it right. We don't want to rush into anything. But just so you know, it's something that's on my heart. I'm a shepherd, and I'm called to take care and watch over the sheep, you being the sheep, me being the shepherd. So we will do that. Let me pray, and then we'll get in today's message. Lord Jesus, thank you, God, for the example of a woman whose life represented the very act which she did, anointing you, pouring out her very life to you.

And Jesus, we thank you. We want to do that ourselves. And let this be a church that pours ourself out like a drink offering in La Jolla, in Lakeside, God, through all California and this country and all the world. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Last week we met one of the most intriguing characters in all of Scripture.

It's this sinful woman who came to Jesus, which is interesting in itself, to come to a party of very self-righteous people. Now, I'm not putting Jesus in the grouping of those that are self-righteous, but we know that there was a Pharisee there, that we were at the house of a Pharisee. We'll talk about him in a moment. But it was a very religious party of the day, and the Jews of the day, many, not all, many of the Jews of the day loved to be religious.

They loved religiosity. They loved the stuff of God, perhaps sometimes more than they actually loved God himself. So imagine this woman who gets an idea in her mind that she knows that Jesus, there's something about Jesus that is a little bit different than the rest. And she knows that Jesus is going to this place. She's scoped it out. She knows that he's there.

And she gets an idea in her head to go and to approach Jesus, not only to approach Jesus, but to give an offering unto Jesus and to touch Jesus. Now, this is something that women did not do back in Jesus' time. And also, if you touch the wrong person or you show disrespect, it is possible that you could be stoned, you could be castigated, you could be set aside, things you could be, you could lose community.

It was a very risky act. And so this woman, not only doing that, comes in as a woman who is a known sinner. Perhaps you know some sinners. If you know your pastor, then the answer to that is, yes, I am a sinner. And hopefully you understand that about yourself as well. It's often where I love to start when I come for the grace of Jesus in a prayer time.

It's, Jesus, I am a sinner. I am a mess. And my favorite four-letter prayer, help, I need you. This woman had this idea that she would, she would crash this party. And she would go to Jesus, and I imagine she was not an invited guest, and begin to pour her very life out to Jesus. And then represent, beyond just what was happening in her heart and her tears, she would represent the offering to Jesus with a whole year's worth of salary.

Now, that's interesting. I mean, this 300 denarii, if you do the study, is a bottle of perfume. Imagine some, I don't know, that face stuff that women use now. It's like the, it's called, it's not ointment, it's like a potion. Or what do they call that stuff? Serum, right? Let's just call it serum, and then we can charge a thousand bucks for it, right?

Serum, all right? Face stuff, all right? When we came to recently, I spent $500 on this face stuff. She goes, it's serum. So I said, okay, well, I hope it works for you. I won't go any further. I'll just leave it at that. She's got this vile, in modern terms, of serum. So imagine that she goes to La Jolla where they stand out on the, you know, and they accost you when you walk down the street in their black outfit, right?

Have you ever gotten pulled into the chair? I was in the chair recently, and I couldn't get out. Then they corner you. I'm like, I don't need it. Look, this ain't going to get any better. I don't care. You could, you know, put crude oil on it. It ain't going to get better. It's just dropping. I look at my dad's pictures, and I know what's coming. Trust me.

Long jowls. St. Bernard did the whole deal. It's coming. William Macy, the actor this week, I was listening to an interview with him. He goes, the only problem with me being in Hollywood still is my face is falling off. And I thought, that's so funny. She comes with this serum. Imagine that she goes and she buys this serum, a year's worth, though, of salary.

And it represents a heart transaction. There's nothing you can give in the material world that God really cares about. I mean, really. I mean, his worth cannot be matched. You can't. I mean, he's so hard to buy for at Christmas, like buying something for God. Like, it's the hardest person to buy for. But nonetheless, it is difficult for her. And so she brings a physical offering as best she can to represent the spiritual, emotional, and physical transaction that is happening in her heart.

And one, as we saw last week, because this story, Jesus said, is one of only 11 that is in every gospel. And Jesus said that it would be remembered for every time the gospel is told. Every time that she is a part of this gospel. One of 11 stories and a very intriguing character. What brought her to Jesus? We'll look at that in a moment. I have seen a lot of pastors use these type of understandings to strong-arm Christians into giving.

