One woman’s extravagant display of affection shows us what love toward God and others really looks like. And we are reminded once again that nobody loves us like God does.
Transcription (automatically-generated):
On April 15th, 1965, song was released titled What the World Needs Now is Love. It was first recorded and made popular by singer Jackie Shannon. It peaked at number seven on the US Hot 100 in July of that year. And in Canada, the song reached all the way up to number one. Now, I'm going to give you all an early Christmas present this year, my present to you is that I'm not going to sing the first verse of this song.
Instead, I'm going to simply read it for us.
And it goes like this. What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love, not just for some, but for everyone.
I think most people today would agree with the lyrics of that verse.
Our world needs love more today in 2020 than any other time in history. Maybe we need more love in our world. We desire it. We crave it. We want more love. But I'm always wrestling with the same question. Do we even really know what love is?
To be honest with you, I don't think most people truly understand what love really is and how it really works.
Here's a mistake that many people make when it comes to understanding love. They think that they are the focal point of their love experience.
This faulty understanding of love sounds something like this. If I love someone his only real love, as long as I derive some kind of benefit from it, there's my love for you. Make me feel good. Does my love for you add anything to my life? Does my love for you cost me anything?
And if all these boxes are checked, then that's love according to most people's understanding of the word. But as soon as things get tough, as soon as the good feelings associated with love are gone, as soon as it begins to cost too much to display love anymore, that's when we hear people say things like, I don't think I'm in love anymore. Because we equate love with what we get out of the deal. That's a common way in a very wrong way to understand what love is at its core.
Love isn't primarily about us. Our love is about others. When we love is not primarily about how we feel or what we think or how this affects us, loves about others, does this bless them? Is this for their good, regardless of what it might cost us to express it? God, who is love models for us, what love really looks like, John, three 16 says this for God so loved the world that he gave his only son.
You see it in that verse. God loved God gave. At its core, love is about giving, it's not about what we get out of the deal, love is not about us soaking it in like a sponge loves about us pointed out like an alabaster flask of expensive ointment. Don't worry, that statement is going to make a lot more sense as we go along. And so right now, if you have your Bible with you and I hope you do, please take it and turn with me to the book of Matthew.
Chapter 26, verses six to 13. We are text tonight. And as we pick up our study in the Gospel of Matthew here tonight, we're going to see in our text three awesome demonstrations of love examples where love is poured out. The first of these examples will jump off the page to us because it will be fairly obvious when we read it in our Bible.
But the second and third examples be a little less obvious because they are implied in our text instead of explicitly stated. So when we get to those, I'll spend some time drying them up for us. I believe we're going to be blessed by what the Lord is going to show us in each of these expressions of love.
These are going to encourage you in your own faith, and they will inspire you to pour out love towards God and love towards the people he's placed in your life. I truly believe that.
So let's let's read the text together. Matthew, chapter twenty six for six to thirteen reads like this. Now, when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment and she pulled it on his head as he reclined that table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, why this waste for this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.
But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me, for you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me in pouring this ointment on my body. She has done it to prepare me for burial.
Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.
If you remember from last week's message, you'll know that we're in the place in Matthew's Gospel, where Jesus is now only two days away from his upcoming crucifixion.
It's Wednesday and he will die on Friday. We saw that last week. This is where we are chronologically in the story, but Matthew does something interesting in his next few verse is verse is six to 16 of Chapter 26, which are the verse is covering both this week's message and next week's message. These verse is are placed here by Matthew as a flashback to events that took place earlier on the timeline of Jesus life chronologically in Matthew. We're only two days away from the crucifixion, but this story that we're looking at tonight took place six days prior to Jesus death.
So Matthew has pulled an earlier story and placed it at a later point in his gospel. How do we know this, how do we know this scene took place six days before Jesus death instead of only two days before? Well, math is not the only one who's included this story in his gospel. Both Mark and John include this same story in their gospel accounts, too. If you want to find those, you can look those up in in the book of Mark, Chapter 14, verses three to nine.
And in John, it's found in Chapter 12, verses one to eight. When you win all three of these accounts of this same story side by side, it's clear to see that they're all describing the exact same scene.
Mark's account very similar to Matthew's, and neither of them include a specific reference to the day the scene took place, but John's account mentions the specific day when this story happened in John, Chapter 12, verse one.
