Give or Get

By Bobby Blakey on April 24, 2016

John 11:54-12:11

AUDIO

Give or Get

By Bobby Blakey on April 24, 2016

John 11:54-12:11

This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:00] I invite you to grab your Bible and open up with me to John 12. It's on page eight hundred and ninety eight. If you got one of our Bibles and we now come to the 12th chapter of the Gospel of John, we've been going through this book since the beginning of the school year, since September. And so we've gone through now eleven chapters and really these first 11 chapters, they tell us about the first three years of Jesus's ministry, the three years of his ministry, I should say, from when John the Baptist, when he was interacting with him all the way until now, the last week of his life. And that's what we get into in John Chapter twelve. And really from Chapter 12 to the end of the book, or at least to Chapter 20, it's all one week in Jesus's life. We call it The Passion Week, the week that he died and the week that he rose again. And this is what kicks it all off is right here. What we're going to read this morning in John Chapter twelve. And so our goal is to finish Chapter twelve, which sets us up to The Last Supper, which begins in Chapter 13. And then we're gonna take a break before we get into the Last Supper. We're gonna take a break for the summer, study some other things, and then we'll hit the Last Supper. We're going to spend a whole year on the night before Jesus died. That'll be next school year. But right now, we're at John Chapter eleven. Just to get the context here, go look at what started. Verse fifty three, John, chapter 11, verse 53. Please follow along with me as I read.

[00:01:37] So from that day on, they made plans to put him to death. Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness to a town called Ephraim. And there he stayed with the disciples. Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and seeing one another as they stood in the temple. What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all? Now, the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know so that they might arrest him. Six days before the Passover Jesus therefore came to Bethanie, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served. And Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples. He who was about to be Shray him, said. Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii I and given to the poor? He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial for the poor. You always have with you. But you do not always have me. When the large crowd of the Jews learn that Jesus was there, they came not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priest made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. So as we come to the last week of Jesus life, there is a dark cloud hanging over it that there's basically a warrant out for his arrest. And if anybody knows where Jesus is, they should let the chief priest and the Pharisees know so that they can arrest him and kill him. And so it's a it's a dark time here and there. Even now going to kill Lazarus if you've been with us any of the last few weeks. And John Elevon Lazarus died and Jesus rose him from the dead. And so now everybody wants to see Lazarus, who died and came back. They want to see Jesus. And so the crowd wants to see them and the religious leaders want to kill them. And so what we're going to zero in on here is the chapter twelve. This dinner that happens in the town of Bethanie and Lazarus is there and Jesus is there and Martha is there.

[00:04:44] And then Mary gives this profound gesture of her love for Jesus Christ. She has this pure Nahed. She has this here, this ointment. And she anoints the feet of Jesus with it. She wipes. His feet with her hair, just this bold gesture of her worship and her love for Jesus. I mean, last week we were kind of bummed because when Lazarus comes out of the tomb, we immediately go to like the heart of darkness. We see these religious leaders who want to kill Jesus. He proves he has the power of life and they want to kill him. And it's like, well, what about the celebration? How did Martha and Mary respond when their brother Lazarus comes back from the dead? Well, here we get now to see Mary's response. And it's over the top worship of Jesus Christ.

[00:05:33] I don't know if you know what Nard is. Let's be honest. If I didn't read this passage, I don't know what Nard is, okay? So if you don't know a nard, is that that's fine.

[00:05:40] But it's this a is this expensive ointment that travels all the way probably from India or China on a camel or something like that.

[00:05:49] And it and it's this just this costly perfume. And so for it to pour that out on Jesus, it's just an extravagant, generous move.

[00:06:00] And then for a woman to kind of take her hair out and use her hair to wipe the feet here of Jesus Christ.

[00:06:09] I mean, this is an act of the greatest service and the greatest love to Jesus here that we see with Mary. And this isn't the only time that it's recorded for us in scripture. Turn with me to Matthew, 26. Just a few pages over to the left, to the gospel of Matthew, Chapter 26. You'll see the same story is told. Now, we have four different gospels and a lot of times they tell us the same things that happened, but from different experience, different perspectives of the different writers. And so we can learn things. The details don't contradict, but they shed light on one another. And so both Matthew and Mark tell about this same dinner gathering as we're studying in John Chapter twelve.

[00:06:54] And in Matthew, it's in Matthew twenty six, verse six. And you'll notice some differences, but clearly still the same account. And it says here in math, you 26, verse six. Now when Jesus was at Bethany, but then it says here in the house of Simon the leper. OK, so we know that Lazarus was there and Martha was serving and Mary comes in and with this expensive ointment to anoint Jesus Christ. But now we see here it was at the house of Simon the leper. Now, if a leper invited you over to his house back in the days of the New Testament, are you go into the lepers house. You have nothing to do with the leper. You see a leper. In fact, lepers for themselves are supposed to shout unclean, unclean when they walk around.

[00:07:44] So no one will get too close to him because they are they're considered unclean, not only maybe because of the contagiousness that they might have been afraid of, but just they were considered unclean before God because they had leprosy. So I don't think the leper is having everybody over to his house. I think what it means when it says Simon the leper is that maybe he I one point he had leprosy and now he has he's having Jesus over to his house, which may be the difference there is Jesus healed him of his leprosy. That's my idea of of why we're going over to Simon. The lepers house here in Matthew, 26 were six. So this could be basically a gathering of some of the people that Jesus has healed or maybe risen from the dead are like having a thank you Jesus dinner. Maybe that's what's going on here. Which makes a lot of sense. And a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask. So here's now this very fancy or NAIT flask that this expensive ointment of pure nard is in. And she poured it out on his head as he reclined at table. Now, it doesn't give us that detail there, but it's like a really in markets, like she breaks this flask, like she's just pouring it all out here. And so it might have gone all over his head and onto his feet and it's filling the whole room with the fragrance. I mean, we are just really being generous with this ointment. And then we see the disciples response. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant saying, why this waste? And we know from John Twelve that the speaker here who really had a problem with this extravagant gift that Mary does, a little guy who really is shooting it down here and maybe the other disciples joined in.

