This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Hi, this is Pastor Tom Holiday and I want to welcome you to our
look at John chapter 12 together in daily drive time devotions. We're going to
be looking in day one today at verses one to three. As we look these first
couple of days at John chapter 12, we're really going to be talking together
about why is it that you do what you do?

What are the motives that are behind what you do? We're going to see a very
positive motive in somebody's action today and then tomorrow we're going to look
at some of the negative motivations that sometimes drive us in the wrong
direction. I love starting with the positive and what we're going to look at
today, this story, this occurrence in the life of Jesus is extremely important.

In fact, it's so important, it's actually talked about a whole chapter before it
even happens. You might remember back in John chapter 11 verse two, when we were
introduced to Mary, we were told that this was Mary whose brother Lazarus was
now sick and this is the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his
feet with her hair. Well, that was looking forward to what's going to happen in
this chapter.

John chapter 12, these first few verses, I believe is one of the greatest
studies anywhere on the motives that are behind our actions and on how sometimes
good motives get called into question and bad motives get accepted. But God
knows, God knows the motives of your heart. He knows the motives of my heart.

And what do you think is more important to God? Our motives or our actions? What
he's looking at is our heart.

David wrote in Psalm 51, you do not delight in sacrifice, oh God, or I would
bring it. You don't take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are
a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise.

These first 11 verses of John 12, the motives of the heart, we start with this
look at some friends of Jesus who had the right motives. Let me read with you
verses one to three. Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany
where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead, like we needed to be
reminded.

Verse two, here a dinner was given in Jesus's honor. Martha served while Lazarus
was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of
pure nard, an expensive perfume.

She poured it on Jesus's feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house
was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Now, just to get something out of
the way, in case you're thinking before we dive into what this verse talks
about, I thought I heard this story before.

I thought it happened at a different house with maybe a different person. That
was another woman who earlier in Jesus's ministry washed his feet with perfume.
It was a way in Jesus's society to express humble and extravagant love.

When Mary does this, it's an incredible moment. In fact, Mary, Martha, and
Lazarus, all these friends of Jesus, we see that they have the right motivation
of life here. All of them are motivated by worship.

There's no better motivation for my daily life, your daily life, than worship,
than realizing that my life, my day, my moment is every bit of it surrounded by
the goodness and the greatness and the power of God and living my life out as an
act of worship to him. As you look at Martha and Lazarus and Mary in this story,
Martha expressed her worship by serving Jesus. This was a dinner, the Bible
tells us, that was given in Jesus's honor.

That means it was meant to honor Jesus, and that's worship, honoring Jesus. And
Martha served at that dinner. So even in the serving that she was doing, she was
honoring Jesus.

You can honor Jesus in the simple tasks of life. Never forget that. You can
worship Jesus in the simple tasks of life.

In fact, you may be doing a lot of that today. Lazarus expressed his worship by
fellowshiping with Jesus. The Bible says he was reclining at table, he was
talking with Jesus.

What do you think they talked about? Jesus had just recently raised Lazarus from
the dead. This must've been quite a conversation.

Jesus knew that soon he was going to die, and he was going to be dead for three days
and be resurrected. This must've been quite a conversation. They were
fellowshiping with each other.

And fellowshiping with Jesus is an expression of worship. Fellowshiping with
Jesus's friends, with his believers is an expression of worship. But then comes
Mary, and this is the one that captures our heart.

Mary expressed her worship by extravagantly giving to Jesus. Now, before we talk
more about Mary, let's just pause a minute. Which one was really worshiping?

They all were. They were taking their personality and their opportunity in that
moment to worship Jesus. The truth is your personality may tend more toward one
of these ways of worshiping than the other.

Maybe serving, maybe fellowshiping, maybe extravagantly giving this intimate
moment that she gave of her heart and her soul to Jesus. You may feel really
close to the Lord when you're serving him. Or you may feel really close to the
Lord when you're just talking with him in prayer.

Or you may feel really close to the Lord when you're giving to him a sacrifice.
Your personality might attach to one or more of these, but that doesn't mean one
or more is the best. It's a balance in all of our lives.

There are times in my life when I need to sacrificially give to the Lord. There
are times as a balance in my life that I need to be fellowshiping with and
talking to the Lord. There are times when I need to serve him as I worship him.

Which of one of them did the best job of worshiping Jesus that day? They all
did. Don't just choose one, choose the balance.

And Mary's worship. Mary's worship is in fact going to be called into question
because it is such an extravagant worship. It's an over the top kind of worship.

What Mary did is extremely important. And in this moment of worship, just walk
through this story with me briefly. What did Mary do to give this incredible
sacrifice of worship to the Lord?

