You know, by way of introduction this morning, I just want to say that, and I do apologize. Doc, I know you called and wanted me to give you a title of my message. The Lord and me operate on different ways than maybe a lot of pastors do and preachers do. Maybe if I pastored the same congregation every Sunday or Sunday morning, Wednesday night, it may be different, but I never know exactly what I'm going to preach until I get in the pulpit. You know, I just try to let the Holy Spirit lead me. I always come prepared to preach about 15 messages. And if the Lord said, preach all 15, I'll preach all 15. But I know He won't say that because you wouldn't be here. My wife wouldn't be here. I mean, she's serious when she says preach short. I mean, I tell her, I say, you're not spiritual, baby. But yeah, I'll tell you, we've got too many preacherettes preaching too many sermonettes and too many Christianettes smoking them cigarettes. So, you know. But, yep, so Mark chapter 14, by way of introduction, I want to say this morning that I stand before you today a very successful person. Now, I'm not successful in maybe what the world would consider a success. I don't have large amounts of money. I don't have large bank accounts. I don't even have a savings account. I don't have nice new vehicles, and I don't have brand new homes and fancy this and fancy that. And I'm not saying woe is me. I'm just saying by the world's standards, they wouldn't call me a success. You know, I've, you know, my body's a little frailer and a little weaker, and, you know, and surgery here and a surgery there, and I just can't do what I used to could do, and, but I still stand here this morning, not a success in the world's eyes, But I feel like I'm a success this morning because I'm blessed. I'm blessed, number one, to be saved, to know Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I'll tell you this morning, I'm more sure that I'm saved than I am sure that I'm here this morning. You know, I have no doubt about my salvation. It is founded upon the Word of God. It is based upon the shed blood of Jesus Christ and faith in His finished work there on the cross of Calvary. I REPENTED OF MY SINS, AND I TURNED TO HIM AND ASKED HIM TO COME INTO MY HEART AND BE MY LORD AND SAVIOR, AND I'VE PUT MY TOTAL FAITH, HOPE, TRUST AND ALL OF GETTING TO HEAVEN IN JESUS CHRIST AND HIS FINISHED WORK. I HAVE NO DOUBT ABOUT MY SALVATION. I'M A SUCCESS TODAY BECAUSE I'M SAVED. I'M A SUCCESS TODAY BECAUSE I'VE GOT A WIFE THAT'S A GODLY WIFE THAT LOVES THE LORD GOD WITH ALL HER HEART, WITH ALL HER MIND, WITH ALL HER SOUL, THAT IS GIVING ALL THAT SHE HAS TO THE LORD AND HAS NEVER ONE TIME COMPLAINED. She never murmured and grumbled and fussed when we was in Jamaica and the electric was gone. She knows I drink coffee and I love coffee. There was no cooking gas on the island and we had a percolator and a gas stove and that's how we made coffee every morning. She said, how am I going to make him coffee? He's got to have his coffee when he gets up in the morning. What she did was she took an electric crock pot and plugged it in and put water in there and put some grounds in there and let that all night long, and it wasn't the best coffee I ever had, but praise God it was coffee, amen? I mean, I'm blessed. I've got a wife that loves the Lord, who loves her husband, who supports her husband, stands behind her husband, encourages her husband. She's a great mom, she's a great wife, she's a great servant of Christ. I'm blessed. I'm blessed this morning because I'm saved. My wife is saved. I'm blessed today because I've got a daughter and a son that love God, that live for God, that serve God, that are in church. They're saved and they're busy serving the Lord. Their spouses, they love God. They're in church. They're saved. They're serving God. You know, I tell people, God judges success. A totally different way than the world judges your success. I'm probably a failure by the world's standards, but I'd a whole lot rather be a considered success by God's standards. It's not me. I'm nothing. Listen, I'm the least of the least, the lowest of the lowest, and I'm the poorest example you can find. But I'm blessed today because I've got a God that loves me and that has blessed me. And I've got a God that is true to His Word. And if you'll put God first in your life, and you'll seek Him, and you'll just allow Him to lead and guide and direct you in your life, He'll never lead you where He'll not supply, where He'll not provide, where He'll not meet your needs. It's amazing how sometimes we get our lives out of focus though, where we get focused on the wrong thing in life. It used to be, when I was growing up and you had your car and you put new headlights in it or whatever, you know, you always had to adjust them to get them the height just right and whether they were too far in or too, you had little screws in there that you would