[00:09:30] But we know that Judas is really the one with the objection for this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. Now, look what Jesus says and how it said here. But Jesus aware of this, said to them, why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me for you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me in pouring this ointment on my body. She has done it to prepare me.

[00:09:59] For burial, truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

[00:10:11] Wow. He's like, back off Judas, basically. Right.

[00:10:17] This woman has done something. Wouldn't you love to do something in your life that Jesus Christ says is a beautiful thing to him? That's how he thought about this bold, extravagant gesture of love that Mary gives him with this anointment, Jesus Christ says about this woman. She has done a beautiful thing to me. And he says that what she has done is so great that wherever the gospel is preached and this is true here at this church this morning, that wherever people are reading through the gospel accounts and they're telling the story of Jesus Christ and what he's done for us, we're also going to mention Mary and how she anointed the Lord with this ointment, because Jesus thinks this is great. And he doesn't necessarily say that Mary Ann understood that he was about to die and she was anointing him for burial. But definitely that's what this ointment would have been used for. It would have been used in situations where there was death to turn that that terrible odor into a fragrance of beautiful fragrance. And so he's definitely Jesus is taking this personally, like I'm about to die.

[00:11:25] And here's a gesture of love that is preparing me, anointing me for my upcoming death.

[00:11:31] And so Jesus declares that wherever his gospel is preached, we should also talk about what this woman does here out of love and worship to Jesus Christ.

[00:11:42] We should talk about Mary with her ointment and how she poured it out, wiping Jesus his feet with her hair because he loves that. She loves him. He thinks it's a beautiful thing. And this is going to force us, by way of example here today to consider what is our response to Jesus Christ.

[00:12:05] Jesus raised her brother from the dead. Lazarus was dead. He was gone. And Jesus brought him back. And in her mind, there is no response over the top. No price tag, too big. She's going all out humiliating herself. Just going for it. And she doesn't care what people think. Even though there clearly is criticism, she just wants to love Jesus. And Jesus says it's a beautiful thing. What is your life look like?

[00:12:32] In response to Jesus, has Jesus risen you from the dead? As Jesus risen people, you know, from the dead, where's your bold, loving worship adoration response to Jesus Christ?

[00:12:45] That's what we see from this woman.

[00:12:47] This woman is to be talked about wherever the gospel is preached. Here's an example of how you should respond to Jesus Christ. You should respond like Mary does. Go to Luke, Chapter 10. Here's another example of we get into the heart of Mary in Luke, Chapter 10. This isn't the only story that is told about her. She's not just the brother of Jesus. I mean, the Lazarus, the man that Jesus raised. She's didn't just do this one time with this ointment. Knowing Luke 10, we get another story about Mary. Maybe you're familiar with it. It's a little bit of the difference here between Martha and Mary. And it says in Luke, ten thirty eight, this happened before. Now Lazarus died and was raised from the dead.

[00:13:33] You notice how from this point forward, Lazarus is always gonna be Lazarus, comma, whom Jesus raised from the dead. Right. That's his new name now. He kind of got his name extended a little bit. It's always going to be Lazarus. Oh, yeah. The guy who Jesus raised from the dead. Well, this is before that.

[00:13:47] And look what happens here in Luke ten 38. Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called the hero of our story today, Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving and she went up to him. Here's Martha going up to Jesus and said, Board, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Like just bringing Jesus your sibling rivalry right here.

[00:14:25] Hey, don't you see I'm the one doing all the work. Mary's just sitting there at your feet, just soaking up the Teach-In meals, not cooking itself back here. I mean, you can hear Martha saying that, right?

[00:14:36] Tell her then to help me look what Jesus says.

[00:14:41] Let this inform us here this morning. But the Lord answered her. Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her. Wow.

[00:15:01] How many of us are so busy doing good things that we're actually distracted with much serving, like we're so busy doing stuff at church and in the community and with our family and and all this kind of stuff, that when it actually comes time to sit at the feet of Jesus, to hear from Jesus, to pray to God the father through Jesus, to spend time just loving and adoring Jesus, we're too busy serving Jesus to actually love him.

[00:15:35] What a rebuke that Jesus gives here to Martha.

[00:15:39] And he says, hey, if it's you over here serving distracted and it's Mary here sitting at my feet worshiping and learning. No. Mary's made the right decision.

[00:15:52] Jesus loves to be loved.

[00:15:57] And he loved this woman, Mary, who made it a priority that she was going to spend time with Jesus, sit at the feet of Jesus, wipe the feet of Jesus with her hair, whatever she could do to show Jesus that she loved him. That's where Mary was at. And Jesus says, hey, this is one thing that is necessary. So the response to you is what do you do to show Jesus that you love him? And I'm not talking about serving necessarily. We'll get to that later. I'm not talking about things that you do necessarily. I'm talking about this heart attitude, this response that when I see all that Jesus has given to me, I want to give to him now. Maybe it's going to show up in a bold gesture, like pouring out this ointment, or maybe it's going to show up in spending time sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning.

[00:16:44] But how does your life communicate to Jesus that you love him? And what he's saying here is that you can go and do a bunch of things. But if you do those things and they're not because you love him, that's not really the thing you should be doing. You should be doing things out of a response from your heart to Jesus because you adore Jesus.

[00:17:07] When was the last time you could say you adore Jesus Christ?

[00:17:11] That's what Mary does.

[00:17:13] That's what she does well. And that's why she's our example here this morning. And so you could write here that Mary is someone who gives of herself to Jesus. Mary is the example of the giver. OK. And we're gonna see there's the opposite example. You're either give or you you get you have two responses to Jesus Christ and everybody's evil. Either one or the other.

[00:17:39] There's no middle ground in your response to Jesus when you see the what Jesus has done, his resurrection power, or as we learned about from Psalm 22 today, that Jesus is dying on that cross. For you, for your sin. When you see Jesus, you either respond by giving to him or you respond by still trying to get for yourself. Go back to John Chapter twelve and we'll see now the arch nemesis of Mary here and this bold act of love and this giving.

