Great song. Did one of your aunts write that song? Mark 14. Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14. We all there? All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you this morning for being with us. Lord, we do need to be the watchman warning this world of the impending danger. Lord, I pray this morning that you might feed your children As your Father, we sit around at your feet and wait to hear from heaven. We talked about in Sunday school that we don't want the wisdom of this world, we want the wisdom which is from above. And so Spirit of God, I pray that you would speak to us this morning, stand behind this pulpit, sit next to us. And Lord, you would minister to your people. And you only have a piece of dirt to work with. I pray that you take this clay vessel, and it dwells no good thing. Take this clay vessel and fill it with your spirit, and your power, and your passion, and your words, and your wisdom. And Lord, speak to us this morning. Sit next to us, reprove us, rebuke us, exhort us, whatever you need to do. Because we're here to hear from you, Father. We love you. We desire you. Even if you have to rebuke us a little bit, Lord, we're grateful for that. So Lord, speak to us this morning, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Mark chapter 14, we're going to start reading the first nine verses. He says, After two days was the feast of the Passover and of unleavened bread, and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman with 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, said, Why was this waste of ointment made? It might have been sold for more than three hundred pence and had been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. Jesus said, let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever you will, you may do them good. But me ye have not always. She hath done what she could. She has come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this is also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial to her. And so here we are a couple days before the crucifixion. And what has already happened, is that Jesus Christ has entered into Jerusalem. We refer to that as Palm Sunday. It's not a biblical term, but we refer to that as Palm Sunday because as He came in on the colt or a donkey, And they're throwing palm fronds down in the pathway as he goes in. And as he goes in, they're crying, Hosanna, you know, glory to God in the highest, and what have you. And everything is great on that particular day. So he goes in, and he looks around. He sees what's going on, and he will step out. You say, Preacher, there's one account that says he immediately cleared out the money changers and all that stuff. Well, if you read it carefully, you'll find out he did that the next day, the next day he went in. And you understand that when you understand that some historians use the chronological approach to recording events, and some use what's called a consequential or significant Means of recording a particular event. I'm not going to get into all that right now suffice it to say that on the next day he went into the temple and he cleared it out and He had begun to do some preaching in there and what-have-you and later he will retire to a city called Bethany now Bethany is just about two miles outside of Jerusalem and And he loved to go to Bethany. Bethany was a beautiful little city just outside of the capital. And he had some friends there. He had one house that he would go to, which was Mary, Martha, and Lazarus' home. And he resided there on a number of occasions. And this particular account, he's going to another friend of his. And that friend is referred to as Simon the Leper. And you say, well, Preacher, if he had leprosy, he shouldn't be in this house. Well, he's called Simon the Leper, although he had gotten healed in the past. And the only doctor that I know of, and that day that was healing people of leprosy was Jesus Christ. So the Lord had healed him at one particular point, and made friends with him, wouldn't you? I mean, what a wonderful thing. And so when the Lord was in Bethany on this occasion, he goes to the house of Simon the leper. And he's gonna just relax in there. Now think about it, he knows what's gonna happen in two days. He knows. And he's not letting that control him at this point. Boy, I wish we could get that. A lot of times we think about something that's gonna happen in a week and that whole week long that that event or that thing controls us. And Jesus didn't let that happen. He said, I know what's gonna happen when I go to Jerusalem the next time. But today, today I am with my buddy, Simon the leper, and we're gonna sit down here and we're gonna have a meal and we're gonna have a great time. And so he is there with Simon. So why'd they call him Simon the leper if he was healed? You know, some things just carry on. Some names just carry on, you know. So-and-so was the town drunk, he got saved. What's he still known as? He's the town drunk. It has happened. And so one of the things is it distinguished him from some of the other Simon. Simon was a very popular name at that particular time, so it distinguished him from Simon the Pharisee and from Simon Peter. And again, there were others that had the name of Simon. And so it was a distinguishing thing, but it's what he was and he had been healed from it, but still known as that. So, there's the Lord. He has progressed from Palm Sunday, preached a little bit on Monday, cleaned the temple out, got everybody upset about that, preached about what