adjust your headlights. You don't do that no more, I don't guess. I put new headlights in my car the other day and it don't even hang, it just slides in a slot, you know, and pops in and no adjustment at all, you know. But it used to, you had to adjust that your headlights, and you know, every now and then you carry your car in to get it tuned up, you know, to get it aligned. I took my car in the other day, and the man said, man, you're going to need tires soon. I said, I just got those. He said, well, you already got 40,000 miles on them. I said, what are 60,000 mile tires? He said, well, you're going to have to get in alignment, get things lined up, and so your tires will last a little bit longer. You know, every now and then in the Christian life, we need to get lined up. We need to get refocused. We need to get where we're thinking about like God thinks. Get our hearts and our minds aligned together with the Word of God. And you know what amazes me? How much people spend. And I, you know, I'm a people watcher. One of the assignments we had when I was in Bible college was we had to go to the mall and sit there and watch people and just observe people and write down things that we observed about people. I'm going to tell you, people are funny. Some people are peculiar and some are damn right odd. I'm just going to tell you, you know, and, uh, and, and I'll tell you what, when I go to the mall now, and that's been, you know, 30 plus years ago, when I was in Bible college, people are a whole lot different in the malls now than they were back then. I won't tell you it's different, but One brother, Trinity Baptist Church, Asheville, North Carolina, the missions man, young. Which young? Jerry Young, Jerry Young. His wife passed away and he was preaching one day and he said something about it. He said, you know, he said my wife always paid the bills and took care of the money. I'll probably let my wife do that. We'll probably have some, amen? My wife hadn't paid a bill or written a check. Probably 20 years at least. I try to take that burden off of her so she don't have to worry about how this bill's going to get paid or how that bill's going to get paid. And I figure if she's worried about me, she's got enough to worry about. Amen? But he said, you know, after my wife passed away, he said, I started looking through the checkbook and just, you know, I had to figure out how to pay bills, all this stuff, you know. And he said, I noticed something. He said, I notice that every month, The very first check that she always wrote every month, without fail, consistently, each month, she always wrote out the title of the check every month. And then after that, she wrote out the missions check every month. You know, and I'm going to tell you what, if you look at where people spend their money, really and truly, you'll see where their focus is. You'll see what's important to them. And I just was wondering, how do we spend our money as Americans? Just last year, last year, Americans spent $96 billion on beer. That's enough for 199,937,239 barrels, or roughly six barrels for every person in America. That's a lot of beer. That's a lot of money. Now, I know none of us here would spend money on beer, because we know that's wrong. It got awful quiet then, didn't it? It sure did, didn't it? Pretzels, you know, I guess beer and pretzels go together. Pretzels, $550 million was spent on pretzels last year. St. Patrick's Day, $414 billion spent on St. Patrick's Day activities. Over-the-counter teeth whiteners, $1.4 billion. Sinus treatments, $5.8 billion. This one gets me right here. I've got to get in this business. I'm going to tell you. Pet Halloween costumes, $310 million. If you've got a pet and you dress them up, $310 million on pet Halloween costumes. The pet industry hauls in a total of $50.96 billion. You want to make money today? Start a business and do something with pets. Take care of pets. You've got pet places. You can lodge your pet, and they'll massage them, and they walk them, and they'll feed them caviar. I mean, the whole nine yards. It's amazing. Listen, I don't have grandchildren. I've got grand dogs and grand cats. It drives me crazy. But, you know, the money they spend on these animals, you know, give me a grandbaby, leave them animals alone. Easter, $16.8 billion. Romance novels, I need to write one of these. $10 billion, just last year now, just one year we're talking about. Engagement and wedding rings, $11 billion. Valentine's Day, $1.7 billion. Chocolate, this one's okay. Chocolate, $16 billion, that's all right. You know, we eat 2.8 billion pounds a year of chocolate. Perfume, $4.2 billion. Gambling, $34.6 billion. Gambling, I bet you didn't know that, did you? No. Coffee, this was okay, too. $11 billion. That's good money well spent right there. Listen to this now. Tattoos. Tattoos. If you got tattoos, I'm sorry, I'm just reading what's on the list now. $2.3 billion. Listen, souls are dying and going to hell and we're spending $2.3 billion on tattoos and $96 billion on beer. Something's wrong. Something's out of focus. Listen, we spend $2.3 billion a year on tattoos. We spend $66 million a year on tattoo removals. And the list goes on and on and on. Last year's Americans spent on consumables, Americans spent $10.7 trillion shopping. Must be some more recession we're in, I tell you. $10.7 trillion, that's enough to buy 2,000 aircraft carriers. 