This essence, this ointment, this perfume that Mary used was pure nard, an
aromatic herb that was grown in the high pasture land of Himalayas. And somehow
it had gotten here all the way to Jerusalem. The fact that it was rare, that it
had to be transported such great distances made it worth, some people say a
week's wages, some people say a year's wages.

It was extremely extravagant, whatever. And Mary shows her value of Jesus in her
actions. Look at what she did.

The Bible says here that she had kept this ointment for this moment. She'd
prepared for this sacrifice. Worship.

Worship is a heart that's transformed that expresses love regardless of the
cost. And she had this treasure that she'd paid the price to keep for just the
right day. Now, the truth is we may not plan our every act of devotion to God,
but we have to prepare for our acts of devotion to God.

We may not plan them all, but we have to prepare for them all. And what is a
greater act of devotion to God? The person who comes to church and is encouraged
to give an offering and they have $20, that's all they have in their pocket, and
they give everything they have?

Or the person who has saved for years in order to be able to give and they have,
let's say $20,000 in an account. And in some moment of worship, they decide to
give half of that to the Lord. Which is the greater act of worship?

God doesn't look at amounts. He looks at the heart. And the fact that one did it
spontaneously and the other prepared doesn't make one a greater act of worship
or one a lesser act of worship.

Mary prepared for this moment. It began with a costly preparation and then came
what I would call an intentional decision. She brought it to the table.

She knew what she was going to do. She had in mind, I am going to make this
sacrifice. And any sacrifice that I'm going to make, it doesn't happen
accidentally.

I don't fall into it or stumble into it. It has to be an intentional decision.
And then the Bible says she broke the jar.

That's the moment. The moment of sacrifice. This love that was so extravagant
that it was shocking.

This value of something that was given to Jesus and she broke it. It was either
a terrible waste of money or an extravagant expression of love. It all depends
on your motives.

And her motives were this extravagant expression of love. Some at the table that
day looked at the value of the perfume. Jesus looked at the value of Mary's
action of her heart.

In fact, the next thing she does is she pours it on Jesus. That's an action of
love. A costly preparation and an intentional decision and a moment of sacrifice
is followed by an action of love.

Perfuming the head and body was an action that was reserved for royalty. It was
the greatest honor that a common person could bestow and Mary poured this upon
Jesus. And the fragrance, the fragrance filled the house.

You know, I've often thought that wasn't all. This was right before the
beginning of Jesus' last week. We're going to see that during the week as we
study this week.

And as she poured that perfume and wiped his feet and some of it probably got on
his clothing, wherever Jesus went during this next week, that perfume would go
with him. Through the triumphal entry, through his talks with the disciples in
the upper room, in the garden of Gethsemane, when he was being accused in the
high priest's home, when they took those clothes and they wanted to rip them
apart, but instead cast lots for his clothing. There was that light smell of
that perfume that it said Mary, Mary expressed this action of love in this
moment.

And then, and then she dried it with her hair. That's an attitude of humility.
Mary literally let her hair down.

And as a Jewish woman, that was something that women rarely did publicly. She
was doing this to humbly say, Jesus, I'm not just washing your feet with my
hands and water. I'm washing your feet with perfume and my hair.

She wasn't doing it for praise from others. She was doing it because she had a
genuine and deep love for Jesus. There is no attitude of life that can impact my
everyday life, like the attitude of worship.

But maybe it seems unfamiliar to you sometimes. Maybe as you look at Mary, you
think, wow, I wish I could be like that, but I'm never going to have that kind
of a heart. That's not the point.

You bring to Jesus the heart that Jesus gave to you. And with that heart, you
worship him. In fact, as we pray today, maybe you're beginning your day, maybe
you're in the middle of the day or ending your day.

As we pray today, bring that heart to him. And take a few moments in prayer to
do what Mary did. Just pour out your love for Jesus Christ.

Pour out your commitment to Jesus Christ. Whether it's a preparation that he's
asking you to take, say, Jesus, I'm willing to prepare to serve you. A decision
that he's challenging you to make.

Say to him, Jesus, right now, I'm going to decide. Maybe you're at the moment of
sacrifice and you need to say, I'm going to step over the line. Or there's an
action of love that God's encouraging in your life or a step of humility.

Whatever it is, just say, Jesus, let my worship for you motivate this day, the
next day, the decisions and days and the things that I do in my life. Jesus, I
need you. And I recognize that in worship to you, I best find out who I am.

And so I worship you in this moment. In your name, amen. Well, join us tomorrow.

We're going to be looking at verses four to 11, some other and some not so
healthy motivations that drive us that we can learn from.