was gonna happen to the temple, got people upset about that, and so he retires to Bethany. He said, I'm gonna spend a couple days here with my friend, Simon, and while he's there, a memorable event will take place, which is a memorial, but it's a memorable event. So if you look at Mark chapter 14 and verse three, it says, as he sat at meat, halfway through the verse, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, And she break the box and poured it on his head. Now, this has happened to Jesus Christ. This will be the third time this has happened to Jesus Christ. It's recorded. It may have happened more times. but it had happened in John chapter 12, and a lot of the commentators really get confused about this, and it's just a matter of reading it carefully. In John chapter 12, Mary will do this, but this is not the same as what we're reading about here. In John chapter 12, verse three, it says that Mary took a pound of ointment, of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus. Well, this woman, reading about Mark 14, anointed his head, so there is a difference, and it says, and wiped her feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of ointment. This happened six days before the Passover. The account that we're reading happened two days before the Passover. And in this account, his wonderful friend Mary, of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus fame, was the one doing it, and she's named. But the woman in Mark 14, she's not named. So this is two separate things. Then there's a woman in Luke chapter 7. In Luke chapter 7, she is not at the house of Simon the leper, she is at the house of Simon the Pharisee. This could not be what we're reading about in Mark 14 because it's way too early in the ministry of Jesus Christ in Luke chapter seven. So we have three different occasions where somebody has anointed the Lord Jesus with something very precious, something very valuable. And in this case right here, all we know about this woman is that she was unnamed. As you read your Bible, have you realized of all the unnamed people in the scripture that did very, very important things? Listen, if you're in this life trying to make a name for yourself, you're wasting your time. If you travel through this world and nobody knows your name, other than the people around you, if nobody else knows your name or knows who you are or what have you, and God knows your name, that's what you rejoice in. I don't care if the world knows me or not, what I'm concerned about is Him. That's what I'm concerned about. Now, what do we know about this woman? This unknown, unnamed woman, what do we know about her? Well, for one, she possessed an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious. That's one thing we know about her. And so what in the world is an alabaster box full of ointment? What is that? Well, from what I've researched, here's what I've come up with. It was a very interesting type of stone. It kind of went along with being marble. It had that white, snow-white color to it. But the thing about the alabaster is it was soft. I mean, you could carve it very easily. But the amazing thing is it would polish to a very bright shine. And that's rare to find a soft rock that really polishes up. But this is what it is. So I'm thinking that to make one, you'd take a piece of alabaster about yea big. You'd have to square off the sides. You'd square off the front and the back, the top and the bottom. Okay, so now you have this cube. But in order to get anything in the cube, you have to hollow the rock out. So you're going to have to make a hole in the top with your chisel, and then you start chiseling down until you've got a hole. But then you still have room to put the chisel in at an angle and carve it out like that. And so all the way around, then pretty soon you've got this box that is hollowed out or carved out. And now it can receive something valuable such as the ointment of spikenard. They could put that in or anything that was valuable to them. I think the Egyptians as late as the 20th century, would put their medicine in alabaster little bottles. That to them was the best way to do it. So you put this perfume in this alabaster box, but to keep it from evaporating you're going to have to get another piece of alabaster and put it over the hole on the top and you'd have to seal it, okay? If you'll read the commentaries again, and unfortunately for me, I have to read the commentaries so I can get to you the best I can get to you. But many of the commentators say, well, the King James Bible's wrong again. It says she broke a box, and she actually broke the seal. And they'll go to the Greek word and all that. And I got to studying this thing, and I realized, you know what, you don't have to go to the Greek to figure this out. I mean, think about it. You have an alabaster box. She's not taking a hammer and breaking the box. Because if we do that and break the box, where's the perfume gonna go? Oops, guess we'll have to try that again, you know. It says that she broke the box and then poured the oil on the Lord's head. So obviously she didn't break the box, she must have broken the seal. And we use the same terminology. We might say, you know, hey, break open that box over there. Break open that bottle of milk. Bottle of milk, I don't have a bottle of milk anymore. bottle of whatever or break it break it we would use the term break open and then in that is break it so she had broken the seal and then she took what was in there and poured it upon his head common sense helps