[SPEAKER_00]: Christian parenting.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today I want to introduce you to a woman who knew just how important Jesus was and who understood better than anyone what he had come to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: This woman's name was Mary.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not Mary the mother of Jesus, but Mary of Bethany.

[SPEAKER_00]: John chapter 12 tells us that Mary had a sister named Martha and a brother named Lazarus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was good friends with Mary and Martha and Lazarus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He had visited them before.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, Jesus had even raised Lazarus from the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mary, Martha, and Lazarus loved Jesus, but it was Mary who had spent time at his feet, just listening to his teachings and learning [SPEAKER_00]: She would listen so intently that one time her sister Martha even became upset at her because while Martha was busy cooking and cleaning and setting the table, Mary was in her favorite spot.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just listening to Jesus and all he had to say, she could sit at his feet for hours.

[SPEAKER_00]: She knew him, she loved him, he was one of her best friends.

[SPEAKER_00]: time after time listening to him and paying careful attention whenever he spoke.

[SPEAKER_00]: You see Mary's eyes begin to be opened and she began to understand something that no one else understood quite as fully as she did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mary began to see that Jesus wasn't just any man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her heart began to realize that he was the true Messiah that they had been waiting for, and not only was he the Messiah, she understood that he had come as a heavenly king to give his life for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not even the other disciples had understood this yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know why Mary was one of the first to realize this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because she listened.

[SPEAKER_00]: She spent time with Jesus, listening to his words, learning from him, really hearing what he was saying.

[SPEAKER_00]: She heard when he said, I am the way that truth in the life no one comes to the father, but by me.

[SPEAKER_00]: She heard him when he said he would have to die, but then be raised three days later.

[SPEAKER_00]: She understood that salvation would come for goodness of sins would come, but they would come through Jesus' death.

[SPEAKER_00]: Suddenly Mary realized that Jesus would die and take all of her sins upon him on the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was just too much for her to hold in.

[SPEAKER_00]: She couldn't believe the wonders love of someone willing to give his life, so she would never have to be separated from him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her heart was overcome with love for the one who loved her so much he would die for her and she did the only thing she knew to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: If Jesus was going to give his life for her, surely she could give him something in return.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mary stood up from the table where Jesus was reclining and talking with Lazarus and his disciples and she went into the other room.

[SPEAKER_00]: There she took out the most valuable possession she owned.

[SPEAKER_00]: What was it you ask?

[SPEAKER_00]: It was perfume.

[SPEAKER_00]: Back then, perfume was very, very, very expensive.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a special kind of perfume.

[SPEAKER_00]: This perfume was made from costly spices that could be used as medicine as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: The perfume was inside an alabaster jar.

[SPEAKER_00]: Alabaster is a type of rock that is soft and white and was used to carve jars and boxes out of.

[SPEAKER_00]: It too was probably costly and imported from a faraway country like Greece.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know how much an alabaster jar of that kind of perfume would have cost?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you ready for this?

[SPEAKER_00]: It would have cost an entire year's worth of work.

[SPEAKER_00]: You would have had to work one year, 365 days just to earn enough money to pay for that jar of perfume.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mary brought out the jar of perfume, and do you know what she did with it?

[SPEAKER_00]: She poured out that perfume all over Jesus' feet, and then she wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with fragrance of the perfume.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now true seekers.

[SPEAKER_00]: What Mary did was an act of great sacrifice and loving devotion.

[SPEAKER_00]: She knew that this was going to be one of her last opportunities to express her devotion to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: She took the opportunity she had before Jesus would die to show him her faith in him and her devotion to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus would pay the greatest sacrifice by giving her his life, and in return she gave what was most costly to her.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the disciples, Judas is scary it, who was later going to be trade Jesus said, why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?

[SPEAKER_00]: It was worth a year's wages.

[SPEAKER_00]: Judas did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief as keeper of [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus replied, leave her alone, it was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.

[SPEAKER_00]: You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dear true seekers, do you know the love of Jesus like Mary did?

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you let His love wash over you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Hold you close, speak gently to your heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you realized like Mary did the great sacrifice that Jesus came to give for us?

[SPEAKER_00]: We were lost.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were hopeless before Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sin separated us from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing could save us, not even ourselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: Death was our punishment.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus came and took our punishment for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is love.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mary spent hours just listening to Jesus taking in his every word.

[SPEAKER_00]: She knew he was the answer.

[SPEAKER_00]: She knew he was all she needed.

[SPEAKER_00]: She knew he was life for her weary soul.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may not have an expensive bottle of perfume to pour on Jesus' feet.

[SPEAKER_00]: but you do have time.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the best things you can give Jesus is your time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I encourage you to take some time today to just love on Jesus and let him love you back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let his love fill your heart to overflowing today.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can be just like Mary was and sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his words.

[SPEAKER_00]: You might say, how can I do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't see Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not right here in front of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we come to the Bible and we read the stories of the Bible, especially when we read the stories of Jesus' life in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we too are sitting at his feet just like Mary, listening to what he had to say by reading his words off the pages of Scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says that God's Word is alive and acted.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it searches our hearts and it causes us to open our minds to understand things we never understood before just like Mary did.

[SPEAKER_00]: As she sat at the feet of Jesus, her eyes were open to understand what he had come to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: As we spend time in God's Word, he opens our eyes to you to understand more about him and who he is and his great love for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you'd like to read this story in your Bible, you can find it in Matthew chapter 26, verses 6 through 13, Mark chapter 14, verses 1 through 11, and John chapter 12, verses 1 through 11.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me pray with you before we go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dear Heavenly Father, we just come to you today and we thank you so much for your gift to us that cost you your Son.

[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for sending your Son.

[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you that you had a plan before time began because you knew we would need a Savior.

[SPEAKER_00]: You knew we would need rescuing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so our hearts like Mary are so grateful.

[SPEAKER_00]: we're so grateful for what you've done for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can't ever repay you for what you've done, but we can't come before you and give you our whole lives back and say, here we are.

[SPEAKER_00]: We surrender our lives to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We worship you, we love you, we adore you, we pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: pour our praise out upon you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We give you our words, we give you our thoughts, we give you our time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as we sit at your feet and as we read your word, will you let it just soak inside of us?

[SPEAKER_00]: Will you let it just go deep and plant seeds inside of us and bear fruit and teach us new things about who you are?

[SPEAKER_00]: Open our eyes to understand you better and to know you more.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love you so much in Jesus name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[UNKNOWN]: you