He is Worthy of it All!

John 12:1-8 ESV

[1] Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. [2] So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. [3] Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. [4] But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, [5] “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” [6] He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. [7] Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. [8] For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

Mary understood what was worth investing in. She anointed the feet of Jesus with costly perfume. She could have sold the perfume and used the money for pleasure and self indulgence. She could have even used the money for good deeds, such as blessing the poor. However, she understood that Jesus and his purposes were worth far greater. 

Looking at ourselves, have we truly understood what is worth investing in? God has given us life, time, strength, talents, connections, money, and resources. How are we utilizing and investing those things? If we are using them to serve God, are we holding anything back? Or have we fully committed those things to Jesus and for his purposes? 

When we understand the value of Jesus Christ, it's easy to give. When we understand the value of Jesus Christ, we can agree with Paul in saying, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8).  

At the end our lives, we won't be able to take our money with us to the grave. At the end of our lives, our accolades, positions, and the praises we've received from men will not matter. The only thing that will matter is the life we have lived for God. The only investment that will matter is how we have invested ourselves for the sake of God and his kingdom! 

Thus, there is an urgency for us in how we live our lives. Paul writes in Ephesians 5:15-17, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” 

Lord, would you cause us to understand your will and help us to make the costly investment! Help us not to care what others think, but be so caught up in your greatness that we cannot help but lay it all at your feet! All praise, all honor, all glory be to God forever in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth! Amen and amen!

An Honest Question About You

I want you to ask a couple questions of yourself:

What do I value about myself personally? Think about your character qualities, traits, gifts, and abilities. Perhaps you’re smart, funny, or empathetic. Perhaps you’re artistically or orally gifted. Maybe you’re a natural leader or a hard worker. 

What do I value about myself spiritually? Think about the Christian disciplines and works that you maintain in relation to God and other people. Perhaps you’re a prayer warrior. Perhaps you’re passionate about reading and teaching the Bible. Maybe you’re the kind of person that goes out of their way to serve others and proclaim the gospel to the lost. 

Great friendships are built off of the values, interests, and attributes we share with one another. As people and Christians, we all have several great qualities that stand out personally and spiritually. Our friends and the people in our lives appreciate us because of these things. Likewise, we appreciate good qualities in others.

Now comes the question that can ache the soul: 

Would people still like me and care about me if I didn’t have my good qualities? 

What if I didn’t have a passion and zeal for the Lord? What if I didn’t pray or read my Bible that much? What if I couldn’t play guitar? What if I wasn’t insightful when talking to people? What if I didn’t socialize or reach out to people all that well? 

Would people still value me? Would people still care to ask about me? Would people still respect me? Would I respect myself and treat myself well? What would God think of me? 

Underneath it all, I’m just a person. I am not merely my intelligence. I am not merely my talents. I am not my disciplines. I am not my hobbies. I am simply me. And what scares me is the idea that people only love what I can do, and don’t actually love me for who I am. 

Do you ever feel this way? If so, I want you to sit with this. I want you to wrestle with this. You’re probably thinking at this point that I’m about to present you with some kind of encouraging Bible verse about your value. And of course I am! But first, I want to encourage you to have a conversation with God yourself. Ask Him what He thinks of you. Ask Him about your own value. Ask Him why He loves you. Don’t rush this. And don’t take the easy way out. 

Oftentimes, we want to slap a Bible verse onto our insecurities and call it a day. But that’s not how we heal. We heal by talking to God, feeling with God, hearing His voice, and carefully contemplating His Word. We need to allow God to take us to that place where we can simply be loved by Him. It’s that place where we can quiet our soul and simply be in His presence. No strings attached. Not doing anything to earn or deserve His love. Simply being loved. 

As you spend time with God, know that your personality, qualities, and quirks make you special and unique. Your works and acts of kindness can be a tremendous blessing to God and others. But above all, seek to understand that you are ultimately valuable because God says you are.

In closing, here are some deep truths to reflect upon. I encourage you to click on a couple of the highlighted verses and read them fully.

1. You are created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26-27).

2. God knew you before you were born (Jer. 1:5). 

3. God himself knit you together in your mother’s womb (Ps. 139:13-14).  

4. Before the foundation of the world, God chose you and predestined you to be His adopted child (Eph. 1:4-6). 

5. God says you’re worth more than many sparrows (Mat. 10:29-31). 

6. God loved you even when you were an ungodly sinner (Rom. 5:6-8). 

Want vs Determination

Mark 2:1-5, 11-12 NIV

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” [then later] “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

It was the very last day of work before my vacation when I realized I needed to update my out-of-office voicemail. Normally, I record voicemails through an app on my work computer. That day, however, the voice-recording app was malfunctioning. I put in a ticket to my IT department in order to fix the app, but by the time I had submitted the ticket, everyone from IT had pretty much gone home. And so I thought, “That’s it. My clients are gonna be left wondering where I am all week when they call me.” 

