This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

You might remember that yesterday we looked at Mary and the incredible
extravagant expression of love that she gave to Jesus when she washed His feet
with her hair. We find out something about someone else's motivation when that
happened, verses 4-6. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to
betray him, objected, "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the
poor?

It was worth a year's wages. " He did not say this because he cared about the
poor. Here's the motivation part.

But because he was a thief. As a keeper of the money bag, he used to help
himself to what was put into it. You see, Judas was not motivated by worship.

He wasn't motivated by concern for the poor. Judas was motivated by selfishness.
We could look at Mary's expression of love and say, "What worship?

" But Judas looked at it and said, "What a waste. " But the motivation wasn't,
"I care about someone else. " The motivation, "I care about me.

" Of course, Mary was criticized. That's usually what happens when somebody
gives their best to the Lord. Do not ever let anyone make you feel guilty
because you gave your best to Jesus.

And you'll often be criticized for that. In the criticism, Judas teaches us a
very important lesson. He teaches us that people often lie.

In fact, we even lie to ourselves often about our true motivations. We disguise
our motivations. Judas sounded like the most holy of the bunch here.

Actually, his actions were the result of his guilt, not his concern. It's
interesting. Over in Mark and Matthew, we learned that the other disciples soon
followed him.

Matthew 26, 8. "When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. 'Why this
waste?

' they asked. So other people followed him and what he was saying. They didn't
realize that his motivation was selfishness.

" If they'd taken a vote that day, it would have been to sell, to give to the
poor. And they would have all voted wrong. Because Judas is an example of those
who work for God without worshiping God.

Those who are outwardly religious but inwardly selfish. And those are some of
the most dangerous people anywhere. There's a warning in these verses.

Watch out for that kind of motivation in my own life. And watch out for that
kind of motivation in other people's lives. Don't let anyone ever make you feel
guilty for extravagantly loving Jesus Christ.

The Bible says here's what Jesus had to say about that in verses seven and
eight. "Leave her alone," Jesus replied. "It was intended that she should save
this perfume for the day of my burial.

You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me. " It's
interesting. I believe that Mary teaches us here how to handle those who
misunderstand genuine worship.

She didn't argue with Jesus. She didn't have to. She simply let Jesus speak for
her.

And he will. He will speak for you. Sooner or later, you can count on it.

Jesus here indicates that Mary had a spiritual sensitivity that others in the
room didn't have. She intuitively knew that an important moment in Jesus's life
was approaching. Now, she may not have known exactly that it would be that he
would die on a cross.

But she knew that something was on the horizon. Jesus says she did this because
she knew something that you don't understand. There's this phrase here, "the
poor you will always have with you.

" Jesus is not saying to ignore the poor here. The Bible is filled with verses
about ministering to the poor. He's not saying to not minister to the poor.

He is saying don't use the poor as an excuse. There's always a good reason not
to show a great love. So don't miss the one-time opportunities in life Jesus is
saying here.

And this was a one-moment in history opportunity. This was truly now or never.
Jesus is going to go to Jerusalem.

He's going to get caught up in the trial. He's going to get caught up in heading
towards the cross. This was the moment.

It's not true that there's always another chance. And so Mary did not let any
excuses that came into her mind keep her from loving Jesus. And Jesus reminds
them that day, "don't put her down for her worship of me.

" Judas was motivated by selfishness. Then in verse nine, we see a different
group and a different motivation. Meanwhile, in verse nine, a large crowd of
Jews found out that Jesus was there and they came.

Not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the
dead. This crowd, and we're going to see this again and again throughout this
chapter. They were motivated by excitement.

The excitement of the moment. They were motivated by curiosity. Now, what's the
problem with this excitement, curiosity, motivation?

Well, it's only short term. It's controlled by the crowd. It's centered on
emotions and experiences rather than actions and commitments.