300 private islands and still have enough money left over for a latte, which is just a ruined cup of coffee, I'll tell you right now. You go through the list and, you know, ringtones, to make them funny rings on your phone, $5 billion. Oh, but preacher, it's only 99 cents is what it cost me. Well, there's a whole lot of 99 centing going on, I guess, you know. Fast food, $117 billion. Dollar store purchases, $30 billion. I like them dollar stores. I don't know about that. Toilet paper, this is important now, $2.6 billion. I got no qualms with toilet paper, amen? Girl Scout cookies, $800 million. I'm not too upset about that, amen? Golf balls, $500 million. Think about that, that's a lot of golf balls. You look at a person's wallet, or their checkbook, or their credit card statement, you look at where people spend their money, and you can tell where their focus is. Dr. Thurman Wade made a statement years ago that he said, he said, Lord, he said, I want to be able to match my tithe in missions given. He said, I want to be able to give 20%. And Dr. Wade didn't draw a salary. The General Director of Macedonia, the President of Macedonia, Dr. Scott Call today doesn't draw a salary. Dr. Wade today, his body is feeble, his mind is feeble. He still does what he can. He still prays a lot. He's just weak and he can't go like he used to go, but he still lives and exists on support that comes in. He said, I'd like, and the Lord, he said, and the Lord enabled him to give 20%. And I thought, man, praise the Lord. Hallelujah. And the Lord put a desire in my heart that day that I never even shared with my wife for a long time. But I started praying and I said, Lord, I'd like to give 30% of what comes in to the Lord, to the Lord's work. And I'm not bragging on the fin list because we're nothing, we're nobody. I'm honest, I'm nothing. I mean, I'm nothing. But God's enabled us to go beyond the 30%. Every once in a while, our pastor will get in the pulpit and he'll say, he'll say, well, I got a check here. Somebody in the church, you know, gave us a check today for $30,000. You know, just want to give God the glory. He don't call it the person's name. You know, he just said, just want to give God the glory. You know, the Lord blessed somebody in the church and they wanted to share it. They wanted to share it. They tithed on it. They wanted to give an offering toward, you know, the church and some 10,000, 20,000, 30,000. I looked at my wife and I said, man, we'll never be able to do that. I began praying. I said, Lord, I don't know how we'd ever do that, but Lord, I'd like to give a big gift to the church for your honor. And my brother got in bad shape financially before my dad passed away. He was about to lose his house. So my daddy paid my brother's house off so he wouldn't lose it. And he called me up and he said, listen, this is what I did for your brother. He said, I'm going to give you the same amount that I gave your brother. And that was enough for us to pay our house off. And we had $10,000 left over. And we took it to our pastor, and we told the pastor the story about we've been praying for a long time that God would enable us. And our pastor got in the pulpit, and he said, I just want to tell you this morning that God blessed somebody in our church, and just wanted to praise the Lord that they gave an offer to the church, and got a check today for $10,000 for the church, you know? Never said it was from David and Anita Findley. Nobody ever knows that. And it had nothing to do with who we are. My dad didn't know anything about that. It was just something I prayed about to the Lord. You know, and I'm telling you, I'm not, listen, I'm not saying anything good about the Finleys because there's nothing good about the Finleys. I preached my grandmother's funeral and this little lady come up to me hobbling on her cane and she said, are you a Finley? I said, yes. She said, praise God, one of them Finleys finally turned out to be something for the Lord. You know, the Finleys are nothing. We're nothing. But He's everything. And you know what we spend our money on? That shows our interest. That shows what's important in our life. Hey, I've got no objection to eating out. I kind of like eating, you know. I've got no objection to drink coffee. I believe everybody ought to have 30, 40 cups a day. I like coffee, amen? But listen, it can't be the overbearing focus in our life. I mean, I've got pounds