[00:18:10] Well, here he comes, finally announcing himself, finally emerging from the shadow where he was existing before. Here he comes in other man with a with a parentheses after his name because he'll forever be known only one way. Yes. He finally speaks Judas Iscariot here in verse four, one of his disciples parentheses, he who was about to betray him.

[00:18:36] See what parentheses your comma. Do you want after your name? Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead or Judas who betrayed Jesus? Say that's a difference between the give and the get.

[00:18:49] And here's what Judas says. Why was this ointment? He's got a criticism here that's a little over the top, a little extravagant in our worship of Jesus. If we want to have a thank you dinner, fine, I guess. But this ointment is out of control. Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii eye and given to the poor?

[00:19:10] Now, he said this not because he cared about the poor guy because he was a thief and having charge of the money bag used to help himself to what was put into it.

[00:19:20] Now, that's John's commentary. That's all hindsight right there. That's all. Now, John, when he's riding this in the future, he sees what Judas was really all about the whole time. I don't think he was thinking that when Judas said it, because it when Jesus says that one of them out there at the table is going to betray him. Those guys are all looking around like, hey, who's going to betray him? Which one of us would do that? I mean, you don't give the money back to a guy you know is a thief.

[00:19:51] All right.

[00:19:53] Which just tells you how on the downlow Judas was.

[00:19:57] Hip hypocrites are smooth operators. You know what I'm saying? They wear a mask. And it's one of those Mission Impossible masks like you can't tell they have a mask on. You know what I mean? Like, when there's somebody who's a hypocrite, they can look like one of the disciples. They can look like one of us here at church. We're all about Jesus. And look at the self-righteous way he condemns Mary here. Look at how he. He takes a dig. Oh, man. Why are we doing that for Jesus when we could do it for the poor?

[00:20:27] I mean, look how good Judas must look here, right? Oh, like, who are we to just pour this ointment out on the ground when we could be giving to the poor? All right. I mean, you could just see him being like, are yo with Mayor Awide, right? Am I the good guy?

[00:20:43] This is Judas. He's a hypocrite and he's a thief.

[00:20:47] And he was fooling them all along. Yeah. He had the money bag because he was pilfering out of it. And they probably didn't realize that till long after it was happening, in fact. Now, John can't even think back on a memory about Judas without making it clear how evil his motives were the whole time. But he never knew it when Judas was there, among them, day in and day out.

[00:21:08] And now it starts to be revealed and this was prophesied.

[00:21:12] Go back to Chapter six and you see the Jesus prophesied that that one of his disciples, one of the 12, was going to turn against him. And this is a warning to all of us who go to church, who have been at church for any period of time, that there can be people even here at church who seem so good and like they really want to live for Jesus. But really, in their heart of hearts, they're still in it for what they're going to get out of it. And Judas was definitely like this. And there's many people like this not to just pick on Judas, but in in Giant six Jesus is handing out free food. And he's turned in just a few loaves of bread. And he's feeding just a multitude of people. And it's free fish for everybody. And so all these people are following Jesus. And then he says, hey, if you really want to follow me, you're going to be my disciples. Well, you have to eat my flesh and you have to drink my blood. Like your life has to become all about me. You're basically going to have to give your life away and make your life about me. And when he says this, look at verse 66 of John, Chapter six. Maybe you remember this sermon we did a while ago. Now, after this, many of his disciples turned back. See, there's many people who start out for Jesus because there's benefits in following Jesus. And you get certain things out of it. And that's what they're in it for. Maybe the whole time is what they're going to get. And so many of them turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus now turns to the world that he's called by name. Do you want to go away as well? And Simon Peter, spokesman of the 12, answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Where else could we go? You have the words of eternal life. We've believed we've come to know you're the holy one of God. We believe in you. We have eternal life. Our life is now defined by relationship with you. Where else are we going?

[00:23:11] And Jesus answered them.

[00:23:14] That's great. You guys are sticking around. I love you guys. Now he actually says this Jesus answer. Did I not choose you? The 12? And yet one of you is a what does he say there?

[00:23:24] Oh, man, that's intense.

[00:23:27] He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he one of the twelve was going to betray him. And here we see that the heart of darkness and Judas that led to betraying Jesus was there the whole time, pilfering from the moneybag, seeing a woman do something that Jesus says is a beautiful thing. And over the top gesture of love to Jesus and Judas just is against it in his heart because he wants part of it for himself. See you. Judas is someone who's still trying to get and not trying to give. If you want to write that down, he's the Geter. He's still in it for what? He is going to get out of it.

[00:24:08] Now, I'm not trying to say we don't receive great benefit from following Jesus. I mean, let me ask you guys a question here this morning. Is there great benefit in living for Jesus Christ? What do we think? Is it better to live for Jesus than to live for this world? Yes. But the heart of the person, the call of Jesus to follow him is not a call to come and receive. It is a call to give your life away. And you've got to make sure that that is the heart disposition that you have in response to Jesus when you see Jesus giving his life for you, when you see Jesus raising you from the dead and raising your loved ones from the dead. It's not about what can I get out of Jesus. The response is, am I ready to give my life to Jesus Christ and Judas? He must have been very attracted. I mean, Jesus is handing out free meals. Jesus is healing people. As soon as we find a way to monetize this, we're gonna be rolling in Dinara. That's probably what Judas was thinking. Maybe he was thinking that Jesus was gonna become the king who would reign over Israel and overthrow the Romans as they predicted the Messiah would do in the Old Testament. And he's thinking, I've got to stay close to this guy because I'm going to become treasurer of Israel Amen to become one of the power players. So I want to get on the Jesus train and hitch a ride and see where it goes. And now he realizes where it's going is death and he wants to get off the ride.

[00:25:38] See those and really want to deny himself and take up his cross and follow Jesus. His heart is greedy and particularly the greed shows up in money. It shows up in materialism.

[00:25:50] It shows up in a woman who is pouring out her love for Jesus in this ointment. And Judas is so greedy. He's thinking, I want some of that.

