It's been quite a, it's been quite a, I was going to say morning, but it's been quite a weekend. I guess you all have heard about our walk trip that we took. It was supposed to be a float trip, but trust me, it was a walk trip. The water was not high enough to float. We drug canoes and walked. It's quite a workout. We floated a little bit, but, and then I actually got here. This morning and. I gave up my Sunday school notes and my sermon. One of you guys has it. Thankfully, I was able to link up to my computer and. Retrieve them such as they are, but. Matthew 26 and verse number six now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. A woman came up to him with an alabaster flax, a very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. 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 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. Our Father, we come to you for help this morning. Lord, we have sought your face this morning. Our heart's desire is that we might learn of you Lord, we come for no other reason than that we need to get to you. Lord, we are following hard after you as we worship, as we sing, as we pray. We're earnestly seeking your face, Lord, and you're not hiding yourself from us. You have revealed yourself in your Word. And we know that you love us and want the best for us. You care for us. And we're so grateful, Lord, for all that You do, for how You speak to us and direct us. Your Word truly is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We pray, Father, that You might speak to us. Lord, we need to hear from You, God. I have nothing to offer this morning except what You might do through me. Lord, if You don't do anything, then nothing will be done. But there's nothing that's impossible for You, and You can do all things. So, Lord, how we pray that You would speak to us, and we would indeed leave this place a changed people. We don't want to just remain the same day after day, week after week, month after month. We want you to change us. We want to be like Jesus. We want people to see Jesus in us. In Jesus name, Amen. Well, this is a beautiful story that I thought on. And I thought of what this woman did and I was trying to figure out what made the difference in this story and why the disciples were so upset about what she did. And the first thing that struck me was that she loved the Lord Jesus with all of her heart. And that's what made the difference. She loved him. And that was all that mattered. to her. She didn't care what people thought about her. She planned on bringing that expensive alabaster box of ointment. And it's been debated as to if she knew that much about the Lord Jesus and his death and burial and resurrection. It seems to me that she did know. Jesus says that she did it to prepare him for his burial. Normally, you wait till people have died. But to this woman, Jesus was worth everything. He was of such infinite value. and was so precious to her that any sacrifice didn't matter at all. There wasn't a second thought. It was all about the Lord Jesus and her desire simply to pour out her worth before His feet and worship Him. And so basically this morning, church, I just want to exhort you to pour out your life for Jesus. I want to exhort you to pour out your resources for Jesus. I want to exhort you to pour out your everything. Why should we not? There is no risk that He's not worthy of. As a matter of fact, it is not a risk with the Lord Jesus Christ. He's worth everything. He's worthy of us dying for him. There is no risk. There is no sacrifice that's too great. And I can hear many echo, oh, but we must always count the cost. Now, that's not what Jesus was talking about in that story. When it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, we're to live a life of living sacrifice. It's all about Him. We're to do without everything for His sake. I can just hear it now. Mom and Dad, the Lord is calling me to Africa. I want to get there as soon as possible. Son, do you think that's wise? Don't you think you should really think about what it's going to cost you? What about the risk that is involved there? Why, we have some black people living right down the street, and surely that would be alright. What about AIDS? What about all the dangers that you face? Do you think this is really wise? What about when your kids are growing up? And by the way, how are you going to support your family? There's a lot of things that you need to reconsider. Remember the dangers. Couldn't you just as well do that somewhere else? But there's only one thing to consider. Only one. What saith the Master? What does He want out of my life? We can't afford to be a people guy, guys, that are continually holding back because we want no pain. We can't continue to protect ourselves. And that's all it is. We care more about ourselves than we do the cause of Jesus Christ. We won't even risk our egos in our own neighborhoods because we're so protective of our own image. We don't want people to think lightly of us. In so many ways, we're not like this woman. We are like her alabaster box. We are more precious in our sight than the Lord Jesus. We are a proud and a whole people. As a matter of fact, we pride ourselves in being so together in our lives. We're so well-established, well-organized and whole, if you will. And we look upon that as piety. We claim so much to be people of God. And yet, when people meet us, they do not meet the Lord Jesus, because we are basically an unbroken people. They meet so much of us, and guys, they don't need us. They need Jesus. They are not going to see Him. As long as you are upright and whole and unbroken, they don't need you and they don't need me. Like this alabaster box, God, in order for the fragrance of the Spirit of God and the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, in order for Him to influence and affect anyone, you