I wanna start this morning's message by asking sort of a question, a hypothetical question for us to consider today as we study our text. And I want you to think about this. What is the most valuable thing that you own? Maybe you might be thinking that it's your home or perhaps it's something like an antique car or an investment or a boat. Maybe it's a family heirloom. Or maybe it's your retirement account or maybe a future inheritance. The most valuable thing that you own. Or maybe I'll ask the question a different way. What is the thing that is most precious to you? Maybe it is a career or a hobby. Maybe it's your favorite sports team. Or maybe it's your library. I can sympathize with that. Of course, many of you would answer the question of what is most precious to you not by thinking about a thing, but maybe thinking about a person. Maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's your parents, maybe it's your best friend, your spouse, or your children. Let me ask you a question a different way. How would God answer that question? What is most precious to God? Without a doubt, the answer is His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is of infinite value, infinite and inestimable value, unparalleled value. But how do you quantify that value? How do you measure? How could you measure? Some have written books about Jesus Christ. For example, Puritan Thomas Brooks has a book called The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, where he unpacks and extols the magnificence of Jesus Christ. Others have written music about the Lord. Perhaps the most famous, especially this time of year, would be Handel's Messiah, marvelous and wonderful piece of music. But the question for us, I think, to consider is how much is Jesus worth to you? How do you value him? Well, this morning we're gonna explore this by looking at an event that took place in the small town of Bethany just the week before Jesus went to the cross. And so if you have your copy of scripture, let's turn to Matthew 26, Matthew 26 this morning. The events of Matthew 26 take place in the days leading up to the crucifixion. Verse 2, which we looked at last week, places this chapter only two days prior to the cross. Jesus had told the disciples once more that during Passover, he was going to be handed over to the Jewish leaders, to the Sanhedrin, and he would be crucified. And then we read just after him telling them that, in verse 3, the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest named Caiaphas, when they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and to kill him. But they were saying, not during the festival, otherwise a riot may occur among the people. And so the religious leaders of Israel, they've had enough of Jesus. They don't want him anymore. They're looking to dispense of him. But they're also apprehensive to do so because they're afraid of the crowd during Passover. It's a very delicate time because you have two million people in the city. They're excited. Many of them, a large number of them, believe that Jesus is the Messiah. and they're waiting for him to do something. They certainly cheered as he marched into the city on the back of a donkey just a few days prior. And so the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the chief priests have to be very careful about how they do this. and yet they still want to get rid of him. Of course, we know that despite their best laid plans to try to put off this action, Jesus would go to the cross on Friday. Why? Well, as John the Baptist tells us, he is the lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. He is the Passover lamb and he will go to the cross exactly when God decrees that he will. But in the very next verse, in verse 6, Matthew seems to shift the focus of his narrative here just a bit. And he brings up the event of a dinner that takes place just a few days before. And so look at Matthew chapter 26, starting in verse 6. We're going to go from 6 to 13 today. Now when Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume and she poured it on his head as he reclined at the table. But the disciples were indignant when they saw this and said, why this waste? For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor. But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. For when she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her. And so this account really goes back to the event that took place in the town of Bethany. Bethany was in a suburb of Jerusalem, about two miles away. It was also the home of Martha and Mary and Lazarus, who were friends of Jesus. We know that while he's visiting Jerusalem, Jesus would stay with his friends in Bethany, and then he would walk a few miles into the city every day. Of course, we know that here it says that he's in the home of Simon the leper, which is most certainly Simon the ex-leper. He certainly would not have held a dinner banquet at his house if he was still struggling or battling leprosy. Some have assumed that, in fact, Simon was healed by Jesus. That's certainly possible, likely, but the text doesn't tell us explicitly. But regardless, we know that this dinner is taking place in this man's home in Bethany, a man named Simon. But the story really centers around verse 7 here. While they're at this dinner here, verse 7, a woman came to him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at the