[00:26:02] He's not okay with Jesus getting the glory. He wants some of it for him. Sell. And this is very dangerous that even people today could have the same attitude that Judas has when we get to John 13 verse to, it's going to say that the devil literally puts it on the heart of Judas to betray Jesus Christ. I mean, does he's not just called the devil by Jesus, but it's like the devil uses Judas to accomplish his purpose in betraying Jesus.

[00:26:40] And it shows up in money. I don't know if you understand what a denarii eye is. Go back to John 12 and let's just look at that. I have unfortunately known someone who pilfered from the money moneybag at the church, at a church that I worked at before. There was someone who was hired by the church to help with the money, and eventually they were caught pilfering from the money back. And, of course, we didn't know was going on while it was happening.

[00:27:07] But afterwards, when you look at it with hindsight, you see that person who took money from the church that people gave out of worship to God, and they wanted a piece of it for themselves. And you realize this person was always talking about their new phone and they were always talking about their new car. And this person, their appearance was always looking nice and smelling nice, like being in with the possessions and the look and the feel of Orange County right now was very important to this person.

[00:27:39] And it comes down to money kind of revealing, are we a giver or a getter and the amount here that Judas quotes, if you look at verse five, let's think this through is three hundred Dinara. OK. Now, we're not exactly using denarii eye these days. That's not our currency. And so if you look, there's a number for next to denarii. And if you look at the footnotes there, a denarius. One was a day's wage. Kind of an interesting way to do money.

[00:28:09] Here's a a day's pay. So if you got three hundred Dardari I that's three hundred days pay. You throw in the Sabbaths and the fees and the days that on the Jewish calendar they wouldn't have been working 300 denarii. I is like a year's salary.

[00:28:34] This woman is pouring out a year's worth of living on Jesus Christ to worship him. And Judas is just like that. It's too much. And it shows up in greed.

[00:28:49] It shows up in materialism specifically, and what a appropriate thing for us to consider. Here in Orange County, California, in the year 2016.

[00:29:01] Somebody told you they were going to give away a year's salary in worship to the Lord?

[00:29:07] What do you probably think that was too much?

[00:29:10] That's what Judas the in fact, he wanted to pilfer from it. He thought some of it belonged to him. Go back to Mark Chapter eight. Let's just see very clearly the call of Jesus to be one of his disciples. And Judas was definitely a false Christian, a false disciple. The most famous of all the apostates is Judas. And we see that underneath it all was a heart of greed. And he was in it for what he could get out of it. And when Jesus calls us to follow him, he says it very clearly. Look at how he says it in Mark, Chapter eight, verse 34, and calling the crowd to him with his disciples.

[00:29:46] He said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, for whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

[00:30:11] You see what Jesus is saying. And let's not make a mistake here. Let's not misinterpret this. Let's not think there's some kind of middle ground here in our American Christianity. You're either losing your life or Jesus or you are saving your life. And in a in a motive of self-preservation, you are one or the other here this morning. You have either given your life away. You're ready to deny your needs, wants and desires. And you're willing to suffer even to the point of death on a cross to follow Jesus Christ. You're going to empty yourself out to follow Jesus, or you still are trying to preserve your life and make sure you live for Jesus. That's cool. But as long as I'm maintaining the status quo and as long as I'm comfortable and as long as I've got everything that I need and I'm feeling good about where I'm at. Then maybe I'll give whatever's extra to Jesus.

[00:31:02] That's not what he's calling you to. That's not what he's looking for.

[00:31:07] It's very clear that Jesus is looking for an all or nothing kind of response. In fact, an ax 20, verse 35, Paul says that this is something that Jesus said it is more blessed to want to give than to what you.

[00:31:25] You could write that down Acts Chapter 20, verse 35. It is more blessed to give than to receive. We know that Jesus said it, and the only reason we know that Jesus said it is because Paul's quoting it.

[00:31:39] Next. Twenty, thirty five. And Paul definitely seemed like the kind of guy who was in it for the money, wasn't in it for what he was getting out of it. It cost him a lot. They tried to kill him many times. Eventually he died a lot of times. He was serving the people day by day and working by night to make money. Now, here's a guy who could say it and he quotes Jesus that it is more blessed. It is better like your life is going to be better if you think that you would rather give than receive.

[00:32:10] That's what Jesus said.

[00:32:11] And I'm wondering who here this morning at CompassHB Bar, which are turning to beach, we could say as we hold out our calendar, as we look at the way we treat our family, as we show someone our bank statement, who here this morning could say that I'm live in like it's better to give my life away than it is to try to get my life for myself.

[00:32:31] Who can really say that here this morning?

[00:32:33] Then not only do I believe it's better to give than receive, I'm living like I'm losing my life for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel. Like when people who don't really love Jesus and don't believe in him and are still in it for themselves. When they see my life, they think it's over the top. They think it's extravagant. They think it's too generous. They think I'm crazy because I'm so in love with Jesus Christ.

[00:33:00] Who's accusing you of giving too much for Jesus Christ? That's the idea here.

[00:33:06] As a Jesus, as colonists, where that should be the clear expectation. And so, Mary. She's held up as an example, an example that all of us should see and say, I want to be like that. I want to be a person who gives my life away and even to the point of a year's salary. Wow, what a bold gesture. I want to be that kind of person who gives it all the way for Jesus Christ. So point number one, what we need to do this morning, what you need to do is consider your response to Jesus. What is Jesus done for you and how do you respond? What does it look like? And we're going to break down like three different ways we want you to think about. Do you have a Mary kind of response? Hopefully you don't have a Judas kind of response where you're still thinking about what's in it for you. But hopefully you have a Mary kind of response and maybe her example will even encourage you to a bolder, more extravagant display of giving your life away and loving Jesus. So we have this example of Mary and we're supposed to look at that example and consider, is that something that I could even relate to? Is that kind of the way that I think about Jesus that I just want to worship him and adore him? And there's really no price tag that's too high for it, for me to for me to give to Jesus Christ.

[00:34:24] By key, he rose my brother from the dead, like, what could I not give to Jesus Christ?