If you ever hear a pastor say that, you know, out of Malachi, that if you don't give, that you are robbing the storehouse. That is not correct. And it is anti-scriptural when you look into the New Testament. There is no longer a need to fulfill any commandment because Jesus says that he has fulfilled all the commandments. You no longer have to give out of a compulsory giving.

There was a debt. That debt needed to be paid. And part of the way the debt behind, besides all the law that the Jews were told to keep, part of that included having to give something physically. Having to give a tithe. That was part of the debt. There were so many debts that happened with the transaction in Eden. One of them was financial. There was a debt that Jesus says he paid for.

And until that debt was paid, that only Jesus could pay, with his offering that you couldn't even put a value on, you had to give to be in right standing point with God. You had to give or else you were robbing God. If you did not give the right amount at the right times, you would not be able to be in a correct relationship with God. Jesus' death on the cross erased that.

Jesus says, I did not come to abolish the law. I came to fulfill it. You know what he did? He fulfilled your debt. All the tithing that you were ever supposed to do, all the offering, all the giving, all the minutia of the law that you were supposed to do, Jesus' sacrifice on the cross paid for it. So let's just start there. You no longer need to give.

You do not have to give. You are not robbing the storehouse. You do not have to tithe. You never have to give an offering. And you can still end up in heaven in right standing with God. Why? Because we believe in so much that Jesus canceled your debt. Look at the key truth, though. It's this. Jesus died on the cross to free you from compulsory giving.

You no longer have to give because you have to. But he has opened you up to being able to give to him freely. Now, remember I said if heaven has an economy, the economy is free. The thing that I said last week is that money is a creation. The need for money is a creation. It was created by the fall. There was no money. There was no currency exchange in Eden, and there will not be in heaven.

The land produced and gave of itself freely. God wants to live in a system where we give freely, not under a compulsory need. He says that there's no longer compulsory giving. Let me start from the beginning. Jesus died on the cross to free you from compulsory giving, but not to remove the blessing that comes from freely giving. If a pastor gets up and says, when you give, there's all these promises in the Bible that God says, if you give, financially, offerings, we're talking about material giving, and there's other types of generosity as well.

We've spoken about that. If he gets up and tells you that when you give, God has obligated himself through his promises to bless you because of that giving, that will be correct. Because God has not removed his desire to bless you when you give above and beyond. But you no longer have to give. It is a free offering. And so, a lot of times you hear this robbing of the storehouse stuff.

I just want to free you from that and give you the ability to give to your neighbors, to give to your church, to give. Why? Because you love God. You don't have to do it anymore. And you know what? You are free from that. Jesus says in Matthew 5, 17, do not think I have come to abolish the law of the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

Does this mean that money has no value? And I said last week that we have to be very careful in how much we allow finance to affect our emotions. I really want to get to the point where finance has no ability to affect my emotions. Like when the big check comes in, I'm not all happy, you know? I don't know. You get a check that comes in. Or, you know, or all of a sudden that number in your bank account.

And I've mentioned this before. We all have a number, right? Like, I'm sure for like Jeff Bezos, it's like, you know, 87 billion. So if he's below 87 billion, he's freaking out. Like, we all have that number. It doesn't matter how rich you are. Some people, it's 100. Like, if they have 100 bucks in the bank account, they're feeling solid. We all have a number.

And you know what your number is. When that number goes below, what happens? Get a little tight. Begin to think. Or when that number is high, you know? Hey, let's go to World Market. I love World Market. I want to win a shopping spree. I'm so happy at World Market. Does anybody else just go to World Market to be happy? I do. I just go there to be happy.

Oh, gray's tones on. I love the gray tones on all the furniture and so good. And then I can also get some like Irish cookies, some butter cookies in the back. They have food and furniture. It's awesome. Heaven is going to be a giant World Market. I'm going to get there and it's going to say World Market on the front. I'll be, yes, I knew it. I forgot what I was talking about.

Nonetheless, we'll keep on moving. Who is this Simon? Simon the leper. We'll just quickly look at Simon real quickly. Perhaps he was a Pharisee. It says there's, the four stories overlay each other in such a way that it can cause some textual criticism that we can look at. As best I determined, he is a Pharisee that was healed from leprosy. And he is having a party at his house that he invites Jesus to.