have to get out of the way. And can I just share with you that the only way that you're really going to get out of the way is if you're broken. And so, A lot of the things that God is doing in your life, and I would say primarily what God is doing in your life that you pull away from, is nothing other than the hand of God working in your life that you might be a broken person. But He's barely beginning to touch you with the suffering that you're called to, And you begin to complain and call people to pray for you that God will change exactly what He's doing in your life. Because you want to remain whole. You don't want to go without. You don't want to suffer. You want the good life. Let's just face it. I'm guilty of the same thing. I don't want to suffer. But that's the very thing that God has called us to. He's called us to be a broken and a humble people. You know, we've been praying for a revival, asking God for revival. And it seems that God is saying, revival? Are you kidding me? We don't want to revive hardly anything that's been going on in the church for the last hundred years. God's people have to be broken before they can truly be revived. Our lives are so much about us. They're so fragile. We read this simple story, and by the way, it's no accident that Jesus said concerning something that the disciples despised, you know, they were upset about this. Judas is the first one to point out. This alabaster box full of spikenard, a very precious perfume that was often used in the process of embalming. This was worth about 300 denarii, which is basically a year's wages for some of the lower class people. And the disciples said, why this? And mark the word carefully. Why this waste? How many young people have beckoned the call of God and have plucked themselves up by the roots and gone, and so many have the opinion, why this waste? I guarantee you so many thought that about Brigham and Michelle. When he left his business, came up here, went to school, called by a church, then left it all. Sold his home, sold his car, his land, everything. Left his loved ones, left his friends, left his church. God said, here's where you're going to go. And there was no question. Plucked up and in Israel. And no doubt many said, what a gifted young businessman. Very successful young businessman. I think we don't know exactly how successful Brig was, but he was very successful. We're not bragging on him, I'm just saying. So many would say, why this waste? Waste! Did you know that that's exactly what Jesus wants out of your life? He wants you to absolutely waste your life for His sake. And much of the world is going to count it so. Just like the disciples themselves. Here's the disciples of the Lord Jesus, and the Scripture says they were indignant. Could not have this been sold and given to the poor. Weren't their hearts sincere? They could have used this money to further their ministry, in other words. We really need to use our wisdom and count the cost, because after all, we want to be successful. We want to be successful in ministry. You know, most of the ministries that we have nowadays would be better off if we had no ministry at all. Because so much of ministry nowadays is about men. It's about people. And we want to make sure that we use our lives and our resources and our talents and our gifts. Hasn't it dawned on us that we have nothing to offer God? We need Him. He doesn't need us. Oh yes, He'll use us. I'm not saying that the saints are not valuable. He sent His own Son to die and shed His blood to purchase them. But we are the ones that needed that purchasing. And we need Him. And we need to be willing to waste whatever accumulation of wealth or talents resources. If there's to be an accumulation, even of people, then what's the point? Guys, the great accumulation is going to be up there one day. We're not interested in accumulating more and more people just for the sake of accumulating more and more people. Our goal is to sacrifice our lives and die, if necessary, for the glory of God. And much of that means the people of God being broken and scattered. That's precisely why I believe that, and I'm not a prophet, but God has always blessed His church with persecution and scattering in order to further the gospel. This is not so much what God intended. Yes, we're to gather and worship Him, and we're to lift up our hearts and our songs to praise, but all of our life, corporately and individually, is that we might die to ourselves, not that we might live to ourselves. Jesus said, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. I had a pretty successful garden this year. I'm not bragging because God gives the increase. But there was a day when I was out there and I dug up the ground and I took one seed and I planted in the ground. I took another and I planted the ground, took another, planted rows and rows. After a little while, the rain came, the moisture affected the seed, it broke open. Wonderful things begin to happen. I just get excited every time it happens. Green stuff starts coming up, and boy, then it starts growing, and man, before you'd know it, you look out there, and all you did, you planted these little seeds out there, and now there's like, there's corn hanging on stalks, and there's tomatoes coming off, there's potatoes to be dug, and it's just a bountiful harvest that God gives. But it didn't happen except that one corn of wheat fall on the ground and die and break open that the life might come forth from that one seed. Isn't it a miracle? It amazes me every time. You plant that little seed. I'm just a simple person. It breaks open. Something springs up. Before you know it, you're sitting down at dinner. It's wonderful. That's you and I. God first has to break you before you can be used. You know why so many of us are not being effective for the gospel, not being used? Because we're unbroken. We're