[00:34:32] Now go to Romans Chapter 12 versus one and two, because what we have in our passage is just the historical account. What we have in our passes is just an example. It's a story. And so what we do when we go through the gospel of John is a lot of times we're just looking at stories and then we're trying to apply principles to our lives, but we're just learning from the example and then we're getting a principle.

[00:34:54] But Romans Twelve takes the principle of how Mary responds and it puts it in the form of a command. Now, here's a statement to all Christian people in the Book of Romans. This is how you should be responding to Jesus Christ, to his death for you on the cross, to his resurrection life that he has given you and perhaps your loved ones. Here's how you should be responding. Romans Chapter twelve, verse one. Look at it with me.

[00:35:21] Does I appeal to you? Therefore, brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies, you offer yourselves as a living sacrifice, wholly unacceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. So based on all the mercy and that's what they've gone over in Romans Chapter one all the way to Romans 11 like for 11 chapters. We've been talking about how you're insane, but God loved you and sent Jesus and Jesus died for your sin. And if you believe in him, you're declared righteous and you get this new resurrected life for 11 chapters. We've been explaining what God has done by sending Jesus, what Jesus has done for you. And now it's time to say, how do you respond? So therefore, I appeal to you based on the mercy of God that he's not judging you, but he's giving you life instead. What does it make sense for you to do in response and says you should offer your entire life, your entire body. You should give who you are and say, Jesus, here I am and I'm ready to pour out my entire life. I may not have an alabaster flask of pure Nahed from India on a camel, but I'm here to pour myself out to you, Jesus Christ, and I offer myself to you as a sacrifice. And I pray that when you look at my life, you would think that maybe I'm a beautiful thing being poured out for you, just like you thought about Mary. And you say that's the only response. Look at that phrase there at the end it says, which is your spiritual worship. And you've got the number there. The number six, when you go to the footnote there, it says or your rational service. And I think that's a good way to say that phrase. It's like. So what is the logical response? What is the thing that makes sense to do? Based on what Jesus has done for you? How should you respond? The only response that makes sense is an all in response.

[00:37:11] OK, so let's get that down for our first dash. The first thing we've got to think about our response to Jesus is I've got to be all day and I can't be holding anything back. There can be no part of my life that's off limits to Jesus. I'm offering my body who I am as its sacrifice. Pour me out, Lord. I'm here to offer myself to you.

[00:37:31] That's what it says here. That's the idea.

[00:37:34] And this is such a powerful idea and it's such a clear text. That's a command to all of us that we're actually going to take next Sunday. And we're looking at the example of Mary this Sunday where we're going to preach Romans twelve one to eight next Sunday. And we're going to study this command because I think it's so important for us to make sure that we have given this kind of all in response to Jesus Christ, that we could honestly say not that I'm given my Sunday mornings or I'm given my Wednesday night or I'm given a little bit of my time or a little bit of my money, but that I would think of my life as all in. I've given him everything that I am or ever will be. Is yours. Jesus Christ.

[00:38:14] We sing this song here at this church, we sing it all the time. We kind of like the radio station that overplays, like the big hits. You know what I mean? You ever you ever get annoyed by that radio station? It's just like this song's killing it. People are like it.

[00:38:28] And then they just killed a song. You know what I mean by playing it? Too much work. Guilty of that here at CompassHB Bible Church. I hold Ryan Pierce responsible because we do this song. Jesus paid it all all the time. Have you noticed this? I said this at the last service and somebody figured out in between services that we've actually done this over 20 times. We've done Jesus paid at all at this church. And we just had our 100 service not too long ago. So if you come here, five services, you're going to sing Jesus paid at all. At least one time. All right. That's just how it works. No one has ever complained in the history of this church that we're singing that song too much. In fact, when we're praying before the service and we're talking about doing that song, three people in our little prayer meeting are like, that's my favorite song right away.

[00:39:16] Right. And when you think about the words of the song, it's kind of an intense sentiment, like when I preach it here and we start explaining it and we start getting into the nitty gritty of what it means. It sounds pretty intense, but but it just is this simple Jesus paid at all. All to him. I mean, O is not a word we like to use. Who wants to consider themself a debtor to somebody else who wants to think that you owe anybody anything. But when faced with the overwhelming sacrifice of Jesus for us on the cross to pay for our sins, it seems appropriate to sing please one more time. Ryan Pierce all to him. I owe to it just it's the only thing that makes sense. Like after the line Jesus paid at all. What else could you even saying.

[00:40:05] That's the only reasonable response when you look at what Jesus has given to us. Does what you give to Jesus in response makes sense as a response?

[00:40:17] Is it worthy of Jesus Christ, of the love and adoration that he clearly deserves?

[00:40:24] It's amazing when you pour yourself out for Jesus Christ. It's amazing what happens to you when you really try to out give the giver when you just say, I'm going to give my life away. I was talking to a brother in the Lord here at our church. And this man I have seen this man give in on every way you can give.

[00:40:43] He has given his love for the people of this church. He has given his service by coming here and working hours in the building of this church. He has given money to this church. I mean, this man has given every way you can give. And I was talking to him on the phone this week. And instead of feeling tired and worn out and frustrated that he's given so much, you know what he's saying?

[00:41:02] He's saying it's amazing, brother, that when we pour ourselves out for the Lord, every time he fills us up, that's what he said every single time.

[00:41:11] And he just gets better. And it just gets sweeter.

[00:41:15] Do you know the sweetness of feeling like you're running on empty and being full? That's what we are offered here. Now it's going to break it down if you keep going Enrollment's Chapter twelve, it's going to start saying that all of us have received grace.

[00:41:32] But it's but it's an interesting way that this grace comes out, because if you look at verse four, it says, in one body, we have many members and all of the members do not have the same function. So we the verse five, though many are one body in Christ and individually were members one of another.

[00:41:49] So it's saying, here's how this plays out. We we're not going to go have a celebration. Thank you. Dinner with Jesus. Now, here's how we kind of interact with the body of Jesus. Here's how we kind of pour our lives out, pour our anointing ointment out is we do it in the body, in the church. And Christ is the head of the church. And then we, the people of the church, we make up the body. And here's something that Jesus even says. And we're going to get into this next week if you come back, that when you do an active service to one of the least of these my brothers, it's really like you're doing it to who does Jesus say? It's really like you're doing it to me. He says to him. Jesus says that when you serve the least of these, when you love the least of these, when you visit that person in the hospital, when you go and help that person in need when we love one another. That's a way that we love the body of Jesus. That's the way we love Jesus himself.