And he is still trapped, even though he's been healed, in his phariseutical understanding and currency of how heaven works. And so when Jesus comes in, perhaps not to over-honor Jesus, because he invited him in, but he really didn't give him a place of honor. He didn't wash his feet. I mean, Jesus actually says to him, you know, you kind of insulted me.

I was reading this week in James, or I was listening actually to the Bible. I forgot where I was listening to him. It talks about our ability to insult the Holy Spirit. And I thought, man, when have I insulted the Holy Spirit? And Jesus, he doesn't say anything until this Pharisee starts taking offense, even in his mind and his heart. We know that Jesus has the ability to understand what he's thinking because he says it in this scripture.

But he takes offense. And he says to him, excuse me, in the passage we read last week, that this woman came in. And last week he says, you know, you didn't wash my feet. You didn't do this. You didn't do this. But this woman has done nothing but bless me since she has come in. And so we see that he's invited Jesus, but perhaps it's a tepid invitation.

I just, you know, I love the questions that scripture asks. Scripture, whenever I read it, it just asks me questions all the time. And when I prepare scripture, when I prepare sermons, I'm asking, what is this asking? And the question that it asks me is, how tepid is my invitation to Jesus? One of the core identities of this church is invitation.

Hopefully you are inviting people. We're inviting you in deeper. And there is an invitation for Jesus to come, but there is not the welcome that this uninvited guest gives to Jesus. She gives an invitation. She was not invited, but gives an invitation of her heart to Jesus that is so far beyond what this Pharisee, or perhaps a leper, or a healed Pharisee that was a leper, even though he's been healed by Jesus, does not have the gratitude that this woman has.

That's amazing. He was healed of a physical thing, but he thought he was righteous. She knew she wasn't righteous and was looking for healing of her unrighteousness, her licentious living. And she was willing to give every area of her life. Body, soul, mind, emotion, tears. She wipes his feet with her hair and wets him with her tears. And then she takes a year, and I don't know how she made that money.

I have my ideas of how she made the money to buy that ointment, but she took it, and she broke the alabaster jar in an invitation to Jesus to say, if you would have me, you can have all of me. Great question. Are you the Pharisee or the sinful woman? I want to relate to the sinful woman. I want to have no areas of my life that are off limits with a tepid invitation.

You know, it's just enough to have Jesus near me. You know, and it wasn't enough for her to have Jesus near. She was cleaning and wiping his feet with her tears. I mean, it was just this display. And the fact that Jesus allowed it, I mean, seriously, I'd have a bit of a jaundiced eye towards what was happening there, right? All of a sudden, this religious leader is sitting there up on the, you know, imagine if I'm preaching, right?

And there's a woman who is known in the area. And as I'm preaching, she comes in and starts kissing my feet. I mean, it's a weird thought. See, Jesus doesn't, he doesn't look at things the way we look at it. He understands that it was a pure transaction. And perhaps the first pure transaction that that woman had made with a man her entire life.

And Jesus was not off-put by it. Matter of fact, he highlighted it and showed it. You know, there's two complaints for Jesus in this story. And Jesus was always getting into trouble. That's why I love Jesus. He's just always in trouble. Him and I relate really well. Two complaints. First complaint you'll see. His blatant disregard for the importance and value of money.

Just a blatant disregard. Blatant disregard. Now, this doesn't mean, and this is what I was going to say earlier that I forgot, that money doesn't have value. We understand that money can do important things for the kingdom. I was watching Finding Your Roots. Okay, my wife's an Ancestry.com junkie. Okay, so she knows everybody in our family back to, she told me that we go all the way back to Joseph of Arimathea.

I don't know how you figured that out. But nonetheless, she's studying our Spanish roots. What percent is Jewish did you find out I am? Six percent? Four percent. Okay, so awesome. So I found out I'm Jewish. I didn't know that. Four percent, I'm in. Mom's very upset that she's not Jewish. She's so upset. She's like, I want to be Jewish. It was funny. I told my Jewish friend who I've invited to church.