disobedient and unsubmissive because we're not broken. We're so good at what we do, keeping our lives together, doing the things that we're supposed to do day in and day out, bringing home the money and building our houses and purchasing our groceries and paying the bills and coming to church and having friends and playing. And then when God begins to test us, we get indignant and we even look at other people. We get aggravated at that. Don't you get aggravated at people? I always get aggravated at people. Because, well, people are crazy. They are. God puts people into your life in order that your life might be affected. Do you just want to, you know, are you one of those people that you just like certain people and you like to surround yourself with people that will praise you and make you feel good and bless you and talk? Not many people want to associate with somebody who's going to tell them the raw truth. Not many. Because they don't want to be aggravated. When you're trying to do something, and you're trying to go one direction, I'll just share this. Yesterday, canoeing, I was trying to go one direction in my canoe, and the guy in back of me, He didn't get what you're supposed to do at the right time. And I'm convinced to this day that his sole purpose was to aggravate me. And after the day was done, you know, I confessed to the Lord. I said, Lord, I'm well aggravated. And I think God meant it for good. There's just so much, you know, it's like God has a divine chisel And, you know, I'm sorry if you're one of them people, but, you know, just cutting off the edges and, you know, our natural propensity is not to want to hang around people like that. Don't get me wrong, I don't like to make it a habit. But, you know, isn't that why God put us all together? You know, that's why we have all these different personalities, you know. You cannot live like a hypocrite, saying that you love Jesus, when Jesus said, if you love Me, keep My commandments. Do you know what His commandment is? To love your brother as yourself. And you cannot disassociate yourself from those people who seem to aggravate you are those people that sometimes I call sandpaper Christians. And they're there for a purpose. And they're beautiful. Because we have a lot wrong with us. And we can't continue to associate with people who we call and say, come over and have a cup of tea and let's dine and talk about nice, beautiful things and then go our way. Same with circumstances. God begins to touch our life with a circumstance. Oh, God! Oh, Cindy, put me on the prayer list. I'm having so much trouble. I'm not talking. I've done the same thing. Because we gravitate to people when we're in trouble. You know, when something bad starts to happen, we just want something living. I mean, a dog will do sometimes. Sometimes it's just a friend. We want to talk to somebody. But God, God says, be not afraid. It is I. It is I. He's saying, I'm the one that I'm trying to draw you to. He says, I am your refuge. I am your strong tower. We can't continue to live on the outside and have no reality on the inside. The Scripture says, Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts. What is God doing in your heart right now, as far as you personally living a life of worship and sacrifice? What is God doing right now that you're running from? How is God speaking to you? Is it simply to go to some person in repentance of the way that you behaved towards them? Is it just your affection for wanting to be the center of attention? Someone didn't praise you. Someone didn't bless you, so you're upset at them. Isn't this just what Brother Scott preached a few weeks ago? Even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life for ransom for many. I'm telling you, this is the problem. We come to be served. And when we're not served, we're upset and we leave that way. We're aggravated. We're irritated that this person didn't bless my ego. This person didn't say good job. This person didn't want me to be in that position. This person didn't give me the attention that I felt that I deserved. I came to be served. Things didn't go the way I thought they should go, and so I'm upset. And that's how you live when you're unbroken. You want people to continue to minister to your needs. You want them to bless you and applaud you and praise you and feed your ego and be your friend. But when God begins to break you, then you stop feeding off of other people. And you run to the refuge. You run to God. You begin to feed on him. Jesus said, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you'll have no part of me. A lot of people left. They said, hey, that's weird. We never heard stuff like that. We don't want that. Yeah. We don't want that type of life. But he's talking about a total absorption in the Lord Jesus Christ which only happens when you cease living unto yourself. Examine your life. Who do people meet when they meet you? I can't stand it when I meet people and when they leave they know more about Bob Scambri than they know of the Lord Jesus Christ because they've left with nothing. And the reason for so much of my life that that was true was because I had not let God break me. I had run from problems and troubles and suffering. I did not want to take up my cross. I did not want to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood daily. I didn't want to live a life absolutely centered on Christ as my King, as my Master. I was a very whole person. And I love you, but some of you are like that. I don't know who is like that. I don't examine your life. I have enough problems examining my own life. But I have met some of you. And it's very much you. And it's very much all about you. And you are very whole, successful, upstanding, together people. And I'm just questioning whether that's what the Lord Jesus is seeking amongst His people. I don't think so. I