table. Now this anointing story is also recorded in Mark chapter 14 with only a couple of other details. It's a similar account. There's another story that takes place in Luke chapter seven, but most scholars don't believe that what happens in Luke seven is the same story as what we read about here in Matthew 26. There's several differences, several key distinctions and differences to distinguish between the two accounts. That was likely a different time, a different woman, a different anointing. But yes, it's very similar to this account. However, it is widely believed that the story in John 12, John 12 is a parallel account. And so we're going to be consulting that passage to fill in some of the gaps. I'm going to work from Matthew, Mark, and John as they are parallel accounts here. But the first thing we ought to note is the timing. The timing, Matthew and Mark don't specify a specific time, but John 12 one says that this event takes place six days before the Passover. And so what's happened is that Matthew has gone back in time in his storytelling, just a couple of days to bring us up to speed of what's happening here. This event takes place even before Palm Sunday. And so this is just a very quick flashback scene in Matthew's narrative. As to the exact location, John, in his gospel, records that this was in the place of Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary. Lazarus was there, and so some people who, if you read John, you might think, well, he's in the home of Lazarus. But then Matthew records that they're in the home of Simon the leper, which has led some people to suspect that maybe Simon was the father of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. But again, we can't be sure, but it's certainly plausible. Regardless of the situation, Simon is the one hosting the dinner, and Jesus is no doubt, as you can imagine, the guest of honor. He's the guest of honor. Now, according to the custom, it was not uncommon to anoint your guest with oil if he was a guest of honor. You would just take a little bit of oil and you would anoint his head as a way to bless that person and show respect and show honor. But what happens next here is unprecedented. Matthew records that a woman approaches Jesus, but John actually names her. John says that this is none other than Mary. Well, which Mary? There's like six Marys in the New Testament. Which Mary is this? This is Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha. She was a disciple of Jesus, but she was also a close personal friend. In fact, she famously appears in Luke chapter 10, sitting at Jesus' feet while her sister Martha is toiling away over the meal. And so we know that Mary is a devoted student. She desires to do what is good, and she, above all things, values her communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. She learned much from him. She loved him dearly. She treasured him. Every encounter that we have with Jesus and Mary is a precious one. It's even Mary, after the resurrection, that finds him in the garden and shouts out, Rabbi and I, A teacher, she's ecstatic to see him and she wants to muckle onto him and grab onto him and hold him. And he says, Mary, this is not the time. I'm paraphrasing now. Let go of my clothes, there's more to be done. So again, every encounter we have between Mary and Jesus is one of sincere love. She had a deep love for the Lord. And with like the rest of the disciples, she would also have been told that he was going to be going away and going to the cross. And so at dinner, six days before he does go to the cross, she makes a profound gesture unlike any other. Again, verse 7 says, she comes to him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume. Very costly perfume. Well, what kind of perfume is this? John actually tells us that this was perfume known as pure nard, also called spike nard. In those days, it would have been extremely rare. Extremely rare. It was a native plant from India and it was extremely expensive. According to John 12.5, the vial of perfume was worth an estimated 300 denarii. Well, how much is that? Well, one denarius is a day's wage for a skilled laborer. So this one small bottle of Spikenard was worth 300 days wages. So almost a year's salary on this one item. Imagine spending your annual salary on a jar of perfume. Imagine spending your year's salary on any one item. It's gotta be a pretty important item. Now this has led some scholars to speculate that maybe this was some kind of a family heirloom. This wasn't just something she went to the market and bought with her spare cash. This might have been a very prized possession. It likely was. We can't be sure. but it's not hard to assume that this is probably her most valuable possession. And so she approaches Jesus, who is reclined at the table, and Mark records that to get to the oil, she actually breaks the top of the vial. It was most likely a slender vial that went up to a point at the top and you would snap the top of the neck if you wanted to pour it out quickly. And so she breaks the vial, therefore rendering this expensive alabaster flask as useless from that point forward. She couldn't reuse it again now that it's broken. And as she breaks this with reckless abandon, she pours this on his head. Now, we know that in the Bible it says that kings were anointed with oil. David was anointed with oil on the top of his head. And