I love him. Awesome guy. Not a Christ follower. And I keep telling him he's God's chosen people. But I told him I was four percent Jewish or six percent Jewish. He goes, dude, you're MOT. And I said, what? He goes, member of the tribe. And I said, what? He goes, yeah, dude, MOT, member of the tribe. And he fist bumped me. He goes, now, we just say that amongst ourselves.

So maybe I've ruined it now. So you've got to train me to be a member of the tribe. But we have this happening here. And so Jesus, in this story, has this blatant disregard for money. But yet money can help us, like I said. As I was watching Finding Your Roots, they talked about a man who was an African-American who worked for a slave owner at the time.

It was a revolutionary thing to allow slaves to be paid and to be able to pay off their servanthood. And so even though that sounds like radical to us, it would be a horrible thing to do that. Back then, it was very avant-garde. It was very revolutionary. And against the culture to say, we're going to give you the ability to be free. This man was able to not only pay himself off, but go find and pay his wife off and his two children.

And able to go and become a free man because of that. So, understanding that Jesus has a blatant disregard for money, but money does have the ability to do amazing things, to help orphans. So we don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. But he has a blatant disregard. Verse 4, look at this. There were some, we know it was Judas because of one of the other four stories.

And hopefully you're reading these four stories online as we're having a conversation together with this scripture. You're not just hearing it from me on Sunday and going away and not resourcing it the rest of the week. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was this ointment wasted like that? For this, for this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor.

And they scolded her. That was really interesting that they scolded her. We know that this was Judas for sure. And that he, Jesus, as many of you know, let Judas hold the money bag. I just show you why. If you have a known thief, you give them the money bag. But Jesus is not beholden to money. He understood that it was his father that provides for him.

I hear this thing all the time. Men are called to be the provider. And I need to be a provider, provider, provider. And look, I don't want deadbeat men in the world. Trust me. It's not theologically accurate. God's a provider. We just have to show up with a tool in our hand to do the work. God is the one who provides. So can I just release you men from having to feel like you're the provider?

Show up ready to be provided for. Ready to work and do whatever God asks. But that is just one thing that men need to be removed from. But we want to have men that are willing to show up. Here's a couple things in regard to helping humankind that I thought was so interesting. Those questioning the woman's use of money misunderstood the economy of God.

The gospel and those that follow the gospel get into a serious slippery slope or into a dangerous place when we begin to see the purpose of the gospel to help mankind. So that happens a lot. It's happening now. I have a lot of Christians who are friends of mine that are super social justice oriented. We want to see social justice in the world.

But what happens is they become so focused on helping people that sometimes they lose God in the midst of it. If you want to study history and look at the origins of the Democratic Party, going back to many of that, what it is today goes back to Christian believers in the early 1900s. Starting the YMCA. Things like the Salvation Army. Things of all these because there was no social welfare programs.

And so what happened was they began to say in the name of God we will help mankind. The problem is oftentimes man becomes highlighted and man becomes the apex of the system. And God is put in the corner to the point where we will help man no matter what. And we lose the understanding that we are doing it for the purpose of God. Now I told you last week or a few weeks ago that Jesus did not die on the cross to save mankind.

If you want to hear what I mean by that, go back to that sermon. He died to glorify his father. And so when we help humankind with our offerings, with the things that we give, it needs always be penultimate to God on the throne. We are doing it as a beautiful act unto Jesus. And this is what oftentimes you see in political parties, whether it be Republican, Democrat, or whatever, where God is removed and man becomes the apex of everything that we do.

If as a church we help orphans, we don't help orphans for the sake of helping orphans. We help orphans to do a beautiful act unto our Savior. That has to be primary. Or else, when man becomes the apex of all we do, then man oftentimes is allowed to do anything that they want. And we see that in society today. In January, I'll be preaching about a secular humanistic gospel.

You can look at the gospel according to secular humanism and it aligns perfectly with Christian gospel. Even the way in which they evangelize and speak about it. But God has been removed and man has been made the apex of that. And so, this is the point. In regard to everything you give, whether it be to this church, whether it be to orphans, whether it be anywhere, the primary thing you are doing is a beautiful act unto Jesus.