you figure that out you don't need the Greek I've told you before you don't need the Greek and the Hebrew a good dictionary and a little common sense and a concordance will go a long way with helping you understanding the Bible so she Did this thing, and by the way, Webster defines a box as a small case or vessel with a cover, so obviously she broke the cover. And what came out, what she was pouring on the Lord's head was what was referred to as an ointment of spikenard, and it is said to be worth more than 300 denarii, that's the Roman term, 300 pence being the Hebrew, very costly. And when you do the research, and again, it's interesting how this varies the value of it. Some will say it was worth $30,000, some say up to $100,000, and some say $45. So you say, Preacher, what was it worth? Well, we're told it was very precious. And we know that a denarii or a pence was the equivalent to one day's pay. If you've got 300 of them, you have, subtracting the Sabbath days, you have just about a year's worth of work to earn that amount. So if you worked all year long and made $45, I feel for you. But if you worked all year long and you made about $30,000 or $40,000 or $100,000, I can understand that. Either way, it was very precious and costly. And some commentators will even say that it was not a Syrian product, it was actually from India. It was the attar of the Indian spikenard, it was an ungent, containing the very essence of the plant, it was bought at great expense. So apparently the... trade routes and we know in Solomon's day there were trade routes from India either by water or by land. Apparently the trade routes had come in and she's got, she was able to get this thing. Now I believe this, I believe that her daddy got it for her. And I believe this might have been her dowry for the day when that certain someone comes into her life, you know, Prince Charming or what have you. Is there still a Prince Charming anywhere? Some of the girls are in there saying, is there really? There is out there somewhere. But I think her daddy got it for her and said, here, this is your dowry and don't open this until you get married and that'll be yours. Which is very interesting because if that is the case, what a sacrifice she is making in pouring that over the head of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we know she had that, that's about all we know about her is that she had that. But we also know this, that somehow she knew Jesus was gonna die soon. Mark 14 and verse eight, Jesus said she had done what she could, she has come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying. how did she know that how did she know that well again our friends the commentators spin their wheels all over the place trying to figure out what it means you know the answer is I don't know I don't know some say that they believe that the Spirit of God had led her to do that even though she didn't know why okay that'll work that'll work or Remember how this chapter started? There are two verses at the start of this chapter where it says the chief priests and the scribes were trying to figure out how to get him. But they knew they couldn't just arrest him on the holiday because the whole crowd would erupt and turn on him. So they had to figure out a way to do it. She might have heard them discussing how they were going to do it. She might have been the fly on the wall, you know, just that woman walking by and overheard them talking about, we've got to get this guy. They've been talking about this since John 11. And now they're to the point where, okay, we got to get this guy. What are we going to do? We've got to do something. And she may have overheard that and thought, okay, they're going to get him. Or she believed what Jesus had said. Now here's this woman. she happens to be at that house now Jesus had left Jerusalem now he's in Bethany and she must have followed him there so she must be one of the women we read about not Joanna and not Mary or Martha or Mary Mary Mary and all the other ones but she must have been just one of the women that was following Jesus. And she might have overheard him say at one point or another, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem. They're going to punch me, they're gonna spit on me, they're gonna kill me, and I'm gonna rise again the third day from the dead. And she thought, well, that's gonna have to happen pretty soon. And then she may have thought this. She may have thought, you know, I remember him preaching about John. I remember the day he was there when John the Baptist pointed him out and said, behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. And the Passover's coming up, and they wanna get him. So it could be that this Passover, Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world the one that would take away our sins they're going to get him in two days and they're going to crucify him and somebody needs to anoint the body now if that's the case she's really she's really got it figured out because the disciples didn't figure it out they hadn't figured it out in fact Peter said I'm not going to let him get you but she had it figured out so what do you think it is pretty well all of the above probably And so there she is. She takes the alabaster box, breaks the lid, pours it over his head, and boy, when she did that, everybody went crazy. You know, one of the things that she did, and the key statement in that text is she had done what she could. If you don't get anything from this message this morning, it is she had done what she