[00:42:47] And so the idea that I'm going to give my life away to Jesus, but I'm not going to give my life to the other people at my church. That doesn't add up in scripture. So practically someone who has given their life in response to the Lord that we will see that person practically serve other people in the church. So let's get that for our second dash. Service say one of the ways we're going to respond to Jesus is there will be acts of service. And so we don't want to just throw Martha off the side of the cliff for for doing service. No, the problem wasn't that she was serving. The problem was that she wasn't doing her service out of a response to Jesus Christ, out of love and worship of him. So that's the problem. That's what Jesus doesn't like. He doesn't like if you're doing all the right things, but you're not doing it out of love for him. That's really what he wants to be the driving motivation of your service. He wants to be loved.

[00:43:41] But if you have love for Jesus, I don't see how you're not going to want to get in there and serve and you're not even just gonna serve straight to Jesus. You're going to serve the people of Jesus, the people here at this church that are Jesus people. You're going to want to serve them. You're going to have a gift. Everybody here is different. Empowered by the Holy Spirit in a unique way.

[00:44:04] And you bring something to the team here at the church. That's what the Bible says. And so one of the practical ramifications of us giving our life away to Jesus is we end up giving our life away to other people at our church. So I got to ask you this practical question. What do you do to serve the body of Jesus here at this church if this is your church? The idea that a Christian person would not have a church, a body that they are serving is completely contradictory to the New Testament. We should never have let it got to a place where you could say, I go to this church and not serve there. That just doesn't even make sense. According to scripture, we're going to do something next Sunday. I'm warning you now, just in case you need to go on a vacation. We're doing something next Sunday and it's going to be a ministry fair, OK? And we are going to invite people who are not serving to join the team that is serving. And I'm here to say praise the Lord. We got some people who do a whole lot of service here at this church. In fact, if you really saw some of the service that's going on here at the church, you might think it's a little over the top. And some of these people need to kick it down a notch because we got to people that are gone really all out there. It seems like to me they're poor in their life, out for Jesus Christ. And when I talk to them and I thank them for their service, to me, to us, to Jesus Christ himself, I get one predominant theme that's coming back to me.

[00:45:32] Hey, we could use some more people serving at this church. Be great to have somebody help me with this.

[00:45:38] And so if you are not serving, we are going to present to you the list of needs that we have here at this church. Next Sunday on a special ministry fair Sunday. And let me tell you, this list of needs that we have will not be a short list. My friend, be extensive with great detail. And in fact, you will read through this list and you will find that one of these needs here at this church is something you can do something about.

[00:46:06] Yes. I'm talking to you right now. No, really, you.

[00:46:13] So it's time to get sick or use those miles.

[00:46:21] Gay or.

[00:46:24] Stand to get off the bench and get in the game. You make the decision now. I don't want to put pressure on you. OK. OK. Please don't say that.

[00:46:35] This is me putting pressure on you, because if you don't want to serve, then I don't want you to serve. It's that straightforward. In fact, right now, if you're ushering or helping keep the kids safe for serving in kids ministry and you don't really want to do it.

[00:46:49] Stop. OK.

[00:46:51] Now would be a great time for you to stop because we're going to get to new people next Sunday. So we're. This is a free will response out of love for Jesus. In fact, if you if you can't say that you're serve and you're doing something practical here at the church, if you can't say that you're doing it out of love for Jesus, then you should check your heart about if you should keep doing it.

[00:47:12] They were not trying to pressure people into conforming with what we're doing here at church. No, we're trying to say, hey, do you see what he's done?

[00:47:20] Because I see what he's done. And I don't think it makes sense to do anything but to pour my life out based on what he's done.

[00:47:28] And I'm looking for people who think that same way that based on what Jesus has done for me, I have an all in response for him. And how could I not serve in some practical way at a place that represents to me the body of Jesus Christ and how he's resurrecting other people here and he's working in the lives of other people. If Jesus loves the people here, I want to love the people here.

[00:47:51] So. And so that's why I'm asking you to serve is if you love Jesus. It doesn't make sense that you wouldn't serve the church. Here's another thing I'll even say. Just brace yourselves. If you don't love if you love Jesus, it doesn't make sense not to give to the church. I mean, let's just make it very clear that Judases problem here is about money and this ointment and the fragrance that filled the room.

[00:48:22] And as beautiful a picture it is as is as the ointment being poured out. That is a year's salary that somebody is saying, I love Jesus. And here is a year's salary.

[00:48:36] I mean, we're talking about financial cost to this extravagant gift of love. So I don't like talking about money here at church any more than you do. But if we're going to preach the Bible, it's going to end up talking about money. And many people have said to me, you should do a special service on giving at your church.

[00:48:56] And I didn't want to do it. So we're wait till it shows up in the text. And now we have a text that's clearly talking about money. So here we are.

[00:49:03] OK. Does it reflect that you have given your life away to Jesus Christ in the way that you spend your money? OK, you can get a glimpse into your heart if you look at your bank statement this week.

[00:49:24] We'll show you a little bit about yourself. It might even be the thing that reveals some people in here are Judases because. Oh, yeah. Let's love Jesus. But I wouldn't want to give anything, not any of my finances to Jesus. OK, now turn with me to Second Corinthians, Chapter nine.

[00:49:44] Since we don't talk about money a lot. So if you're you're just joining us. You could be here a lot longer than five weeks and hear us talk about money. But it's in our text today. And I just want to take you to this very important passage in Second Corinthians, Chapter nine, that I think is a great idea of what Mary is doing that Jesus says is a beautiful thing.

[00:50:08] And let me just tell you, in the brief history of our church, we have seen some exciting things happen now where a new church in Huntington Beach, I just met this family that was here at our last service and they've just started comment and they were right down the street and they saw enough of the bumper stickers that they finally came in and check this out. And and so we're I mean, people that live right down the street are just still hearing about us. OK, we're new. And we've seen God exceeds some expectations. He's gone above beyond all that we could have asked or thought when we started this church.