and pounds and pounds of coffee at my house, because everybody knows I love coffee. And I've got coffee from Costa Rica, I've got coffee from Hawaii, I've got coffee from Jamaica, I've got coffee from all these different countries, Alaska. I mean, I've got coffee, you know. Thank God for the coffee. I love coffee. But it can't be my focus. It can't be our focus. In Mark chapter number 14, starting in verse 3, In the Scripture it says, And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious. And she broke the box and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone. Why trouble you her? She hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good, but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could. She hath come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. Now, the single most important message that you'll find in the Bible, in the Word of God, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The death, the burial, the resurrection, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the most important message that you'll find in the Scriptures. And he said, wherever, wherever, wherever the Gospel is preached, I want it to be told about what this lady did. You know? He said, what did she do? She did what she could. You know what everyone in this room can do? You know what I can do? You know what my wife can do? You know what our children can do? You can do what you can do. Brother, you can get up there and lead the music. In Jamaica, I used to lead the music to it all. It was terrible, you know? And this young man got saved and began training him things. And I was going to train him to be the music leader. And I said, you start leading the music. So he got up there and he led the music like this. All right, let's stand and sing. I mean, he was like a beanpole. I mean, no movement, no action, no nothing, you know. We worked with him, you know. We got him limbered up a little bit, and now he's up there doing like this, you know, and doing good, you know. And do what you can do. Do what you can do. Listen, when you do what's... Listen, he didn't ask her to do anything she couldn't do. THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD MOVED THIS LADY TO DO THIS. THIS WASN'T SOMETHING THAT SHE HAD PRE-PLANNED. THIS WASN'T SOMETHING THAT SHE HAD THOUGHT OF IN ADVANCE. SHE WAS GATHERED THERE AT A FEAST AND And they were there in Bethany, and there was a feast going on, and the guests, the disciples were there, and Jesus was there, Lazarus was there, the one that Jesus had raised from the dead, stood at the grave and said, Lazarus, come forth! Lazarus came out of the grave, and Jesus was there. Listen, she very easily could have got her focus on the activities that was going on. It's very easy for you and I to get our focus on the activities that's going on. We live in a crazy world. I'm going to be honest with you. I believe America is a powder keg. It wouldn't take much before you know, riots can break out anywhere. I mean, it just takes one people group saying something or somebody going somewhere with the wrong kind of a flag or some movement here or some movement there. And, you know, I posted on Facebook one time, I said, black lives don't matter. I said, white lives don't matter. I said, all lives matter. Doesn't matter whether they're black, white, green, purple, blue, or orange. I don't care. They matter. They matter to God. They matter to Jesus because He died for them. You know, but we live in a powder keg, you know, and listen, we can lose our focus. Listen, I quit watching news. I'm sorry. If the world blew up yesterday, I don't know about it. You know, occasionally I'll read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on that iPad. I used to read the Atlanta General Constitution occasionally on my iPad, and I'd keep up with a little bit of what was going on around the world and in the United States, but we can get so focused on the news. Her dad is a newsaholic. I used to be. I mean, I used to see it. I'm not seeing it. Fox on 24-7. I mean, that's all it was on anywhere I went. I was a news junkie. I listened to the news all the time. I was about to have a nervous breakdown. I had to quit that. All my focus was right there. You can become focused on the news and the activities that's going on. She could have been very easily focused on all the activities, and the hustle and the bustle, and the serving, the bringing food in, the bringing food out. She could have become very focused on who was in the room and who was there. And she could have become very focused on her brother was there, and Lazarus was there, and the Savior was there. I mean, how can you not? You know what? In all honesty, I just believe the Holy Spirit of God just moved her. She was sitting there thinking about all that God has done for her in her life. That's where your focus needs to be, right there. I'm going to tell you, you're down, you're