don't think so. That's why He said, go out in the highways and hedges to compel them. You know who Jesus wants? I think of that little black pygmy standing down in Australia or Africa or these people who all they want is the truth. And when they get the truth, their whole life becomes about nothing but the truth. It's all about Jesus from then on. You can't get them out of it. It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ, because they don't have all the entrappings that we have. Boy, it's sad. And this message really started out, as I read this passage, I was thinking, Lord, how come we don't have any more missionaries going out from our church than we do? You know, once in a while you have a guy go, and everybody's like, wow! Whoa! Guys, it ought to be normal. It ought to be normal. It should not be unusual for us to be scattered around the world. Right now, we have brothers and sisters from our congregation, but, I mean, we have a hurting world. And God wants to be glorified through His people going out and sending His message. And as long as we go through year after year, we sit under the good preaching that we have in this church, and we need, yes, God, we need a foundation. But God is calling people. This is where God gets missionaries. There's no missionary factory. There's no elder factory. This is what God does. He works in His people and He breaks them to the point where their life is more about Jesus than anything else. And then He scatters them out into the world that they might bear fruit. And if we don't get the important things right, if we're not so yielded to God that He can break us, that the life might come forth, I'm just afraid we're going to end up just stagnating like so many other churches across this nation have, and they just become a really religious crowd. And it's great. But like I've said before, guys, if you leave this place unchanged, then why are we here? Why are we preaching this gospel if we're leaving unchanged? Five years ago, if you're still the same today, if you're as whole today as you were five years ago, if you still got it all together and you haven't realized that you don't have it all together, if you've not ended up on your face before God, and I think that's part of the problem that I see with our worship. That's my own personal opinion. We're so whole. and unbroken. We want people to think good of us, well of us. We don't want to be embarrassed for the Lord Jesus. We would never fall on our face, crying out to God before the brethren. Oh, we might at home in a private prayer closet where nobody can see us. But to fall on our face in the holy congregation and worship God, that's unheard of. Why should it be? It is only because we are an unbroken people. We are a proud, proud people. And that is not beautiful in the Lord Jesus sight. As a matter of fact, God says that He hates pride. The Scripture says, God resisteth the proud. Do you sometimes, does it seem like you're not getting anywhere and you're just being resisted and pushed back? You're being resisted. Do you get it? You're being stopped. You're being thwarted. I wonder why. God is real. I mean, this is serious business. He will not let you go forward unbroken. You will never taste the heavenly manna. You will just continue to experience your dead religion until you're absolutely resigned to the sovereign kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever He wants to do and wherever He wants to send you. So the disciples said that it was a waste. And Jesus said, but you have the poor with you always. Don't worry about that. She's done it. Prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to her, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. Everybody wants fame and grandeur and, you know, you want to be known for something. I know the temptation. You just want to feel valuable and loved. Well, God values you and He loves you more than you'll ever know. And He just wants you to flee to Him. We try this and that, this and that, this and that, never being completely filled because we're unbroken. And we've got to stop trying this or that. Christianity is not trying anything. It's being absorbed. It's being saturated. It's abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ as your very life. That's what Jesus meant when he said, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you can't have any part of me. Lord Jesus, would you just make us a broken people? Oh, Father, We in this place, we truly have a heart to get the gospel out. We know that we're so often so much in the way. We have so many whole personalities, strong personalities. Sometimes so self-sufficient. That we've absolutely dispensed with the power of God. We're no longer a living, living fragrance, a sacrifice. Acceptable and pleasing. We're doing a great job in many things. But in the in the main thing. In the one thing. We've kind of just neglected that. Lord, would you forgive us? You're such a kind, compassionate, loving and caring father. You give us grace. When we don't deserve it, you give us mercy. And so that's what we're asking for this morning. Would you forgive us? We want to be a yielded broken and Christlike people. We want to behave like Lord Jesus Christ towards one another. We want to go in our neighborhoods and in our jobs, in our surrounding areas and our cities and even into the uttermost parts of the world that people can see Christ in us. We don't want them to see our ugly old selves. We don't want them Even to see Rockport Baptist Church. They're crying out for Jesus. And you've given us the holy privilege to be your ambassadors. Would you forgive us and help us to bow before your Lordship? Would you break us from our independence, our rebellion, our arrogance, our self-sufficiency? and cause us to be a yielded, lovely and a holy people. For we ask it in Jesus' name, for His sake.