Love Anyway
Mark 14:3-9
Sermon Objective: The extravagance of love often has a demanding yet exhilarating cost.
Supporting Scripture: 1 John 4:20; Luke 10:29-37; James 2:14-26
INTRO
It was a quiet December evening on Ward C43, the oncology unit at Georgetown University. Many of the rooms around the central nurse’s station were dark and empty, but in Room 11 a man lay critically ill.
The patient was Jack Swigert, the man who had piloted the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970 and was now Congressman-elect from Colorado’s 6th Congressional District. Cancer, the great leveler, now waged its deadly assault in his body.
With the dying man was a tall, quiet visitor, sitting in the spot he had occupied almost every night since Swigert had been admitted. Though Bill Armstrong, U.S. Senator from Colorado and chairman of the senate subcommittee handling Washington’s hottest issue, social security, was one of the busiest and most powerful men in Washington, he was not visiting this room night after night as a powerful politician. He was here as a deeply committed Christian and as Jack Swigert’s friend, fulfilling a responsibility he would not delegate or shirk, much as he disliked hospitals.
This night Bill leaned over the bed and spoke quietly to his friend. “Jack, you’re going to be alright. God loves you. I love you. You’re surrounded by friends who are praying for you. You’re going to be alright.” The only response was Jack’s tortured and uneven breathing.
Bill pulled his chair closer to the bed and opened his bible. “Psalm 23,” he began to read in a steady voice. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want….”
Time passed. “Psalm 150,” Bill began, then his skin prickled. Jack’s ragged breathing had stopped. He leaned down over the bed, then called for help. As he watched the nurse examining Jack, Bill knew there was nothing more he could do. His friend was dead.
Politicians are busy people, especially Senate committee chairmen. Yet it never occurred to Bill Armstrong that he was too busy to be at the hospital. Nothing dramatic or heroic about his decision – just a Christian friend doing what he could.
(Borrowed from Charles Colson’s wonderful book. “Loving God”)
Listen to this story about another “Christian” friend:
3While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.
4Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? 5IT COULD HAVE BEEN SOLD FOR MORE THAN A YEAR’S WAGES AND THE MONEY GIVEN TO THE POOR." And they rebuked her harshly.
6"Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
The lady with the alabaster jar of perfume and Bill Armstrong had something in common. They loved God. Pure, simple, and genuine love for God.
We can discover some general but usable principles about loving God from them too.
SOMETIMES LOVING GOD LOOKS A WHOLE LOT DIFFERENT THAN YOU IMAGINED IT WOULD
LOVE ANYWAY!
The Bible says: “If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20)
God is very creative at meeting human need and will indeed ask things of you that you find “strange.”
What does your “alabaster jar of perfume” look like?
> A youth discovers the meaning of the word vanity and changes the way she dresses, carries herself, and wears make-up ... out of love for God
>A child pledges his allowance to missions for a year because he wishes for others to hear the Gospel ... out of love for God
> A college student foregoes the pleasure of sleeping in on Saturday mornings in order to help out at the local compassionate ministry center where she tutors a group of struggling Middle School kids in math… out of love for God
>A man says no to a new car or sells his "stuff" so he can feed some starving children or help a hurting a neighbor … out of love for God
> A woman takes time from her demanding schedule to help an aging widow ... out of love for God
Sometimes your “jar of perfume” might look a bit different than you imagined. Sometimes what God is calling you too may not seem logical or practical.
I would encourage you to:
> Listen closely to the Holy Spirit
> Seek Godly council
> Know God’s Word because God’s will for your life will NEVER contradict His Word.
If you do this, I suspect you will sense God’s call to express your love and I am relatively sure it will look a bit different than you expected.
LOVE ANYWAY!
SOMETIMES LOVING GOD IS QUESTIONED (AND DISCREDITED) BY ONLOOKERS AND FRIENDS ALIKE
4Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? 5IT COULD HAVE BEEN SOLD FOR MORE THAN A YEAR’S WAGES AND THE MONEY GIVEN TO THE POOR." And they rebuked her harshly.
I never cease to be amazed at people who think they have God’s ways all figured out. They think their experience is to be the norm. In doing so they set themselves up as the judge on everyone else’s actions.
What they do not realize is that in doing so they identify with the wrong crowd. They become sanctimonious. They become self-righteous.
But the truth is … love is extravagant!
Last week we had a wedding here. As the bride and groom said their vows I was reminded once again how extravagant love is. Those vows are do not fall within the parameters of normalcy; they emphasize and covenant to the extremes.