discouraged, things are rough and hard, and man, I tell you what, you know, you got bills that are due, or you know, just everything in the world that's gone wrong, you know, your dog ran off, and you know, your truck won't crank, and whatever the old country song says, you know, if it's gone bad, it's gone bad, it's gone bad, it's just rough, rough, rough, rough, rough! You want to get out of that ditch? You want to get out of that discouragement? You just start thinking on the Lord. I'll tell you what, I'll get in my prayer closet sometime and I'm discouraged and I'm down and I just don't know what to do and I'll get in that prayer closet and I'll say, Lord, I just want to praise You. I want to praise You for loving me. Lord, I was unlovable. Lord, I want to praise You for loving me. I want to praise You for saving me. I want to praise You for my wife. And I'll start praising Him for the birds, and I'll start praising Him for the mountains, and I'll start praising Him for the green grass and the birds. And it's not long before I tell you what, you know, there's been times in that prayer clause that I've been afraid to open my eyes because it was like the very presence of God was in there. You know, I went in down and discouraged. But I began to refocus in that prayer clause, in that prayer room. I began to get my focus off my woes and off my problems. I began to get my focus back on the Lord. I know we go through discouragement. I know we go through difficulties. I know we go through hard times. And the Lord knows that. And He said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. He's there to strengthen us. Listen, the Holy Spirit, He's one called alongside to strengthen us and to walk with us. And He indwells us as believers. And He lives inside of us. And He's there for us. And listen, I know we go through difficulties and hard times, but He's there to help us. But we're not to become focused on the difficulties. We're not to become focused on all the activities. You know, this lady, she was focused on what matters. She was focused on the Savior. And as she stood there, and she was focused on the Savior, and just focused on, just started thinking about all that the Lord has done for her. I mean, she's saved, her brother's raised from the dead, just the goodness of God, the mercies of God. And all of a sudden, next thing she knew, I don't even think she thought about what she was doing, but the Holy Spirit moved her and she went down, I believe she went down the hallway, went back in the bedroom, opened up that dresser drawer, reached back in the back of that dresser drawer and got the most precious thing that she had, that bottle of Speichner, that very expensive, alabaster box of ointment, of perfume, of spikener. And she came back out there in that room and she didn't say, hey, look up here for a minute. Pay attention. I want you to see what I'm fixing to do. Y'all notice what I'm doing, okay? I'm giving my very best. Y'all doing nothing. Watch what I'm doing. She didn't do anything to draw attention to herself. But she just quietly moved over behind the Savior, and she broke that alabaster box, and that ointment just flowed and just covered our Savior. And that fragrance, it just filled the room. That fragrance brought a silence to the room. All the commotion, everything, all of a sudden it just stopped. And there for just a split second it was just, you could just sense that spirit, that fragrance of worship. You could tell where her focus was. Listen, her focus led her. to do all that was in her ability to do. The Holy Spirit led her. Her focus wasn't on herself. Her focus wasn't on the activities. Her focus wasn't on her future. Her focus wasn't on retirement. Her focus wasn't on savings. And I'm not against retirement. I'm going to get there one day. I'm not against saving money. I believe everybody ought to save money. You ought to have a little money to save back. I'm not saying to give every penny away. You know, you've got to have money to buy groceries and buy bread and buy gas to get to work. The Lord knows these things. The Lord also knows there was $96 billion spent on beer last year. And I have to be honest with you. I believe there were some Christians who bought some beer last year. I take that back. I believe that some saved people bought some beer last year. To be a Christian means to be Christ-like, and if you're going to be Christ-like, I don't think you're going to be in the beer store. But because of her overwhelming love of the Savior, her focus led to the expression of her love. It was noticed by everybody. I'm going to tell you what, when you make the Lord number one in your life and you put Him number one in your life and you give your all to Him and you surrender your all to Him, people are going to notice, hey, listen, there's something different about that person. That person loves the Lord. You can just be around