It says, Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany. And then John goes on to describe our scene. John, he makes it clear that this when the scene took place, it took place six days before the Passover, which is when Jesus died. Each of these three accounts describe the same event, but they highlight different aspects of the same scene. None of these differences contradict each other. Rather, when lined up next to each other, they form a much more comprehensive picture of what actually took place.
They are complementary accounts of the same event. What does Matthew do this? What does he include a flashback to an earlier scene in Jesus life? Why does it take this earlier scene and inserted at a later point in his gospel? Well, the events that Matthew flashes back to are integral to our understanding of the events that are going to happen next in the chronology of his gospel, namely Judases upcoming betrayal of Jesus. Matthew wants the information we are given In verses six to 16, fresh on his readers mind as they head into the portrayal of Jesus, because even though the scene is a flashback, it gives us the necessary background information to help us understand why Judas betrayed Jesus is trying to help us here.
He's done the work of connecting the dots for us instead of leaving it to us to try to go back four days earlier and try to try to piece the story together for ourselves. He does it for us by placing this story in his gospel right where he does.
So thank you, Matt, for doing that for us.
So now let's jump in and take a closer look at this scene in our text. Verse six says. Now, when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon, the leper, Bethany was a town which is about two miles outside of Jerusalem, and while there, Jesus is in the house of a man named Simon the Leper. And there are a lot of people there with him in the house who's all there? Well, Matthew tells us that Jesus and his disciples and this man named Simon the Leper and a woman are all there.
John tells us that the unnamed woman is actually Mary Lazarus's sister.
John also tells us that Lazarus is there, too, and so is their sister Martha. So if you add them all up, there are at least 17 people there in that house.
And Bethany, who are mentioned specifically, and this number doesn't account for anyone else who may have been there but who wasn't mentioned by name. What are they doing over seven says that Jesus was reclining at the table and in John Chapter 12, verse two, it says that a dinner was given to Jesus. It's a feast.
And there's a lot of people there. And I think I'm going to go on a limb, but I think that a good time was had that night. Let's keep going. Seven, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment and she put it on his head as he reclined at a table. Now, we've already identified who this woman is who comes up to Jesus as Mary, the sister of Lazarus. And at some point, either before, during or after dinner, Matthew says she comes up to Jesus and pours some ointment all over him.
Now, Mary was friends with Jesus, Jesus raised her brother Lazarus from the dead, nobody would have thought it was weird or out of place to see her approach him that night. Her approaching Jesus at the table wouldn't have turned any heads.
The heads would have only turned when the flask of ointment was revealed and when Mary began to pour all of it on Jesus, that got people's attention. She was common practice in Jewish culture to anoint a dinner guest with oil, we can see David reference this practice in Psalm 23 while he was in the valley of the shadow of death, he says of God in verse five. You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.
We can also see Jesus refer to the same practice back in Luke, Chapter seven Verse is forty four to forty six when he was at another dinner earlier in his ministry at a different Simon's house, he was anointed at that dinner, too. Not unlike what we see in our text in Luke, we see Jesus respond to the lack of hospitality that Simon the Pharisee showed.
Jesus, listen to what Jesus says. Verse 8 forty four, Luke seven. Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet. But she is wet my feet with their tears and wipe them with their hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. Here's Verse 8 forty six.
You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. The fact that a guest was anointed at the dinner table was a common practice for those who were at Simon, the leprous house that night. In our text, no one there would have batted an eye at Merry, doing a little bit of anointing.
But it was the amount of ointment she used, which was a head turner, John tells us that it was a pound of ointment, which is about 12 fluid ounces.
If you want this picture in your mind, a regular can of pop the flask Mary had that night held as much liquid as a can of pop holds.
The smell of the ointment would have been very strong, very fragrant. You know how strong a single mist of perfume or cologne is when you spray it. Now, imagine that a whole bottle being dumped, whatever room you dumped it out in would be overwhelmingly permeated with that fragrance. Matthew indicates that this ointment was very expensive.
He recorded the disciples saying that it could have been sold for a large sum of money in June 2005.
The value of the ointment is estimated at roughly 300. The Nory. What's the denarii? Well, it's the plural of a denarius. A single denarius in the day was the equivalent to a day's wage for a labourer. And so what would that be worth today? What would three hundred denarii be worth today? Let's see if we can figure out what would be comparable to that in today's economy by just doing a little bit of math. Let's see if we can take an eight hour work day.