[00:50:43] And who gets the glory for everything that's going on here at this church? Let God be the glory. All right. But I just got to say that when you see what God has done and is one of the ways that you see is that God works through the financial giving of his people. Like when I'm out at a pastor's conference like I was at or I'm talking to other people who have tried to plant churches or are planning churches. The first thing they always say about our churches.

[00:51:09] How does a church get into a building after only four months as the first thing they always say about our church? Like you guys, we're only meeting at a high school for four months. And then you ended up in a building like how could these things be in?

[00:51:23] Some of the pastors are saying this out of pure jealousy and envy in their hearts. Right. I mean, how do you end up like that? And it's like, I don't know. It's a great question. What happened was we were looking for a place to do a Wannna and Ryan Pierson, I knocked on the door of the church and we said, hey, could we do a warning here one night? And they said, no, we're probably not even gonna be in the building much longer. That's how it happened, just like that. God opening literally a door to this place that we meet in, right?

[00:51:55] And when it came to the landlord willing to sign a five year lease with us, when you get down to the nitty gritty, there was money involved and there were people at this church who gave what a big step that was to be from renting a high school once a week to where we met outside. By the way, not it's actually luxurious accommodations over there to now having this building 24/7.

[00:52:24] I mean, if you were there when we went from the high school to this building, did not this building feel massive, cavernous, like how could we possibly overfill such a space, space, space?

[00:52:39] Like I remember telling people, yeah, these rooms over here, we probably won't use those for a couple of years. I mean, what would we even do with them? Right. I mean, now we're, like, desperate for more rooms. You know?

[00:52:50] I mean, that was the Lord. Here's here's an amazing thing to go from Marina High School and our budget when he was there to the budget that you needed to rent this place and to make that rent payment every month. I mean, that was a huge jump. And God worked through his people to give the money to where we've never lacked here in this building.

[00:53:08] The amazing.

[00:53:09] It's amazing to see what God has done now in year two. We saw some exciting things. God was saving people. He was bringing people to the building. And we came to this conclusion one day that if we wanted to our pastor who was serving here to stay alive and keep serving here, we needed to get him another pastor.

[00:53:28] Became very clear one day. Right.

[00:53:31] And so we started praying. And we we interviewed people, met different guys from all over America. We were looking for the best guy, the right guy who would a lot of us were praying. And he brought us Pastor Bill Blakey.

[00:53:47] What an answer to prayer it was, how few people are excited, still awesome at Pastor Billy got his family in the minivan and they drove on out here to California and built showed up and said, I'm willing to do this all for free.

[00:54:01] Right. That when he said, Oh. Kills my brother, he's not financially independent.

[00:54:18] Oh, not at all. I mean, you know how much it costs to live around here.

[00:54:23] He's got a wife and three little boys. They want to live here and share life with us, so that costs money.

[00:54:33] And I remember I said to the church, I said, hey, what if before Pastor Bill gets here because we were excited he was coming and we could see Guy was working and he was answering our prayers. I said in November. What if the people of this church gave Pastor Bill's entire salary for the year 2016 before he ever gets here? And you know what happened? The people of this church gave Pastor Bill's entire salary for 2016 before he even showed up. That's how God works. God works when he puts it on the hearts of his people to respond and a part of what God delights in.

[00:55:08] You have to realize this because the scripture says it is God, the lights and even the financial giving of his people. It's a way that God works. Look what it says in Second Corinthians, chapter nine, verse six or so many passages we could go to. But let's just jump to this one, because I think it expresses the same spirit of God that we see in Jesus saying Mary is doing a beautiful thing pouring out this ointment. And it says in central Athens, nine, verse six.

[00:55:35] The point is this whoever so sparingly will also reap sparingly. And hey, you give a little don't expect much back. Is the idea. But whoever sews bountifully will also read bountifully. So each month one must give, as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion. But God loves a cheerful giver.

[00:56:02] God delights in it.

[00:56:05] When God sees someone who is cheerfully giving to him, and this is in the context we're talking about money. OK. So let's get that down for our third dash. One thing we want to consider is my response to Jesus reflected. Is it all in? Am I serving the church? Then here's an idea. Well, how does my money reflect my response to Jesus? And it's saying to you here that you might not have pure nard in an alabaster flask from India, but you have something. And God loves a cheerful giver.

[00:56:37] That's what he loves. He delights in it.

[00:56:39] Now, again, I'm not trying to force anybody to give money to the church because our trust is not in horses and chariots. If you've been written Solomon a day, our trust is not in financial resources. Our trust is in the name of the Lord, our God. That's who we look to. So if you don't want to give money, if you're reluctant about it, as it says here, if you feel compelled like somebody is going to force you to give money. Let me just take that pressure off of you. This is about you considering. In deciding in your own heart if you want to give to the Lord, if you think that's a part of your response to God, will that everybody here decide before God what they're going to do. I just want to let you know that your God loves it when people give to him willingly, cheerfully, happily, he delights in it.

[00:57:26] It's a beautiful thing to. He's pleased with it.