As I was getting ready to close down for the day, a thought occurred to me: “Why not record my out-of-office voicemail on my phone and then transfer it over to my work computer?” A very simple solution that I hadn't considered. All it took to solve my problem was to think a little outside the box. And this is the concept I believe God has been teaching me: Attack your problem from every angle before calling it quits. Put another way: When you don't see a way forward, be determined to create a way yourself!

I think it's very easy to take for granted what happens in the story of the paralyzed man in Mark 2. This man had four friends that wanted to bring him to Jesus. But it wasn’t a matter of simply wanting to help their friend. They were determined to get him to Jesus by any means necessary! When they couldn't see a way to Jesus through the crowd, they made their own way—through a roof! 

Looking at my own life, I think about how many times I get stuck trying to solve a problem and then give up. I think about how many times I've limited my own growth and progress by taking ‘no’ for an answer without putting up a fight. Maybe I try one or two ways to solve my problem, and after repeated failure, I declare defeat. But the question I must ask myself is this: "Have I attacked this problem from every possible angle?" 

More recently, I had lost a very valuable item that was stuck somewhere inside my couch. I tried several different ways to dig my hands through the couch crevices to retrieve my item. After a while of trying with no luck, I began to wonder if I should give up the search. Having gotten fed up, I lifted the couch and flipped it on its side. Once I did that, out came the item I had lost. It was the relentless determination that got me what I wanted. 

Now don’t get me wrong. There are some pursuits that are not worth fighting for. There are clients that don’t want my product. There are people that don’t care for a deep friendship with me. There are opportunities that don’t belong to me. It would be foolish to try and force some things to happen. There are points where I do need to take ‘no’ for an answer. However, I am concerned that we jump to the conclusion of ‘no’ too quickly at times. Some real opportunities can be lost due to a lack of persistence and imagination. 

And so dear friend, my encouragement to you today is this: Don't give up on your breakthrough just because your solution didn't come the way you expected! If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. And if you still don't succeed, try it from a different angle. And then a different one. Don't be one who goes down easy! Give it your all, and even if you never end up winning, you'll be able to honestly say that you gave the challenge its due work! 

“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17)

Allowing Jesus to Help Us

John 13:5-11 NIV

After that, he [Jesus] poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.”

Why would Peter say to Jesus, “You shall never wash my feet”? I always used to think it was about social dynamics. That, in Peter’s eyes, it would be inappropriate for Jesus to wash people's feet since Jesus had such esteem, status, and authority. I’m not ruling out that Peter was thinking this way, but I also think there’s a much deeper application to consider. 

As a child, I grew up with two loving parents. Being an adult now, my parents sometimes try to do things for me that they used to do when I was a child. And it feels very awkward and uncomfortable. My thinking goes: “I’m not a kid anymore! I can take care of myself! I’m mature and I’m supposed to be past this by now.” I don’t like to admit the areas in my life where I still need the help of someone older than me. I don’t like my weaknesses exposed.

This mentality is very often how we approach our relationship with God: “As a mature Christian, I’m not supposed to get offended. I’m not supposed to get jealous. I’m not supposed to be sinning that bad. I’m not supposed to still be upset by what happened to me.” 

And all the while, Jesus is offering to help us. Yet we don’t want him to. We try to suppress those sins, feelings, and weaknesses because we’re supposed to be “better than that”. Unfortunately, we are not better than that. We are broken, and we need Jesus. As such, we need to be upfront with God about where we are. If I’m jealous, I’m going to confess my jealousy. If I’m bitter, I’m going to confess my bitterness. If I have wrong priorities, I’m going to confess my idolatry. 

Of course, we are not meant to remain in our dysfunction. However, the first step toward healing is admitting we have a dysfunction. We need to lay down our sins, weaknesses, and hurts before Jesus and allow him to wash us! We need to allow Jesus to heal us! There’s no point in playing strong when we’re actually weak. There’s no point in lying to ourselves. Honesty is the starting point in moving toward repentance. 

Though Peter's body was mostly clean, he needed his feet washed by Jesus. Similarly, though we may know Christ and be saved, we still need Jesus to wash away our dirt and make us more like himself. Let us receive that healing grace now!

Here are a few Scriptures to meditate on:

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Heb. 4:15-16)

“Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.” (Jer. 17:14)

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 Jn. 1:9)

May the Lord draw you more deeply to himself as you open yourself up to him! May you find deep cleansing and healing as he washes you with his mercy and love! In Jesus' name, Amen!