them just a few minutes and you can tell they love the Lord. I was in a restaurant this morning, my wife and I, we started the Cracker Barrel coming up here this morning, and we walked in and there's this big old whole table full of Harley Davidson riders and on their leather and everything else, you know, and I walked up and I said, men, men, let me have your attention. Look up here. I said, before y'all leave this morning, I said, every one of y'all need to have a talk with my wife and tell her why I need to have a motorcycle, amen, because I don't have one, you know. And they had motorcycle wives there, and they always said, yes, yes, yes, he needs one. Give him one. He needs a motorcycle. And before I left, one of them came up and gave me a track. It's a Christian motorcycle club. And he said, man, if you get a bike, we'd love for you to come ride with us. And I said, well, you keep praying I get a bike, amen? But my wife grabs me by the collar, and she says, big boy, your bike riding days is over. Happy wife, happy life rule. Let's come back to bike me, amen? But anyway, the focus. You can tell when people love the Lord. You can tell when their focus is right. You can tell when their life is consumed and they hold nothing back and they've surrendered all to the Lord. You know, the Lord's not going to strip away everything you've got, but He expects you to give Him everything you've got. The Lord's not going to call everybody in this church to Timbuktu, West Africa. But the Lord expects everybody in this church to be surrendered to the point that if He asked you to go, you'd go. I said I'm a success, but I'll tell you, I've got some regrets too. I laugh and tell people I regret that I got old and I can't do what I used to do, but there's a lot of truth in that. I regret that I broke 17 bones before I turned 16 years old because every time it rains I hurt real bad and cold weather hurts my bones. But can I tell you, I've got some real serious regrets. God called me to preach when I was 10 years old. I remember the service. Forest Hills Baptist Church, Decatur, Georgia, Dr. Curtis Hudson preaching. I remember the invitation. I remember as a 10-year-old boy sitting there holding on to that pew in front of me to keep from going down because I knew Mama and Daddy wouldn't be for it. I mean, they didn't go to church. I wasn't raised in a Christian home. Mama gets upset every time she hears me say that. But I said, Mama, there was beer in the cabinet. There was pornography in the cabinet above the refrigerator. There was liquor in the cabinet. Everybody smoked in the house. I said, that wasn't a Christian home. I'm sorry. And God called me to preach when I was 10 years old. I was 21 years old before I surrendered. That was 11 years of my life that were wasted. Eleven years of my life, I can never get back. Eleven years of my life that I didn't do anything for the Lord. We got married and we asked the church to pray for us. We found a house. We could buy a 5,000 square foot house for $10. We said, we asked the church to pray for us about it and pray with us. They prayed with us and guess what? The Lord let us buy that 5,000 square foot house for $10.00. Bought it from Sears Roebuck for $10.00. And then we spent an enormous sum of money remodeling it. Her daddy helped us. I think he helped us. He helped us remodel it. But you know our focus got off I mean, we were in church, singing in the choir. People used to laugh at me because I worked so much that I'd get in the choir and I'd fall asleep while the choir sang. But, you know, I was there, you know, the Spirit was willing, the flesh was weak, but I was there. But I, you know, asked the church to pray, Sunday school, had a great Sunday school class, you know. Asked the church if they prayed. Yeah, you know, and God answered prayer. Thank you, Lord. And we got out there and started remodeling that house and spent $80,000 remodeling that house. I mean, we had two new cars. This is 30 years ago, two new cars. Thirty-five years ago, we had two new cars. I better watch it. I'm going to hold you up, mama. Thirty-five years ago, you know, I married her young. Thirty-five years ago, I mean, we had a nice, fancy house, had two brand-new cars. You know, house payment was $1,000 a month. You say, well, that's nothing. Everybody, you know, well, back then, it was a whole lot, you know. And I was working literally around the clock. I mean, there were times I'd go to work on Monday morning, wouldn't even have a nap until Sunday night. I would work around the clock, around the clock, 24 hours, 7 day weeks. You know, I'd pull over on the road, I'm ashamed to say this, I'd pull over on the road and I'd light a cigarette and I'd put it between my fingers and I'd sleep with that cigarette burnt down, burnt my fingers and woke me up and I'd go on and go on. Got my focus off. And I got to the point to where I was not doing what God