that's appropriate here because Jesus is the king of kings. So, of course, it's completely appropriate that he would be anointed as the king. But yet, she doesn't just anoint him with a little bit. She pours the entire bottle onto him. Furthermore, John adds that when she got down, when she got finished pouring it on his head, she gets down on the ground, and she also begins to anoint his feet. Well, how do you reconcile those two things? She started with his head, and then with whatever was left over, she got down and began to pour the rest onto his feet, and not to be outdone, as if that wasn't enough, she began to wipe his feet with her hair. I want you to think about what she's doing here. This is a remarkable, shocking event. Well, how so? Well, first of all, because she did not just apply a small amount of oil for ceremonial anointing. This wasn't just a small gesture. She covers him from head to toe with this fragrant perfume. Well, how much? John helps us here. John says it was about a pound, which if you bring that into ounces here, that's about 16 fluid ounces of perfume. Anybody, any ladies here own perfume? You only put maybe a squirt or two, right? You wouldn't take a 16 ounce bottle and douse yourself, would you? I certainly hope not. But this is 16 ounces of not just the cheap stuff that you get from Target here, this is extremely expensive. Remember, a year's salary worth of perfume. This is liquid gold. Exorbitantly expensive. But also, thirdly, it was highly aromatic. If you've ever smelled spikenard, and I keep a small little vial in my office on my desk, whenever I preach this passage, I always make sure I smell it to give myself a sense of what this is like. Spikenard is a highly fragrant, bitter oil that, if you're not careful, stings the nostrils. It is very pungent. And John notes here that when she anointed Jesus, the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. This wasn't just a little bit here on the wrist or a little bit on the back of the neck or a little bit on the top of the head. The entire house was flooded with this very strong, pungent, stinging scent. Fourthly, beyond the audacious anointing itself, Mary, she also breaks social decorum by letting down her long hair. This is a culture where women didn't just wear their hair out or wear it long, but she takes her long, beautiful hair and then she does something even further. She gets down on her hands and feet and she begins to wipe his feet with her beautiful hair. Again, absolutely shocking display. I mean, culturally for them, that is out of the question. You don't do that. But even in our culture here, which is a little more free when it comes to expressions of femininity, how many women here would ever get down on your hands and knees and let your hair out and touch a man's feet with your hair? Would anyone do that? I don't think many of you would. And rightly so, because it's very personal, very awkward. It's shocking, isn't it? But why did she do this? I mean, you could accuse Mary of being a little bit extreme. Mary, did you have to do that? That's quite a lot. But why did she do it? She never says anything. Nothing's ever recorded by her. But I think her actions speak louder than words. As for the washing and the anointing, this is usually the job of the house servant. But Mary undertakes this by herself on her own. She stoops to the floor to wash Jesus' feet. Again, the job of a servant as they walked in for dinner. But here she's demonstrating both humility and service. We're gonna see this exact same kind of service from the Lord Jesus Christ in the Last Supper a few days from now. It was recorded in John chapter 13. Jesus does the same thing. He gets down and washes the feet of the disciples, showing humility, showing service. As for the anointing of his head, we also see here that she is acknowledging Jesus as Messiah. Well, why do I say that? Well, because literally the word Messiah, the title Messiah is anointed one. It's like she's putting the word Messiah on display by the action. She is literally anointing him with the most expensive perfume in the most pronounced way, head to toe. There's no question that Mary is anointing him as the Messiah, as the king of kings. She's marking him out as the anointed one. I would suspect no king in the history of Israel had ever been anointed in the way that Jesus had that night. The raising of her brother in John chapter 11, she called him Lord. But tonight, she's referring to him in every possible way as Messiah, the anointed one, the Savior. And then there's the use of her hair. Because again, you read that in the text, and if you're not paying attention, you're thinking, all right, maybe she didn't have a towel handy, maybe it was something like that. I don't think so. Why did she wipe his feet with her hair and not a towel? Why? Well, a woman's hair is a sign of her beauty and a sign of her dignity. Even now, I mean, when we have situations where women go through cancer and they begin to lose their hair, it's a very traumatic thing for a woman to lose her hair differently than when a man loses his hair. When a man loses his hair, it's like, well, good riddance, right? But when a woman loses her hair, it's very different, isn't it? I mean, it's traumatic. I mean, women, they break down and they cry. Well, why? It's just hair. It'll probably grow back later. Why is it such a big