Multiply that times fifteen dollars an hour. Multiply that by three hundred days. You carry the one. You bring this over. I've done the math. Thirty six thousand dollars. Thirty six thousand dollars is the rough estimate of what three hundred Inari would be in today's economy. Now, you might think it's impossible for a bottle of perfume to cost that much today, and I thought so, too, until I Googled it.
In March, twenty six, twenty nineteen Guinness World Records records that the most expensive perfume commercially available is Clive Christian, number one Imperial Majesty, which was released in a 10 bottle run in 2005 at, get this, two hundred and five thousand dollars each for five hundred milliliters, which is a slightly bigger than our can of pop. So Mary was Ballan, she was wealthy, you had to be if you had the kind of ointment and the kind of amount that she had in her possession.
Matthew and Mark Record, Mary pouring some of her ointment on Jesus, had drawn records, are pouring some of it on his feet.
And when Mary was finished, what she was doing, her alabaster flask of ointment was empty. That was the astonishing part of the scene. She used it all. When you factor in the amount of ointment used, the smell and the value of this ointment, one thing becomes crystal clear. That night, Mary was demonstrating a very extravagant gesture towards Jesus. She poured out her love for Jesus that night and this was a free act of hers. Nowhere in the law was this kind of extravagant love mandated.
Mary didn't do this to Jesus because she had to. Mary did this to Jesus because she wanted to marry love Jesus very much. That's obvious. We look at this event. Now, you would think that this kind of affection towards Jesus would be applauded by everyone, you would think so, right? But in reality, this kind of love poured out towards Jesus doesn't always go without a hitch. We can see and some of you may already have some firsthand experience with this, that incredible displays of affection towards Jesus are sometimes opposed.
I'm not referring to the opposition that sometimes comes from those who are indifferent towards Jesus or from those who are boldly anti Jesus. No, I'm talking about the opposition that sometimes comes from the very people who are the ones who should be cheering us on the loudest. Look what I mean when we read Verse is eight and nine. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, which means angry or incensed, saying why this waste for this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.
Jesus is very old disciples were angry at Mary for this extravagant display of love towards Jesus.
They were mad at her. Why were they mad? Well, they thought this expression of love towards Jesus was a waste. That's what they said.
And they thought that the sale of this expensive ointment would be better served, going to meet the needs of the poor. They didn't understand what was going on. Let me give you an example of what this misunderstanding could look like today. I want you to imagine that you had spent many, many years saving up for a dream luxury vacation and you have all that money put aside in the bank.
And as the day draws near for you to make that purchase, something comes of all of you where you hear the news of a missionary that's doing work in a third world country overseas. And they need some funds. They need some financial help to not only keep preaching the gospel, but to bring clean water into the poorest place in that country. And as you hear this news, something tweaks in you immediately.
And, you know, you reason to yourself without anyone telling you what to do or what to think. You say, I can't go on. I'm not going on this luxury vacation anymore. I'm sending all of my money overseas to that missionary. Now, some of your friends and family who know about your luxury vacation coming up and they hear about this change of heart that you have, sometimes they'll applaud it, but sometimes imagine this, they get upset with you, angry that you would spend all this time saving up for a vacation that they tell you that you deserve.
They tell you that you will love that. They remind you that other people can help with the missionary endeavors and they oppose your decision to give the gift. They just don't understand what's going on in your heart. They simply do not understand your actions. You see, Mary did something amazing towards Jesus and the disciples did not understand it. So Jesus addresses them Verse 8 10 and 11. Why do you trouble the woman? She's done a beautiful thing to me for you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.
This response that Jesus gives them corrects them on the spot and it publicly defends Mary's actions, but it is more than that.
If we slow down long enough at Jesus words here, we're going to see something that's key to understanding how the disciples were to pour out love to the people around them, namely the poor.
And for those of us who follow Jesus today, the implication that Jesus makes in these verse is carries a lot of weight for us, too, and how we are to pour out our love towards the people around us. Look at Verse 8 11 again. Jesus said, for you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. Jesus is not minimizing ministry to the poor here. He's not saying that serving the poor is unimportant and then you can procrastinate doing it.
That's not what he's saying. We know because from cover to cover in the Bible, God reveals his desire that his people serve the poor among them. Listen to what the word of God says concerning the poor. The following here is a sample size taken just from the Book of Proverbs alone.
Listen to what the words says, Proverbs 14 30 one, he who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. Proverbs 19, verse 17. He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he's done. Chapter 21, verse 13. If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered. Chapter 20, To verse nine, a generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor and chapter twenty eight twenty seven, he who gives to the poor will lack nothing.