had called me to do. Let me tell you what, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Listen, the whole time I was out of church, the whole time I was focused on the wrong thing, the whole time I was involved in other things, the Holy Spirit of God never left, the conviction of God never left. It was always there in the back of my heart, always there in my mind. The Holy Spirit was going, you're not doing what I called you to do. God was going, you're not doing what I called you to do. And you know what? I got to the bottom of my life's barrel. I was about to lose my wife, I was about to lose my home, I was about to lose my cars, my family, everything that meant anything to me, because I'd got my focus off, I'd got out of church, I'd gotten into the world, I'd gotten into sin, I was not doing what God called me to do, and I laid down on the concrete floor of my basement in that house that we had, and I said, God, I'm so sorry. I said, Lord, I have messed my life up so much. Lord, I have run from you, and I have said no. And I laid myself out on that concrete floor, and I said, Lord, here I am. Lord, if there's any way you can still use me, Lord, here I am. Use me, Lord. And I begged Him to forgive me of my sins. And I walked upstairs and I told my wife, I said, Anita, God's called me to preach. She said, okay. Went back to do whatever she's doing, you know. I mean, here he was, been living like the devil, not even going to church, and he said, God's called me to preach, you know. She said, pfft, it doesn't do that, you know. Enrolled in Bible College, that was another $300 a month, BUA, Baptist University of America. On top of the house payment, on top of the car payment, something had to give, something had to go, so I sold that house. You know? Made enough off the house to put a large sum down on a smaller house to where we could afford the house payments and still go to Bible College and, you know, and gradually got our focus right. Listen, it's not an overnight thing when you get out of focus. but gradually got our focus back right, gradually put our focus on the Lord, and put our all in Him, and got back in the church, and faithful in the church, and faithful in the Bible, and just began to grow in the Lord. And that's my call to preach. And then the Lord sent a missionary by one night, one Sunday night. My wife and I went to church that Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon, we had an argument. I forgot what it was about, but I'm sure it was her fault. Amen? We had an argument. We weren't going to church Sunday night. We were mad. We weren't talking to each other. We're not going to church. Closer it got to church time, we both started getting ready because we knew we were supposed to be at church. It would have been one of those deals where you arrive at church, you weren't talking to each other, but you get out of church, hey, how you doing? Yes, praise the Lord. Yeah, God is good. Amen. Hallelujah. Got to church that night, and there was a missionary there named Wesley Hutchins. got up and showed his slides and told about Jamaica and the people of Jamaica and the love that he had for them and the need of the people there in Jamaica. And that's the night that God started that spark in my heart and in my wife's heart that a year later came to fruition and we yielded and surrendered our lives to go to Jamaica. We stood before our church, we made our calling known, and people began to watch, and they began to see the change, and the change of focus. You put God first in your life, you get your focus on Him, and it'll be evident in the expression of your life. It was evident in the expression of her love, it was noticed by all that sweet fragrance that filled that room. There's nothing sweeter. than a Christian that loves God and has put God first in their life. They walk into a room and there's a sweet aroma that comes with them. Oh, there's nothing stankier than an old stanky Christian with a bad disposition that's mad at the world and mad at God and just, you know, just Matted everybody for everything and you know, just I mean he's grumpy and he's no fun to be around and and every church No Everybody church knows who he is and everybody tries to avoid him and duck out of the way because they don't want to you know Be cornered by him and and listen to him grumble and gripe. Don't be that person You'd be that in his focus, right? is filled with the love of God, that your life has that sweet aroma of love for God and worship for God. That lady, that alabaster box, that ointment, her overwhelming love led to her expression of her love. It was noticed by all that sweet extravagance of that sweet fragrance. It was led to the extravagance of her love. She only gave him the best. I'm going to be honest with you, as a missionary, I've left a lot of churches with used, dirty clothes that were torn and ripped and 15 years out of style that