thing? Well, because this is a sign. This is a symbol of femininity, of beauty, of dignity. It's a jarring thing when a woman begins to lose her hair or have it cut off. 1 Corinthians 11-15 calls a woman's hair her glory. Her glory. There's a reason why the Bible is very clear about women having longer hair, generally speaking, and men not having longer hair. It's not to be legalistic, but it's definitely a sign that there's something different about a woman's hair. A woman's hair represents her femininity in a way that few other things can. And so for Mary to wash Jesus's dirty feet with her hair, her beautiful hair, was a picture both of submission but also adoration. Remember when John the Baptist said that he wasn't even worthy to untie Jesus's sandals? Now Jesus calls John the Baptist the greatest among being born to women. He was the greatest man who ever lived, Jesus said. And even John says, I'm not even worthy to untie his shoes. He's so much greater and higher than I am. And so in a very similar gesture, by doing this, Mary is saying, your feet, O Lord, are more glorious than my beautiful hair. The most glorious part of who I am is nothing compared to the least of you. That's what she's saying. It's a statement of exaltation. This is an act of honor, submission, service, adoration, devotion. In fact, I would contend that this act by Mary is probably the single greatest expression of adoration and devotion in the entire Bible, perhaps second only to Abraham offering up his one and only son. This is a startling, shocking, beautiful display of self-sacrifice for the sake of the Lord. Mary's act is one of beautiful devotion, and we know the Lord's heart was touched, as we'll see in a moment. But what about the others in the room? Because all this is taking place, and it's not in a vacuum, there's many other people in the room here having dinner, trying to eat as this is all taking place. What happens in verses eight and nine? Verse eight, the disciples were indignant when they saw this and said, why this waste? For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor. There's so many layers to the response here. First, the text says they were indignant. That's not just a little bit perturbed. That's not just irritated. Indignant means angry, even furious. Why? Well, because they regarded her action as something foolishly wasteful. Why this waste, they yelled. What are you doing, Mary? Why are you wasting all this perfume? Are you insane? Mark adds that they began to scold her as she did this. What's their rationale? Well, according to what the text says here, they reasoned that instead of dumping out the whole vial onto Jesus, they could have sold it and taken the money, the high price, and given that money to the poor. You could have done something better with this perfume, right? It sounds reasonable, doesn't it? If you're gonna spend all of that money, at least do something with it. After all, that was Jesus's prescription to the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, 21. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, right? That's a noble thing if you're gonna be that extreme to self-sacrifice. Furthermore, Jesus even goes so far as to teach them in Matthew 25 about how caring for other people is a demonstration of devotion to him. And so if you love Jesus, then if you're gonna spend that kind of money, give it to the poor, right? It's not an unreasonable idea, except that wasn't what this was about at all. In fact, John tells us who exactly is behind this whole thing. And just, let me just read this to you in John 12, this parallel account, verse four, but Judas Iscariot, we read about him last week, didn't we? Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples who was intending to betray him said, why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? Judas is the one who first offered this suggestion. Now no doubt the other disciples began to nod their heads and agree, but this is Judas talking here. And then John adds this comment in verse six. Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief. And as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. Now we begin to see a picture here. of Judas Iscariot getting angry, not because he's worried about the poor. Now the disciples, the other disciples, maybe they were concerned about the poor. We have no reason to believe that they were heartless and have the same motives as Judas did. We know that they certainly didn't, but they could have been concerned about the poor. They would have heard his objection. They would have agreed with that. It's also possible that they're jealous of Mary for showing them up, because none of them are doing anything like that. So maybe there's a twinge of jealousy. But again, the real agitator here is Judas. He was angry, not because he wanted to help the poor, he was angry because he was a greedy thief. That's why. And when he saw that bottle of spikenard, when she brought that out and broke the vial, all he saw was dollar signs. He saw that come out and he went, that, I know what that, that's worth a lot of money. Oh, we could sell that and I could, we'll put it in the pour box and that's where I get my cash. That'd be great. That's what he's thinking. And as soon as he sees all of it get poured out on Jesus, whom he doesn't love by the way, as soon as he saw all the oil get poured out, he exclaimed, what a