could. And if you know the word done, done is past tense of do. I know that's deep, but done is the past tense of do. And she was doing what she could do. John Charles Ryle, who was an old English preacher of the early, mid-19th century, made a great statement. I'm gonna read it because he's really laid this out, I couldn't say it any better. He said this, quote, that the Lord Jesus likes his people to be doing Christians. know there's so much talk we just talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and we do kind of little these Lord likes his people being doing Christian she did something she did what she could hence the praises bestowed upon her the great head of the church likes doing Christians Christians who show their Christianity in their lives true religion is not made up of general notions or abstract opinions of certain views and doctrines and feelings and sentiments Useful as these things are, they are not everything. The wheels of the machine must move. The clock must go as well as have a handsome case and face. It matters little what a man thinks, feels, wishes in religion if he never gets further than that. What does he do? How does he live? The importance of working as a Christian. Go to James chapter 2. James chapter 2. On occasion I would get in trouble when we were on the road. We would go to a conference of some sort. And conferences were good. I mean you got guys preaching, you know, different guys preaching in the morning and different guys preaching at night. It was good. I mean, you know, you would go in our home church and their Bible conference. They served you breakfast. That was probably to get you there. They served your breakfast. And then you sat through the morning preaching. And the morning preaching was usually guys called from the floor. And then you had the lunchtime after that. And then you had the break and then you would go back for the evening service and after the evening service you had the snack shop and a lot of conferences are done that way. And my thought, we've been to different conferences, but my thought was, you know, we're getting all this preaching in the morning, getting all this preaching at night, why don't we do something with it in the afternoon? And so I would try to get some guys and say, hey, you guys want to go into town and do some preaching this afternoon? I know you got to get your nap and what have you, but let's just go into town and let's preach for an hour and a half. Let's have a street meeting. Because you're getting so filled up with the word of God, you got to let it out. And that didn't work. In most cases, that didn't work. I'm thinking. You know, a lot of people were there, that was their vacation time, I guess, I don't know. To me, I thought this was a great opportunity to go out and just, you know, do something in the community. You know, because a lot of times it's just we hear and we hear and we talk and we talk and we hear and we hear and we talk and we talk and we hear and we hear and we talk and we talk and whatever gets done. Whatever gets done. James chapter two. James chapter two. And let's start at verse 14. I'm not gonna expound on James chapter two, it's a touch complicated, but let's just look at the high points of James chapter two. In verse 14, look what he says to the people. What does it profit my brethren, though a man say he have faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? So James is gonna broach upon the subject of two different kinds of faith. You have the verbal dead faith, and then you have the living, working faith. One is a true kind of faith, the other one is a false kind of faith, okay? Look down at verse 17. Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead being alone. A lot of people talk about faith. You know, I have faith, I have faith. But do you? There is a dead faith. Listen, a person that does not come to Jesus Christ because they know they're sinners, because they know they're on their way to hell, because they know they can't save themselves, but they know He's their only hope, and they believe that He died on the cross for their sins, was buried, and rose again the third day from the dead, and they call upon the name of the Lord to be saved, and they get saved. they're gonna have real, genuine faith. And it will be evidenced by works, okay? Those that just say they have faith, now when I say works, listen, when I say works, I'm talking about works that God accepts. I'm not talking about social work. Well, you know, we're gonna go on and give clothes and food to the poor, okay. God's kind of works, that's okay if you give them the gospel. If you give them the opportunity to see something from Scripture, if you do it because the Holy Spirit of God is in it, okay, these are the God's kind of works, okay? So if you trust Christ as your Savior, you're gonna want to do something where you can get the gospel to people. And it may be the homeless. We had guys out of our home church in Toledo a while back that would drive up to Detroit, they would go to, There's a fellow that preached there for years, Kyle Joe Hicks, it is called the, forgive what it's called, it's right near Tiger Stadium and all that, it's a dead downtown part of Detroit. I went with him on one occasion, and yeah, they pull up their trucks, they start serving the food, and they immediately start preaching to these people. And one of the guys took one of the guys, one of the street guys, set him in the car and spent like a half hour in there explaining the gospel to him, and we think the guy