I just stopped at a dumpster down the road and threw away. They said, a missionary's coming through, let's give it to him. That's all I've got to say about that. But I think you ought to give God your very best. You know, there are people, and there are people, and there are people in heathen lands that'll take their child, the best child they have, and throw them in the alligator river to be eaten by the alligators so that the river god will be happy. And we hold our best back from the Lord. God deserves our best. The extravagance of her love led to that she only gave him the best. The evidence of her love, God said she hath done what she could. What an epitaph to be written on someone's grave, someone's headstone. He hath done what they could for the Lord. God's not asking you to do what's not in your ability to do. God's asking you to do what's in your ability to do. People come up to me all the time and say, oh, Brother Finley, I couldn't do what you do. I say, you're right. You couldn't, unless God called you to. And then you could. I said, I'm nothing, I'm nobody. I said, there's nothing special about me. I said, you know, I said to people, I said, I didn't even do good in school. I said, I flunked algebra. I graduated in the 11th grade, never figured that out. I flunked algebra, and they let me take driver's ed to make it up, and I still graduated. I never figured all that out, you know? There's nothing special about me. It's just the Lord said, You know, you hear that knock when the Lord is convicting you that you're lost, that you're on your way to hell for all eternity. You hear the gospel. You hear the love of Christ. You hear that Christ loved you, that died for you. And the Holy Spirit's knocking on your heart door and He's drawing you. You say, yes, Lord. And you come forward and you trust Christ as your Savior. And you're born again in the family of God. And you've got that feeling in your heart and your soul. You live for God. You serve the Lord. And you're in church. And all of a sudden, God knocks on your heart and says, I need you to get involved at church. I need you to do something. I need you to, you know, maybe play the piano. Maybe you need to play the organ. Maybe you need to volunteer to cut the grass. Maybe you need to volunteer to clean the church. Maybe you need to volunteer to lead the music. Maybe he's knocking on your heart door and said, listen, I need you to preach. I need you to tell people. Listen, when God calls you to do something, He equips you to do something. He enables you to do it. He wouldn't call you to do something you couldn't do. The expression of her love was evidenced in that she hath done what she could. And the epitaph of her love is this, that the Lord Jesus Christ said, wherever the gospel is preached, I want it to be told about her love, that she hath done what she could. I wonder, when I reach the end of my life, what can be said about my life? Could it be said, he hath done what he could? I hope so. When God called us to the mission field, we went down in front of an old-fashioned altar. We laid our kids out on the altar and we said, Lord, here they are. If it means burying our kids on the mission field to serve you, that's what we'll do. I said, Lord, if it means burying my wife on the mission field to serve you, that's what we'll do. We gave it all to the Lord. I don't want it. I don't want to pick it up. I've given it to Him. He does a lot better job with it than I could ever do with it. Everything I got belongs to Him. My car breaks down. I said, Lord, your car's got troubles. It's kind of funny because Jamaicans have that mentality too. You give a Jamaican a lawnmower and it breaks down, he comes back and tells you, hey, your lawnmower's broke, you need to fix it. I said, hey, I gave you that lawnmower, you know? You know? Something breaks in my house, my washer, hey, Lord, your washing machine's broke, you know? Help me figure out how to fix it, please. You know? Our focus, our focus. God examined our spending, but today, what would it tell them about the focus of our life? Our tithe belongs to the church. Hey, listen, you rob God if you don't give your tithe. I'm sorry, that's the Bible right there. Listen, the tithe belongs to the church. He said, well, I can't afford to tithe. I promise you, you can't afford not to. I've tried it. I live that way, you know. I said, well, Lord, I can't afford it this way. The Lord got it, amen? He may have got it through the doctor or through the mechanic or, you know, but he got it, amen? I find it a whole lot better to give my tithe to the Lord than to have him take it. That's stealing, robbing God. The tithe, listen, but then after the tithe, what do you do with that 90% you've got left? When the Lord examines our spending, when He looks at our focus, what's He going to find? Let's stand to our feet this morning, our heads bowed, our eyes closed, they're going