> For richer or for poorer
> For better or for worse
> In sickness and in health
>’til death us do part
Love is indeed extravagant isn’t it?
I have been asking myself lately, “how extravagant is my love for Jesus?” I wonder, fear actually, that my love for Him is often well within the prescribed boundaries of acceptability. I think Judas would be pleased — and that bothers me. Somewhere, I developed the erroneous idea that my love for Jesus should be carefully contained and measured so it doesn’t bubble out in some embarrassing way.
I’ll admit that I am cautious of extravagance; how it might appear to others, how it might be perceived. But true acts of extravagant love toward Jesus will rarely be understood by others — and will often be promptly criticized. There will always be more “reasonable” and “restrained” ways of showing our love for Christ.
LOVE ANYWAY!
SOMETIMES LOVING GOD COSTS YOU MORE THAN YOU EXCPECTED
5IT COULD HAVE BEEN SOLD FOR MORE THAN A YEAR’S WAGES AND THE MONEY GIVEN TO THE POOR."
How much do you love God?
Let me ask it another way?
What cost is too much? How much money did you make last year? How much did you report to the IRS?
That seems like an inappropriate question for me to ask you under almost any circumstance, the least of which is not from the pulpit huh?
But, it is, none-the-less, germane to the passage of Scripture we are looking at today isn’t it. Mary’s love for God cost her more than a year’s salary.
Tony *’s Sunday School class has a motto … “Do the hard thing”!
It applies here … I can assure you that loving God will take you to places that are uncomfortable, costly, and hard.
Again I ask, What does your “alabaster jar of perfume” look like?
“Pastor, we think God wants us to adopt this foster child we have been caring for.”
“Are you sure? He has a lot of needs and it is going to be very expensive. And, regardless of what his mother says about giving him up for adoption, she will always be a stream of tension and a present force in his life. Do you love him enough to take on such responsibility? You already have a house full of children. Are you sure you have not reached your limit already?”
"When it comes to love, pastor, we haven’t yet found the limits. From our experience, love feeds on love; it grows by being given away. The more love you give, the more love you seem to have. That’s how it’s been in our experience."
Yes indeed loving God will take you to places that are uncomfortable, costly, and hard.
LOVE ANYWAY!
WRAP-UP
[1] SOMETIMES LOVING GOD LOOKS A WHOLE LOT DIFFERENT THAN YOU IMAGINED IT WOULD
[2] SOMETIMES LOVING GOD IS QUESTIONED (AND DISCREDITED) BY ONLOOKERS AND FRIENDS ALIKE
[3] SOMETIMES LOVING GOD COSTS YOU MORE THAN YOU EXCPECTED
Loving God is expensive, expressive, and exhilarating!
Loving God changes you.
Loving God changes the world.
29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: ’Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31)
HE WHO HAS EARS TO HEAR
LET HIM HEAR
This Sermon is provided by Dr. Kenneth Pell
Potsdam Church of the Nazarene
Potsdam, New York
www.potsdam-naz.org
Children’s Sermon
Spice Up Someone’s Life!
Theme: Knowing God’s Love - Showing God’s Love
Object: A bottle of perfume or aromatic spices
Scripture: Mark 14:3-8
Hi guys. It is wonderful to see you today. I always look forward to our time together.
Let’s see what is in the treasure box this week. This is a very nice looking jar isn’t it? It has something in it too. When I open it you will get to smell a very nice scent.
Do you know what the phrase “spicing up someone’s life” means? It means you have done something to bring a bit of joy or happiness to someone. You have done something for them that gives them a pleasant memory.
There’s a story in the Bible of a lady who had a very expensive jar filled with pleasant smelling spices and she poured them on Jesus, like a perfume, because she loved him.
She did not know it when she did it but she was actually “spicing up” Jesus’ life and making a memory that would last forever.
We never know what the effects will be when we do something kind for someone. We never know how much it will mean to them or how God may use it to help them.
God wants us to be people He can rely on to help “spice up” people’s lives. He wants us to be kind and helpful.
A man named George Childs once said “Do not keep the alabaster box of your love and friendship sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak approving, cheering words while their ears can hear them, and while their hearts can be thrilled and made happier. The kind things you mean to say when they are gone, say before they go. - George W. Childs, from Leaves of Gold
The Bible says, And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32)
Let’s pray and ask God to help us “spice someone’s life up” today.
This Children’s Sermon is provided by Dr. Kenneth Pell
Potsdam Church of the Nazarene
Potsdam, New York
www.potsdam-naz.org