got saved. You know what that's called? Good works. Because God is in that. What if you just go down and give them food and give them clothes? What have you accomplished? Absolutely nothing. Okay? So when I'm talking about works, that's what I'm talking about. Verse 17 and 18, even so faith if it have not works is dead being alone. Yea, a man may say thou has faith and I have works. One says I've got it, one says I'm doing this, one says I'm doing that. The point is if you've got genuine faith it's going to be evidenced by your works. And if you don't have genuine faith your works will be nothing that God accepts. You may work, but it's gonna be nothing, it's dead work. Dead faith produces dead works, okay? And then he says in verse 20, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so is faith without works. The body without the spirit is dead. When this spirit leaves this body, this body's dead, okay? And you've all watched enough cop shows to know that they grab the pulse here, they feel for the pulse there, or they listen to see if they're breathing, or in the old days, they'd put a beer in front of the nose and see if there's any condensation. And if there's none of that, the body's dead. And faith, if it's not genuine faith, is just as dead as a dead body, okay? So if you're saved, you're going to want to without question something in you is going to say I've got to do something I've got to do something for Jesus Christ you're not satisfied with just coming to church you're not satisfied with just coming to Sunday school you're thinking in your heart I've got to do something for Jesus Christ go to Acts chapter 9 Acts chapter 9 I'm not saying you're saved by works, I'm saying works are the evidence of salvation. I'm gonna use a real street kind of illustration. When a fellow grabs a bottle of Boone's Farm, Mad Dog 2020, or whatever they're drinking now, and swallows it down, does he then say, okay, I've got a stagger too, because I'm supposed to be drunk, right? Does he say, I've got a stagger now? No, he doesn't, what does he do? As a result of drinking the junk, he then starts to stagger around. The staggering is the evidence that he drank the junk. You see what I'm saying? You don't stagger and drink so you can be drunk. You drink, you get drunk, and as a result, you stagger. If you have genuine faith in Jesus Christ, you've trusted Christ to save you, the evidence of that will be the works that you want to do for Jesus Christ. Okay, Acts chapter nine, let me show you how this works. Acts chapter 9, starting at verse 3. This is Paul's conversion. He's on the road to Damascus. He's going to see the Lord. Verse 3, As he journeyed, he came near Damascus. And suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth, and he heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And Saul's first response is, Who art thou, Lord? He knew whatever he was encountering was divine. He just didn't know who it was. Okay? He was hoping it was Jehovah God saying, you're doing a good job, bud, keep it up. But that's not the case. But he knows who he is encountering is someone divine. So the Lord responds to his question and says, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. That's the last thing he wanted to hear. What had Paul been doing up to this point? Persecuting Christians. Suddenly he runs into somebody on the road and he knows it's divine and he says, which God are you? He said, I'm Jesus, you know, the one that you're persecuting. And he says in verse six, and trembling and astonished. He's absolutely terrified. because he's just done everything he could against Jesus Christ. And who does he encounter? What divine being does he encounter on the road to Damascus? Jesus Christ. And he calls him Lord. He says, and trembling and astonished, he said, Lord. Now what does that tell you? That tell you that he has suddenly changed his allegiance to Jesus Christ. You wouldn't call him Lord if you weren't submitting to him, okay? So he calls him Lord, and then look at the response. What will thou have me to do? What will thou have me to do? Isn't that an interesting response? Here's a man that has just been converted, and his first response to this conversion is what do you want me to do? Because isn't that a natural response? I know when I got saved, one of my first responses was, what am I going to do now? What do you want me to do? Now go to Luke chapter 4. Paul didn't say, what must I do to be saved? When he said, Lord, he got saved right there. He said, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? Luke chapter four. In Luke chapter four, Jesus is dealing with the devil. This is the time he's tempted of the devil. And on one of those temptations, Jesus answered and said unto him in verse eight, get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou worship. Wait a minute, did I read that right? Wouldn't that be the normal way to read that? But he didn't say that. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. Because worship and service and worship and works are connected. And again, one being the evidence of the other, not the means to, but the evidence of the other. And so what I'm saying this morning is here is this woman whose faith was in Jesus Christ. And she said, I've got to do something. I can't go out with the disciples and heal with them and do what they're doing. I can't go into the temple and preach. I'm a woman, nobody will listen to me. Because that's the way it was in those days. She said, I've got to do something. And she thinks, you know, I've got this alabaster box full of preciously valuable perfume. And I'm gonna pour it on his head. I'm gonna anoint his head because I know that he's gonna die in the next couple of days and nobody else is probably gonna even thinking about that right now. And she was right. The disciples weren't. But she says, I know what's gonna happen and she does it. She had to do something. Now listen to me. Satan's greatest enemies are Christians that are doing something, okay? And this is where we struggle. He tries to do everything he can to talk us out of doing something. Well, you've been to church three times a week, you've done enough. You put your offering in the offering plate, you've done enough. The greatest enemy Satan has are Christians that are doing something. He'll tell you you're too young. You're too young to be a witness for Jesus Christ. You're too young to speak up for the Lord. You're too young to take a stand for Christ. He'll tell you that. or he'll tell you you're too old. You're an old coot, you can't do nothing. We had a guy in our church years ago back in Toledo who was 50 years old and got called to the mission field at the age of 50, 50-something. called to the mission field at a missions conference. And what did he do? He immediately moved down to Florida, went to Bible college, graduated from Bible college, raised his support, and went to Romania. And he was there as long as God wanted him to be there, and then he came back. A few years he was there. But called to the mission field at the age of 50. How many of you in here are 50? Yeah. You realize you could be called to the mission field? You say, Preacher, I'm too old. No, you're not. You're not too young. You're not too old. The devil will tell you that if you do something, nobody's going to help you. You'll have to do it all by yourself, and you're not going to want to do that. And that may be true. When I first started going to church in Toledo, Ohio, first started going to church in Toledo, and the guy that was instrumental in me coming to know Christ, his name was Asher Smith, we found this church, we started going to this church, and this church emphasized nursing home ministry. That's what they were into. And so Asher said, you know, well, we should be involved in nursing home ministry. Okay. And he lived in Perrysburg, which is just outside of Toledo, and driving home, he saw this nursing home, big one, called Heartland of Perrysburg, two-story nursing home. Well, he went in there, and he made arrangements for him and I to go there every Thursday afternoon. And so we did. And after two weeks of preaching in the nursing home, he calls me up and says, I don't want to do it anymore. And that's the story of his life. I don't want to do it anymore. So what do you mean you don't want to do it anymore? I can't go there by myself. Well, I'm not going to do it. OK. Quit church, doing all that. I called the pastor. I said, Asher decided he doesn't want to do it. What am I going to do? He said, well, if you guys made the agreement to do it, you better be there. I didn't want to hear that, but I went. And I wasn't as wonderful as I am now. I didn't know what to do, I couldn't sing, and yet we took the hymnals out there, and I sang the best I could, and gathered the people together, and tried to lead them to Christ, and for six months, six months, I did it by myself. And then finally, somebody started going with me. And then after that, others would go. And pretty soon, it was just a wonderful thing. But for six months, I had to do that by myself. So yeah, the devil may tell you, you know, nobody's gonna help you. And it may be the case. But Elijah didn't have anybody to help him. We don't know if anybody Enoch had to help him, but he was able to walk with God. He'll tell you that you don't have the ability, the intellect, the personality, the social standing, the gifts, the talents, the influence. He'll say you can't do any of that stuff. And you know what you tell the devil? Yeah, you're right. You're right. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We kind of touched on this this morning. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. The devil will tell you, you're not smart enough, you don't have the personality like brother so-and-so, you don't have the social status like brother so-and-so. Yeah, you ought to just forget that idea. And you need to remind the devil on occasion who God calls into the service or work of Christ. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 25, he said, but the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Now watch this, for you see your calling brethren. He's not talking just to preachers. You see your calling brethren. We've all been called to serve the Lord in some capacity. For you see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh. Oh God calls some intellectuals, but not many. Not many wise men after the flesh. Not many mighty. He calls some people that have status, but not many. Not many noble, not a lot of nobility in Bible-believing Christianity are called. Now watch verse 27. This will make you feel so good. God hath chosen the foolish things of the world. God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Preacher, I don't have the intellect. No, we know you don't. God calls the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Watch it, God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. Verse 28, and base things of the world. What are base things? I'm not sure. You either slide into it or you stand on it, either thing you don't wanna