And it's a purely external motivation. It's just not going to last. You see,
this crowd, if the crowd wasn't following Jesus, they wouldn't be following
Jesus.

It had to be the whole crowd together. The excitement of everything that was
happening. This crowd was not going to follow Jesus as a disciple, as an
individual.

I'm just asking a personal question about that. If you're in a great church like
Saddleback and seeing great things happen in your life, you feel like, wow, I'm
a part of a great crowd. Super things are happening.

What would happen if you moved? Maybe God is moving you right now. Are you going
to continue to worship Jesus?

Are you going to continue to be a part of serving him? Or is it just the
excitement of the crowd? That's one of the dangers of a large church you have to
watch out for.

That you're just looking for the excitement of the crowd. And that that instead
is not just an expression of your love for Jesus. Would you love Jesus wherever
you are?

The crowd was motivated by excitement. In verses 10 and 11, we see a third
group, the chief priests. So in verse 10, the chief priests make plans to kill
Lazarus as well.

For on account of him, many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting
their faith in him. These chief priests were motivated by fear. And I hope you
noticed in verse 10, it shows us that it can be dangerous to be a walking
miracle sometimes.

They not only wanted to destroy Jesus, they wanted to destroy the evidence. They
wanted to kill Lazarus. Now, the Bible doesn't tell us that that ever happened,
but they desired to do that.

These chief priests, they were very motivated men. Remember, motivation does not
equal inspiration. These chief priests were motivated by fear.

Just because you feel something strongly or see someone who feels something
strongly, doesn't necessarily mean it's God's idea. A lot of people confuse
passion with inspiration. That it must be God's idea.

This applies to relationships. People feel passionately God wants us together. I
know he does.

Well, maybe it's God who's saying that. Maybe it's your hormones that are saying
that. This applies to causes.

Christians who feel like they have to somehow dishonor people or break the law
or even kill others in order to keep God's law. Somehow they have really missed
out on motivation. It applies to decisions.

This idea that in your mind, God has to be forced to make this decision because
I know that it's his will. Well, if it's his will, you can trust him with it.
You don't have to force that to happen.

You can trust God for it to happen. You see, the key here is that the wrong
motivation always ends up with the wrong action. We saw that with Judas,
motivated by selfishness.

We saw that with the crowd, motivated by excitement. We see it with the chief
priests, motivated by fear. It may not start that way.

You may feel like at the beginning, oh, I'm heading in the right direction. I'm
getting something done, but it always ends up that way. You end up doing the
wrong thing and then you have the wrong result.

It ends up with the wrong action and the wrong result. We've talked these last
couple of days about motivations. Positive motivations like worship, negative
motivations like fear.

Just before we pray today, three things to remember about motives. Don't try to
judge others' motives because you can't figure them out. In fact, don't even try
to judge your own motives because you can't even figure out your own motives.

The Bible says in Proverbs 21, 2, "You may believe what you're doing is right,
but the Lord judges your reasons. " So you ask God to test your motives and the
motives of others. Psalm 26, 2 says, "Cross-examine me, O Lord, and see that
this is so.

Test my motives. " Ask God to do it because God can see our heart. He can see
your heart like no one else.

In fact, let's do that right now. Just say to your father, "Father, as much as I
want to be motivated by worship, I know. I know that my heart can be deceitful
and I can be motivated by selfishness.

I can be motivated by the excitement of the moment. I can be motivated by fear.
And so I come to you right now and I say to you that instead of testing myself
to judge my motivations, I ask you to test me.

I trust you to test me. In fact, judge the motivations of my heart right now,
Jesus. And if there's some area where I'm being motivated by selfishness,
excitement, fear, or some other negative thing that's driving me in the wrong
direction, let my heart know.

I want to be motivated by worship, by who you are, and what you're about in this
world. And I pray this, Jesus, in your name. Amen.

Tomorrow, as we start verses 12 to 19, we're going to start together the events
of the final week of Jesus's life.