[00:57:30] And if you come back next Sunday, we'll start talking about some of the things that we would like to see happen in the next year of CompassHB HB. And, yeah, these things are going to cost money. And so we need to consider, hey, what is my response to Jesus? And I hope that you'll take this seriously and you'll come back next week, maybe ready to serve, maybe ready to give. When you hear what we're going to be trying to do in year three, we're already starting to gear up for it now. We're praying about it. We think we know what God would want of us to do. Well, I hope that you'll consider what is my response. And I just want to say to some of you who are responding like you're pouring your lives out. I hope this will just energize you in the example of Mary will just spur you on to continue doing what you're doing and that you'll know that not only does God love it. Look what it says in verse eight. See if there's not enough grace in here for all of us, it says, and God is able to make all grace abound to you. So that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. There's one thing we have a lot of around here. It's need. If there's one thing we also have a lot around here is it's Grace. There's all grace for all sufficiency in all things at all times. I guarantee you that we cannot out give the giver here at Compass HB and that God can give to you everything you need to do every good work for him and he can give you our church, everything that we need to do, every good work for him. Now, the question isn't what is Jesus done for us? The question of the day is how are we going to respond to him? And I mean, you got to think about what has Jesus done for you. Go to Luke Chapter seven with me. And here's another example of a woman anointing Jesus with oil in Luke, Chapter seven. And I'm not sure it's Mary. I'm not sure there's some confusion here because some of the details seem a little bit different of the story here. And Luke seven. But it's the same idea of a woman coming in at a dinner gathering and anointing Jesus with this expensive ointment. And this woman, she understands something about Jesus Christ. And it leads her to this response. And so read the story with me here in Luke, chapter seven, verse 36. This time, we're out of Ferris's house. One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him and he went into the Pharisees house and reclined at the table. And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner when she learned that he was reclining at table on the Pharisees house.

[01:00:01] She brought an alabaster flask of ointment. And standing behind him at his feet, weeping. This woman is weeping. She began to wet the feet of Jesus with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head and she kissed his feet. They were they were sandals back in the day. All right. And here's this woman kissing the feet of Jesus and anointing them with the ointment.

[01:00:27] And when the Pharisee classic Pharisees self-righteous who had invited him, saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering to him said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you, and he said, say a teacher. And now here's the story.

[01:00:49] A certain moneylender had two daughters, one owned 500 Dinara IOKE. We get that. That's 500 days pay. That's almost two years of salary. And the other owned 50 50 days pay almost two months. Quite a big difference. And when they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more?

[01:01:12] Simon answered the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, You have judged rightly and turning toward the woman. He said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I entered your house and you gave me no water for my fee. But she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil. But she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you her sins, which are many are forgiven for. She loved much. But he who is forgiven. Little loves little.

[01:01:49] The measure of your response to Jesus Christ should be based on how much did Jesus forgive you for? How much sin did Jesus Christ forgive in you? And the answer is how much?

[01:02:05] All of it. All of it.

[01:02:08] Say what we want to do and point number two is don't forget what Jesus gave for you. Don't forget what it cost him. Man, how much would you pay to not go to hell?

[01:02:24] How much would you pay to have that loved one come back from the dead?

[01:02:30] That's what Jesus has done for you. He paid so you didn't have to go to hell. He rose you and everyone else. You know, that's a Christian up from being dead. The Bible describes us as dead in our trespasses and sins. We are all born in sin and would be judged for our sin. If Jesus did not pay it all.

[01:02:56] For us.

[01:02:59] I mean, when we think about Psalm 22, can you imagine with me the humiliation of having men bet for your clothes? Have you ever considered that before? How would that make you feel? If you are exposed there on a cross and people are bedding for your clothes. Can you imagine the.

[01:03:17] Can you imagine as you're dying in just this intense amount of physical pain, that people are mocking you and saying you saved others? He couldn't sames save himself?

[01:03:28] I mean, I can't get past the physical pain of even just having the nails in my hands and my feet that are holding me up to this piece of wood where I'm slowly dying as I can't breathe anymore.

[01:03:41] And then the worst of it is what Jesus says in Psalm 22, verse one, when he cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[01:03:50] Not only the humiliation, not only the mockery, not only the physical torment, but the separation from God, the father that Jesus experienced as God judged him.

[01:04:02] If Jesus didn't experience Psalm 22, you would have to.

[01:04:08] He paid. He paid.

[01:04:10] So you don't have to go to hell. He paid the price for your salvation and now he has given you forgiveness for all of your sins. So let me ask you, what is your response to Jesus Christ?

[01:04:25] Does your response make sense when you consider what Jesus has paid for you?

[01:04:33] I hope we'll see the example of Mary and hear the command of Romans twelve one that we should be pouring out our lives as offerings to Jesus Christ Jesus paid at all. So all to him I want. Well, let's give it to him and let's give it to him right here at this church together right now. So we're going to give you a time to respond. And we're gonna take a time of communion right now. And the ushers are gonna come forward and they're going to give you a little piece of bread, which represents the body of Jesus that died for you. And a little cup that represents the blood of Jesus that he shed for you. And consider the body and the blood of Jesus and the costs that he paid for you. And what are you willing to do as a response to Jesus Christ? In fact, I know we put our Bibles away at this point, but I would encourage you to open up to Psalm 22. And while Ryan and Brian are playing up here, I would encourage you to read Psalm 22 and to look at what Jesus went into. Think that physical torment, that abandonment, that being forsaken by God, the humiliation. All of this would have been my experience and judgment apart from God. If Jesus didn't pay it for me and then let us consider, as we're moved by what Jesus has done and how we want to respond. And I hope that you'll come back ready to respond next Sunday. But let me pray as we get ready to take our time of communion. Gary, thank you so much for this woman, Mary. And the example of a woman who just didn't have regard for what other people were going to think and didn't have regard for what was normal or expected and didn't have a regard for how much it cost. And she just poured out this ointment on Jesus out of love and adoration and an act of worship.

[01:06:19] A year's salary poured out. Anointing oil poured out for Jesus Christ. Got.

[01:06:26] Inspire us cause us to respond to you. Move us. Based on the sacrifice of Jesus and what he has done for us to pay it all. And let us pour our lives out as it as an offering to you here today.

[01:06:43] Let our lives be a logical response, a rational service based on what Jesus has done for us to forgive us of our sins. So let us give our lives away for Jesus and no longer try to get for ourselves. Got make this a church of people who not only believe but live like it is more blessed to give than to receive.

[01:07:06] And we pray that your convict, those who are still trying to get. And we pray that you will empower those who want to pour out.

[01:07:15] And now we pray that as we think now about Jesus up on that cross, crying out with a loud voice before he gives up his spirit. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? God, let us consider now in our hearts that we will never be forsaken by you because Jesus was. But we will always be forgiven by you. How much have you forgiven us? God, but us respond to the same measure that we have been given your love. Let us love you. In return, we pray this in Jesus name in the.

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