Jesus says this here in this scripture. Go down to verse 7. You will always have the poor with you. Now that's a bold statement, right? It's kind of a harsh statement. You will always have the poor with you. But Jesus understands systematically how this works. And whenever you want, you can do good for them. I love that. Whenever you're called, no.

Whenever you want, puts it in our court. 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, whenever the gospel is proclaimed, the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of me. As I was reading through in verse 6, I'm sorry I didn't read that. It says, she has done what?

A beautiful thing unto me. I love how Jesus sees pure acts of generosity. It's so cool. When you give something purely, like remember when you were a kindergartner and you made, I made an ashtray for my mom. She didn't even smoke. I don't know why I made an ashtray, but I made an ashtray. And it was maroon. And I also have this, and I have that little hippo I made.

And I'd always use the glaze. Remember Clay Day? They probably phased out Clay Day. We probably don't have the money for it anymore in public schools. But nonetheless, I always used the glaze that would, the little crystals would pop. You guys remember that kind? It would pop and have all the little colors. And I remember how joyful my mom was to get an ashtray, even though she didn't smoke.

Anything you give to God, he doesn't need, right? But God in the same way accepts that. And I just want to say, please don't give anywhere out of compulsion or to think you're going to earn any points with God. When you give, think this way. I want to do the most beautiful thing. It says in this scripture here that she did all that she could do.

Do a beautiful thing for Jesus. Everything you give, how rad is that? How rad is it to be freed from no longer having to give anymore? To say, I just want to beautify the Savior. And as I do that, I'm going to help other people. To do a beautiful thing and to break it. And so the question is going to be at the end of the sermon. You'll see it as we come in for a landing.

I'm circling the tower now. Is to ask you, when was the last time you broke an alabaster jar over Jesus' feet? Or is it a drop here and a drop there? You'll still get fragrance. But when was the last time you broke an alabaster jar over Jesus' feet? Now I've only told this story one time and only to one person. And I'm going to tell it to you because I want to always be careful with left hand and right hand and giving and things.

But I prayed and I felt like the Lord said I could share it. And we were newly married. I don't know where we got some money, but we had some money. And I had had a pastor friend of mine who was dying of cancer. And I said, is there anything I can do? And he was a mentor of ours. I won't say who his name was. And he said, if the Lord ever tells you to do something for my wife, do it.

And he said it with tears in his eyes before he died. And I spoke to him. We were on the phone. He was crying. And he was just such a great man of God. And I remembered that. And about four years later, we came into a, I don't know, five figures. It was a good, a lot of money for a 20-something couple. And I felt like the Lord said, give a five-figure donation to his wife.

And I remember thinking, that's about a third or more of what we, that's a lot of money for a 20-something couple. When you're trying to save for a house and it's, you know, the housing market and the whole thing. I asked my wife. My wife has never once said no to any generous, crazy idea I've come up with. Never once. I mean, she's stunning in regard to generosity.

She's a penny pincher, trust me. But when it comes to generosity, she never once has said no. And so, I remember I was in my room and I just said yes in a prayer. I was on my knees and I was praying. And I just said yes. And the tangible presence of God, probably in five times I've ever felt this, came on almost like you turned the heat on in a room and the room changed 30 degrees.

It was that tangible. And it was like a dome of God's presence. And then all of a sudden, the giving was super easy. We ended up giving that gift. I fully believe that so much of the blessing that we have had, we've had free rent nine of the 20 years we've been married. I mean, free rent. I mean, that's solid, right? I believe that so much of the financial blessing that we've had as a family is still tied to that one time.

I really do. It was the one time, and I haven't always done it well, but it was the one time where I felt as a couple, and I probably will never preach this again, but I wanted to tell you where I just felt like God said, break the jar. Break the jar. I just want to encourage you to break the jar. You don't have to break it here. And it can be your life.

Look, make sure that this woman is the example, that it's not just an offering as a buy-off to Jesus. It's got to be heart. It's got to be the whole deal when you can come in and do that, and to match that, and to have it be a one thing. I just want to read the one thing about the social gospel that I wrote. It says this. The social gospel movement was a religious movement that arose during the second half of the 19th century.