waste. What a waste. Can you imagine saying that in front of the Lord? Can you imagine the audacity of that? Mary, why would you waste this perfume on Jesus? This reminds me of a story of a family that lived during the time of the Great Depression. The father at the time had a pretty good job. He didn't lose his job. Even though money was tight, they still had enough to pay their bills. But it didn't stop the father from being a miser. He was a miser. He was tight with money to a fault. And the mother, they had a son, the mother loved this young son and was excited to buy him a nice present for Christmas. But the father, again, being a miser, insisted, I wasn't spoiled as a child and I turned out all right. My son doesn't need all these toys. Well, the mother just couldn't bear the thought of not doing something and blessing her son. And so what she did was she squirreled away $10 a week. from the grocery budget to save up enough money to buy her son a train set that he wanted. After months and months of saving, she bought the toy and she hid it underneath the Christmas tree. And when the boy woke up that next morning, he was overwhelmed with excitement. And he began to hug and kiss his mom. And then he turned to his father, not knowing that his father did not buy him the present, and he began to hug his father and thank his father. But when the father realized what had happened, that he'd been deceived, he stood up and he flew into a rage. He said, I told you not to spend the money like this. We could have paid bills with this money. And he turned and threw up his arms in disgust and said, what a waste of money. Well, as soon as he heard the father's words, the little boy collapsed into tears, absolutely heartbroken. Why? Because it's not about the money. It's about the heart, isn't it? Now, none of us would dare say something like this to our Lord, right? We would never fathom saying this. Oh Lord, I'm not gonna waste my time on you. I'm not gonna waste my money. I'm not gonna waste my energy. We would never say that. But all too often by our actions, we tend to treat the Lord as inconsequential. There are times when we falter and we do things or say things or act in such a way where we deem him not worth it. A waste of time. Or when we do offer something, it's the very least of what we have. That's a sinful bent. It's a sinful bent. But we have to recalibrate our thinking about what we have and who we are and who the Lord is. Do we treat the Lord as though he is our most valuable treasure? Mary certainly did. She gave Him her absolute best. She offered up her most prized possession. She offered up her humility, and not to be outdone, but she offered up even her own dignity, her own glory, to extol and declare the glory of Christ. Well, how does Jesus respond to all this? I want you to notice something in verse 10 here, that Jesus doesn't call out Judas. He doesn't nail him for his false piety or for his wicked motives. That will come later, by the way. But instead, he really answers all of this at face value. Look at verse 10. Jesus, aware of all of this, said to them, why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to me. I want you to notice he defends her. He defends her because again, he could have said, well, Mary, that was a little much. You could have taken that money and given it to the poor, right? He doesn't do that. He doesn't do that. This exorbitant gesture, he receives it and he actually defends her. He says, why do you bother her? In essence, he's telling the disciples, leave her alone. Leave her alone. Don't bother her. Don't trouble her. And he adds to this, she has done a good deed to me. What they saw as reckless and wasteful, he receives as a good deed. It's interesting because the normal word for good here in the Greek is agathos. He uses the word kalos, which could also be rendered as good, but it can also mean beautiful or fine or lovely. She's done a lovely thing, a fine thing. She's done a beautiful thing. And Jesus notes that her deed was, in fact, beautiful. What about this issue of giving to the poor? Because again, that's a legitimate concern, isn't it? Look at verse 11. He says, for you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. Now, this idea, this always have the poor with you, that comes directly from Deuteronomy 15, 11. The Bible says, for the poor will never cease to be in the land, therefore I command you, saying, you shall freely open your hand to your brother and to your needy and poor in your land. So Jesus is not saying don't help the poor. In fact, it's quite the opposite. It's a good thing, it's the right thing to help the poor. But I want you to make note of this here. Because this becomes a point of confusion in many ministries, in many churches, and with many believers. Helping the poor and the needy is not the gospel. It's not the gospel. And I think a lot of organizations get that confused. I remember talking to a person who was directing a benevolence ministry. It was a food pantry, and I remember having a conversation, and they were telling me all the things that they were doing. They're gathering food, and gathering clothing, and gathering all these things, and it was great. It was a wonderful ministry. And I asked her, as casually as I possibly could, I didn't want to attack her, but I just said, let me ask you, how do you minister to the people that come into the