Text: Mark 14:1-11
The Story of my wife and I meeting--prevenient grace.
This is what is called Prevenient Grace—grace that came before so that my wife and I could get to each other.
Does God know what he is doing with your life? God brings strange selections together sometimes.
The story of how we got to this church. (Prevenient Grace)
At a cluster meeting the lot fell for me to pulpit swap here!
I was released from one ministry and there arose a need for a minister here at the same time. Who needs a minister in February? Does God know what he is doing with our lives?
Does God know what He is doing with YOUR life???
Mark 14:1-11
v8She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.
God knows what He is doing with your life!
He knows what it takes to save you, He knows what it takes to get your attention, he knows what it takes to make you holy and more like His Son Jesus and he knows what grace you need to get you through!
God brought a strange selection to His Son to anoint him for his burial—a woman of reputation—a known sinner. God brought a strange selection to a sinful woman to have her anoint—the Son of God—the sinless lamb.
But Jesus needed anointed…and the woman needed forgiven. Grace brought them together. Because God knew what He was doing.
Did God know what He was doing with His Son’s life? The path before the Christ was death and burial! Statistically speaking 100% of us will die. That’s a fact. Where we spend eternity all depends on which neighborhood and curb we pull up to when the ride is over!
And the only way to get to God’s neighborhood is through the gate of Jesus Christ himself—and God knew that.
We don’t really know what was going on in the BEFORE THAT times of this woman’s life and what brought her to Jesus. Perhaps she saw in him what a man could truly be. Perhaps she felt valued in his eyes and of worth when he looked at her rather than feeling like an object to be used and abused. I don’t know why she has come to that place and what brought her there to Jesus.
But then there is the story of how I came to know Christ…it may be much like yours… Does God know what he is doing with your life?
What has brought you to this place in your life today? Can you see the activity of God’s grace upon you? Is God’s grace active upon your heart and in your life? Have you ever opened yourself to the means of God’s grace for your heart and soul?
This woman did. The jar was a symbol of her heart—she broke it open and poured it all out on Jesus. An act of grace.
And if there is anything I have learned is that if you Grace Jesus, HE WILL NOT BE OUTDONE! You can’t out-give God! In LUKE’s gospel he tells us Jesus told the woman, “Your sins are forgiven!”
It feels good to be forgiven. She graced Jesus up with anointing oil and perfume, and Jesus graced down all of her sins! Who really was anointed the most here? And if the disciples could have gotten it, they would have smelled a greater fragrance that day—greater than a woman wasting her wealth on the Lord; but of the grace of Jesus being poured out on a woman’s hurting and hungry heart—and they would have gotten in on it!
And you can get in on it today! People are still getting in it!
God knows what He is doing with your life! DO YOU TRUST HIM?
Have you given Christ your heart?
Have you given him your faith? Completely?
Are there areas right now where you are not trusting God fully?
Someone might say, “Well, God may know what He is doing with my life, but I don’t.” Why not make a change today…put ALL of your trust in Him—give Him ALL of your heart and see what God can with you even in these days of your life!
It is not too late! The disciples picked up 12 baskets of scraps after he fed the 5000, and he nothing will get wasted in your life if you PUT IT IN HIS HANDS!
ANOINTING = God knows what he is doing with your life.
Here’s what we are going to do: As a symbol of reaffirming your heart by faith in that truth today
--Say it out loud with me—“God knows what He is doing with my life!” God knows what he is doing with your life!
During the closing song you are invited to come and have the sign of the cross placed upon your forehead by anointing as a means of grace—that you wish to reaffirm your trust in your God that He knows what He is doing with your life! It might mean you are turning over more and want his grace to turn over even more—but your stepping out can make a difference today—because God’s grace is sufficient for you! HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING WITH YOUR LIFE!