Ministers, especially ones belonging to the Protestant branch of the Christianity, began to tie salvation and good works together. They argued that people must emulate the life of Jesus. That is absolutely correct. What we see today with the roots of that is they have no longer are doing it in the name of Jesus, but in the name of mankind. That becomes good work.

Look, pure Christianity, as you'll see in your notes, loves and serves others penultimate to our desire to bless God. Penultimate. Secondarily, we must not love people more than we love God. We live in a world right now that is just all about loving people for the sake of people. Do you see that? Love people, love people, love will win. Love people, love people, love people, love will win.

Look, we can only know love, the Bible says, because he loved us first. You can't love without knowing God. Because while we were yet sinners, Romans 5.3, Christ died for us. And the final point, the thing that Jesus was getting in trouble with was his willingness to be in community with sinners. What we often miss is not that Jesus was willing to be in community with sinners, but that sinners were willing to be in community with him.

Jesus was willing to have this woman, I mean, it's very, you're going to lose your social position to allow this woman to touch you. I mean, he was always risking his credibility, but he cared nothing for celebrity. I got to say, the less we care about celebrity, the better. You know, there's very few people I would cross the street to shake their hand just because of their celebrity.

But there are people who, you know what I'm impressed by? Very few things impress me. Courage impresses me. Generosity, love, grace, hope. These are the kind of things that need to impress us. And we live in such a thin society. You know, I watched an episode of E.T. I don't watch E.T. I watched 30 minutes. Actually, I couldn't even get through the whole thing.

I watched it. And I thought, this show is dedicated to everything that the gospel is not. They had a pastor who's a celebrity pastor now. And he came out. We have celebrity pastor so-and-so. And I about threw up in my throat a little bit. He came out. He was ripped. And they said, rock star pastor in the building. And I was like, oh, no, no. Don't let them call you that.

Bro, don't let them call you that. And they said, what are three things? This is a Christian pastor. What are three things that people need to know in order to have a more successful life? He said, be with the right people. He said, put yourself in the right place and never give up. Oh, my goodness. Okay. Who am I to judge? But in regard to celebrity, we don't want celebrities.

We want a group of people that are willing to give everything to break their life like a vial over the feet of Jesus. Jesus was willing to be in community with sinners. And I love that. What we often miss is that they were willing to come to him. Finally, the thing that I think was so important with Jesus and his regard to being able to speak to sinners is he balanced the lion and the lamb.

You see, Jesus wasn't just a lion. He was also a lamb and he was willing to speak the truth to people. And when sinners came, he didn't hide the truth from them. He spoke to them blatantly about their sin. And he said to others, you know what? Then go away until you're ready to follow me. I spoke to somebody recently and I told them a truth. They came in to speak to me and they said, if you say that to me, I might leave the church.

And I said, then you might have to leave. You know what? I'm not afraid to allow people to find their journey and to follow Christ. And that's the thing. When you work with people who don't know Christ is to have the ability to love them in a way that keeps them coming back. But be willing to tell the truth of the gospel. The gospel without truth has zero power.

The gospel without truth has zero power. And we need to not be silenced in what do we feel is sin. Because I will say, my final thing I want to say is there is nothing, there is no act that humankind has not shown their ability to normalize. There is no act that humans can do that in some society you cannot see was normalized. Whether it be human sacrifice all the way through history.

Human beings can always normalize something. And at some point we need to have the truth of God's word to be able to stand up to people and say, this is the truth of the word of God. And I stand by it. The lion and the lamb. Let me read this verse and then we're done. Jesus walked into the power of Romans 2.5. But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

Jesus is willing to speak. And in Romans 2.4 it says, do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness leads you to repentance. And there you see it. He speaks the truth but he says this, what leads people to repentance? Kindness. It is the kindness of God. I want to challenge you to not only be the kindest people this week, the most hope-filled people.

But to be people that break an alabaster jar over the feet of Jesus knowing that he will say, what Todd has done to me, what Dee has done to me, what Spencer has done to me. And all of your names, David and Robinson in the back, what Joe has done, what Chris Fromm has done to me, what Milner has done to me is a beautiful thing. And we want a church that does beautiful things unto Jesus.

Amen? Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. let's stand. let's stand. healing. healing. let's stand. man. man. more of a commem. de're v. me. with a man. on. are a man. in. with a man. on.