food pantry? Do you give them a gospel tract? Do you pray with them? Do you talk to them? I mean, how does that all go? She says, oh no, we're not allowed to. She says, you're not allowed to. She says, no, they don't want us to talk about anything spiritual. We just give them the thing and they go. And I thought to myself, again, I don't want to attack the woman, but I just thought to myself, then they're not, they don't understand why they're receiving this. It's just, it's good deed for the sake of a good deed. There's no connection to the gospel. There's no sense of the people of God and the gospel of God and God himself. I think we confuse that so many times. No one has ever gotten saved because of benevolence. They'll only become saved when they encounter Jesus Christ in the gospel. Now, certainly, helping others puts the love of God on display and should always lead to the gospel. We don't care for people because we want the glory for ourselves. We do it because we love other people and we want them to feel in the expression of the love of God. Jesus always had a meal and a message. He didn't just feed 5,000 and say, well, go home, go in peace, be warmed and filled. He preached. He fed them a meal and said, I am the bread of life and would preach the gospel to them. Remember, there's always a message with that meal. They must go together. But here, again, two days before the cross, Jesus is acknowledging the timeliness of his work. Time is of the essence here. The date of his departure is zeroing in. Something world changing is happening in two days and he doesn't want them to miss it. Everything that's happening in that week has eternal significance, even Mary's anointing. only so much time for teaching, only so much time for the disciples to receive their marching orders, Jesus did not spend his final days feeding the poor. He spent his final days preparing the disciples for what was about to happen, and what was about to happen. Jesus was gonna die on the cross for the spiritually impoverished, for the poor in spirit. Because again, you can meet someone's physical needs, and they're only met for a little bit, but you meet their spiritual needs, you meet their eternal needs, you meet their soul needs, and it's for eternity. He would feed them with the bread of life. And Mary's act played a part in all of it. Look at verse 12. He continues. For when she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial." For burial. What is this anointing really all about? Is it about anointing him as Messiah? Yes, it certainly is. Is it about anointing him as the King of Kings? Yes, it certainly is. But the grander truth that Jesus highlights here, whether she realized it or not, is that he says that she is preparing his body for burial. What does that mean? Well, customarily when someone would die in Israel, the Jews didn't do what the Egyptians did. They didn't take out the organs and embalm them. That wasn't their practice. Instead, what they would do is they would pack the deceased with fragrant spices to make the burial easier and more dignified. In fact, we read about in John 19.39 that when Jesus dies and he's about to be buried, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, they go and they prepare the body, Jesus' body for burial, and they do so with a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloe and spices. They take all of these spices, all these materials, and they load up the body, they pack the body, and they wrap him, and they ordain his entire, or they ornament the entire body with these perfumes. But even, here's the thing to note, even when the soldiers were nailing Jesus to the cross, what would they have smelled? Their noses and eyes would have been stinging with the smell of spikenard. Because again, it was only just a few days prior, and that stuff will not go away. His body, even while alive, was being prepared for burial. That's all anybody would have smelled if they would have come 10 feet from his body, is the smell of spikenard. And then he offers up this sentiment in verse 13. Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her. Many have offered comments about the significance of this verse, talking about which gospel, this gospel, that gospel, what's talking about here. I think Mary's act of devotion was quite simply part of the passion story. What she did was part of the gospel narrative. And Jesus knew, even in that moment, that Matthew, Mark, and John would record it. And he knew that whenever the gospel is preached in the whole world for the next 2,000 years, anytime anybody read the Bible and read these stories and told the story, recounted the events, he knew that Mary's anointing would also be spoken of in memory of her. How do we know that he knew that? Because what are we talking about right now? He knew, he knew that this would stand out in the course of history along with everything else happening in that week. This anointing would be remembered and it would be remembered in a glorious way as an act of devotion, of love, of tenderness, of submission. See, what we do for Christ in this life will matter for eternity. Everything we do matters. It's easy for us to get caught up in squeezing out as much as we possibly can from this life. I wanna go on the most vacations, I wanna have the best things, I wanna have the nicest lawn, I wanna have the most money, I wanna retire well, I wanna do all these things. And certainly we're allowed to do all of those things. The Bible says everything is permissible as long as it's not sinful. Yes, of course, do whatever your heart would be content to do. But don't forget why we're here. Why do we exist, beloved? We're not like the world. Unbelievers exist for themselves only. We exist for Him. The Bible says you're not your own, you were bought with a price, so therefore glorify the Lord with your body. Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. So we're not our own. What you have is not yours. The Bible says, James 117, every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights. So everything you have that you think is yours, none of it is ours. Everything we have, everything we are, belongs to Christ. So I want to encourage you, spend yourself for Christ, and for his gospel, and for his mission, and for his people. Don't live only unto yourself, because if you do that, you will always be empty. The richest people in the world are always miserable, why? Because the money doesn't satisfy. The luxury doesn't satisfy. The accomplishments don't satisfy. I've heard the richest men in the world, when they were asked how much more money they wanted, they said, oh, just a few dollars more. That's always the aim, isn't it? But I'll tell you, when you spend yourself for Christ, you're fulfilled. And not only are you fulfilled, but He's glorified. and others are blessed. Don't live your life for yourself only. Live your life for Christ. Because again, you can always do things, you can always make a difference temporally in the world, and those are good things, but are you offering up beautiful devotion to Christ? And I don't preach this sermon as a way to condemn you or reprove you. Certainly I want to challenge you, but consider with me the value of Jesus Christ. Consider with me that He is the perfect, spotless Lamb. who shed his blood for our sins. Consider with me that he is perfect and holy God who created all things for himself and did it perfectly and it was good. Consider with me that he is exalted and lovely and powerful and almighty. He's all wise. Everything that he thinks and says and does is good, right and true and perfect. Consider with me that the Lord Jesus Christ loved us enough that he would condescend, that he would come down from heaven and he'd be born in a manger and he would live his life on this earth with sinners and he would suffer turmoil and persecution and ridicule. and he would absorb the worst of sins upon himself. Even though they weren't his, he's perfect, he's spotless. And yet consider that he gave up his own life and died for us on that cross. No one could sacrifice for us the way that he did. And so when we think about, Lord, how much do I have to give to you? Change your thinking. Lord, how much will you let me give to you? How much can I give to you? I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking about headspace. I'm talking about your heart. I'm talking about your affections, your service, your love, who you are, what you fill your mind and your life with. Paul says, I've counted all things as loss in comparison to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Do we consider Him this way, beloved? When you think about Jesus, do you love Him? Do you treasure Him? And if you're convicted and you feel like, I don't know if I do, then offer that as confession to Him and say, Lord, I don't love You in the way that I know that I should. Help me. Help me to love You, O Lord. Convict me of my sin. Break me of my self-righteousness. Destroy my self-significance. Lord, help me to see You as all the more glorious every day. And live Your life. and honor and devotion and service to him. Friends, he's worth it. He's worth it. There is no one who is more precious under heaven, in heaven and above heaven than the Lord Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, we thank you because as we consider even the season, even Christmas for all of its man-made splendor, we also know that this is an opportunity for us to redeem this time and acknowledge that there's something special about considering that Jesus Christ came into the world, was born to the Virgin Mary, into a horse trough, lived on earth a perfect life, suffered and died on the cross, and rose again the third day. There is something special about that to us, oh Lord. And yet we acknowledge, even as your people who belong to you, that our hearts are torn, we wrestle because the world just fights and claws for us. They want our hearts, oh Lord, but our hearts don't belong to this world. Our hearts belong to you. How do we know? Because the Bible says that you gave us a heart of flesh. You took out the dead and stony heart and you give us a new heart and a new spirit. We have our spiritual life because you gave it to us. And so Lord, would you please help us to use our life for your glory. And Lord, maybe you won't ask us to pour out perfume and let down our hair. Who knows what you're gonna ask of us, Lord. But whatever you would have us do, let us do it willingly, joyfully, with reckless abandon. Lord, not to be radical in the world's eyes, but rather that we would be devoted people, oh Lord. Help our affections to rise and increase for you, oh Lord. Help us to love you the way that you love us. Thank you for the gift of your son. We praise you in his name, amen.