be. But it's a base thing of the world. And things which are despised. Preacher, nobody likes me. Things which are not. Things which are not. Preacher, I need to be a somebody. Hey, you're a nobody. You and I are nobodies. Outside of Jesus Christ, you and I are absolutely nothing. That's who the people God uses. And he gives us the reason in verse 29, that no flesh should glory in his presence. You know why God uses the foolish and the base and the weak and what have you? You know why he does that? So when they do accomplish something, they know, boy, I didn't do that. God must have done that. That's the idea. I'll double tell you sometimes, you just don't have any opportunities. I would give up on that, because you just don't have any opportunities. I remember being at some kind of conference in Georgia one time, and there were a couple of young preachers there, and we were standing around talking, and one preacher said, well, God called me to preach, but my preacher never gives me a chance to preach behind the pulpit. You know what I said to him? There are four pulpits at every intersection, and they're usually vacant. Pick one and have at it. Now there's opportunity, there's all kinds of opportunity to serve Jesus Christ. Maybe not the one you're looking for. I don't know what that young kid meant. He wanted to stand in front of the three or four or 500 people and show everybody what a great preacher he was. But sometimes that's not the opportunity the Lord opens the door for. It may be a street corner somewhere. But if you love Jesus Christ, that's not a problem. Somebody wrote this one time, the paths of service are sure to open before willing feet. When the Spirit of God puts a benevolent impulse in the soul, the providence of God will open a channel for its outflowing. What did he say? God puts something in your heart, he's gonna open the door to let you go do it. There's always something a Christian can do no matter what your lot in life may be. She did what she could. And Jesus responded to that in Mark chapter 14, if you wanna go back there in verse six. This is what Jesus said about it. She hath wrought a good work on me. Verse six, and Jesus said, let her alone, why trouble ye here? She hath wrought a good work on me. in spite of the fact that the other believers there didn't think she did. The other believers there, the disciples, said, boy, she just wasted a lot of money there. We could have given that to the poor. Which always sounds so spiritual, doesn't it? Let's help the poor, as Jesse Jackson said, the poor people. We need to help, food stamps helps the poor people. We need to help the poor people. And boy, that'll get you some votes right there. Now liberals are always talking about it, we need to help the poor and the, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Jesus basically responded to them and said, look, for one thing, keep your mouth shut. And secondly, just leave her alone. Leave her alone, you're troubling her, leave her alone. They were indignant at what she did. to which my response is this, and it's always been this and will continue to be this, what God leads other people to do, mind your own business, okay? Don't be running around. I've told you before, the Holy Spirit is not out of work. He has not abdicated his position and is looking to hire you. People will do what, listen, God, I've always told you, you do what God leads you to do. Make sure it's God leading you to do it. You do what God leads you to do. And if somebody else has a problem with that, they need to mind their own business. Everybody, if we just do what God wants us to do and stay out of other people's business and stop thinking you're the Holy Spirit and the church and what should be done and what shouldn't be done, leave them alone. As Jesus said, leave them alone. Don't trouble them. mind your own business, and do what God wants you to do. And that's what he told these people. So she has done what she could do. There have been people in church history, all throughout church history, that have done what God wants them to do. There was a man who depended for support entirely on his own exertion, his own ability to work, which is fine. But he would give a large offering annually in support of the mission schools in Bombay, India. And a friend of his, a couple friends of his came to him and said, why do you give so much? How can you afford to give that much money to these schools in Bombay, India? And he said this, he said, I've been for some time wishing to do something for Christ's cause, but I can't preach. Neither can I pray in public to anyone's edification, nor can I talk to people. But I have hands and I can work. And I can take the money that I earn and send it to missionary schools in Bombay, India. And did what he could do. A newspaper report tells the story of a woman, this is 1800s, 1900s. A woman who, because tired of life, mainly spent in eating and dressing. Boy, ladies, does that lay it out? Like the t-shirt says, I know where my check went. I'm either wearing it or I ate it. So here's a young lady, says life is mainly about eating and dressing. resolved to devote herself and her money to a nobler purpose. So at the close of World War I, she went to a sandy island off the Atlantic coast, not even sure what it is. About 200 people were living in poverty and ignorance on this little island. And she went there and she established a home there with the intention of benefiting the inhabitants. She began by teaching, by example, how to cultivate the land lucratively. She then established a school for the children, afterwards a church. And now this island, whatever it may be, is thriving, industrious, and the population is moral. Because one woman decided to do that. She did what she could. She did what she could. Another story of a Sunday school teacher who said, children, I want each of you to bring a new student to the school with you next Sunday. said the superintendent of the Sunday school to his students one day. And the majority of students said, I can't bring any new students, I can't do that. But some of the children said, I'll try to do what I can do. So one of those children went home to his father and said, Father, will you go to Sunday school with me? And the father responded, I can't read, son. And he said that with a look of shame. And the boy said, our teachers will teach you, Father. And the father said, OK, I'll go. And he went. And he learned to read. He sought and found the Savior and at length became a book and Bible distributor. Years passed on, and that man had established 400 Sunday schools. This is not D.L. Moody. This is not D.L. Moody. D.L. Moody was saved when he was working as a boot salesman and a Sunday school teacher from the church across the street came in and witnessed him. That's how Moody got saved. This is not Moody. This is another guy, don't even know his name, that established 400 Sunday schools into which 35,000 children were gathered. And the story says, thus you see what trying did. The boy's efforts were like a tiny rill that soon swells into a brook and at length becomes a river. His efforts by God's grace saved his father and his father being saved led 35,000 children to the Sunday school. What did that boy do? What he could. He did what he could. He invited his dad to church. Are we emphasizing that with our Sunday school kids? Are we emphasizing that with our junior church kids? Have we ever told them, look, bring somebody next week? We'll figure out if we have to how to get them here, but bring a friend next week, bring somebody. Boy, we need to emphasize that. Is that hard to do? We're not asking them to do something unobtainable. We're simply asking them to invite somebody that they go to school with or maybe in the neighborhood. That's not too hard, is it? I think they can do that. Now here's the amazing thing. Everybody's upset. She's wasted her money. We could have given that to the poor. Jesus has let her alone, quit giving her a hard time. She's done a good work. And in fact, he said, I'll tell you what, here's how good of a work she just did. In Mark chapter 14, verse nine. 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 memorial of her. You know what he just said? What she did will impact the globe. That's how good of a work she just did. And we're living proof of it because we're talking about it today just like he said people would do. And it's been the talk for 2,000 years. And God doesn't use that term memorial lightly. So, we have in this account an unnamed woman who wanted to do something for Jesus. And she did something for him, although she was criticized greatly by others. And by the way, expect that. When you do something for Jesus Christ, somebody will criticize you. But Jesus accepted what she did and gave her great honor. She did what she could. I told you earlier, don't expect the Christian life to bring you fame and fortune. It's not. And I'm gonna close with this thought. Somebody said years ago, we don't need another million dollar Christian celebrity. We need a million one dollar Christians that love Jesus Christ and wanna serve him. I'm not opposed to Christian celebrities or the stars, the great athlete that will preach about Jesus Christ, you know. I'm glad he's using his platform. Billy Sunday used his platform for quite a long time. Dave Spurgeon comes in and he uses his testimony, and it's very impressive, and it's very good, and it's very miraculous, and it speaks to hearts. And you might sit there and say, I ain't got a testimony like that. All I was was a lost sinner. You realize every testimony is miraculous? And the greatest miracle Jesus ever performed was saving you? So how can you say that? He parted the Red Sea and he, the only miracle that cost him his blood was the miracle of salvation. That makes it the greatest miracle of all. He did that for you. Okay, you may not be the sports star. You may not be the famous entertainer that gets converted. You may not be the motorcycle guy or the drug addict guy. But you have a testimony. We don't need another million dollar celebrity Christian. We need a million one dollar Christians that love Jesus Christ, that live the normal life like everybody else, who want to do something for him. You find out what God would want you to do. In fact, I would say this. Open your heart to the Lord this morning and simply say, Lord, what would thou have me to do? And just wait to see what comes along your way. What a prayer that would be. What did Isaiah say in Isaiah chapter six? Lord, what would thou have me to do? That should be the prayer of every one of God's children. Father, we thank you for your word this morning. We thank you for this young lady. We don't know her name, but she offered an incredible sacrificial gift to you. Did a wonderful thing. She simply did what she could do. Lord, speak to the hearts of your people this morning. Let all of us come to you and say, Lord, what would thou have me to do? Great ministries could be started this morning if we open our heart to You and simply ask You, what do You want me to do?