But he who closes his closes his eyes to them receives many verse is. So, again, this is just a small sample of Verse is in the Old Testament, which show God's concern for the poor. And as you might expect, God's concern for the poor continues the although into the New Testament in the Book of Acts, we have an incredible scene describing for us what the early church did to minister the people's needs. Among them acts Chapter four, verses 30 to 37 reads like this.
Now, the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common and with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all.
There is not a needy person among them for as many as were owners of lands or houses, sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and later at the apostles feet.
And it was distributed to each as any had need.
Thus Joseph, who was also called by the Apostles Barnabus, which means son of encouragement, elevate, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet. Christians who were part of the early church poured out their versions of alabaster flasks of ointment when they sold their excess in order to meet tangible needs that arose within their community.
They poured out their love for one another so we can rest assured that in verses 11, Jesus was not saying that ministry to the poor was an unimportant task, that his people could procrastinate. Well, what's he saying then, when he says you will always have the poor with you, but you won't always have me? I believe what Jesus is saying here is that there is a difference in how we relate to him when he's physically among us compared to how we relate to him when he is not physically with us anymore.
There's a very practical difference when Jesus is here and when he's not, here's an example of what I'm talking about from a conversation Jesus had with John the Baptist disciples over fasting Matthew nine, verse 14 to 15. Then the disciples of John came to him, to Jesus saying, why do we and the Pharisees fast? But your disciples do not fast. And Jesus said to them, can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast see.
Jesus said that his disciples can't mourn while he's physically with them. There's no time to mourn when Jesus is among us. It's time to celebrate when he's here. But when he's physically gone, then they'll more. Then they'll fast and we mourn and we fast today for the same reasons. A Jesus is saying that there's a difference between how we relate to him when he's physically with us compared to how we relate to him when he's not the disciples, they had an incredible privilege.
They walked with Jesus, they talked with them, they touched him.
And wherever Jesus went, incredible things happened. Countless miracles performed at his hand. And then he died and then he was buried, and then he rose from the dead and then he physically ascended to heaven. Where he is now until the day that he comes back. When Jesus went back to heaven, he poured out the Holy Spirit upon his church, and now every Christian everywhere has the very real presence of Jesus living on the inside of them. But while Jesus is spiritually in us, he's physically in heaven right now, the presence of Jesus is in us, he's in his church and his presence in us makes a difference in our world today.
And I don't want to minimize that fact.
But it's also a fact that things are very, very, very different in our world. When Jesus is physically here on Earth with us, his physical presence among us changes everything. We can see that when we look back in the scriptures and marvel at how the physical presence of Jesus impacted any environment he entered. And we can look ahead to that future day when he comes back, when Jesus is ruling this world from his throne in Jerusalem, from at that time, everyone on the planet is going to be able to recognize the benefits that exist when Jesus Christ is king of this world, because it will be different when he's here.
We love him while he's in heaven, we worship him while he's in heaven. But our love towards Jesus will look different when he's here with us, his physical presence matters. So according to Jesus In verses of our text, he used to be treated differently when he's with us.
Mary, she did the proper thing by pouring out her love extravagantly upon Jesus. But the day was soon coming when he wouldn't be with them physically anymore. In that day, Jesus implies they wouldn't have the opportunity to pour ointment on him any longer. When that day came, they would have the opportunity to pour it out for someone else instead. Jesus is implying that when he's gone, then the disciples were to love the poor in a radical kind of way.
Look again with me at Verse is 10 to 11, one more time. Why do you trouble the woman for she's done a beautiful thing to me for you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. You want to notice this? Jesus doesn't tell the disciples that their idea to spend an incredible amount of money serving the poor was a bad idea. Jesus didn't respond to their indignation with his own notice that Jesus didn't say, Are you guys crazy?
You want to take Mary's ointment. That's worth a small fortune and you want to spend it all on the poor.
What a dumb idea. You notice that Jesus doesn't say that.
He doesn't scold them for their idea to pour out riches to serve the poor. The implication for them and for us. Now that Jesus is physically gone, we ought to take whatever alabaster flasks of women we might have and spend them on serving the poor, since we cannot pour them out on him. Well, he's no longer here. Love the poor radically, love the poor the way Mary loved Jesus in our scene. Pour it all out. This in a very real in a very mysterious way is how we are to demonstrate our love as Christians towards Jesus today.
This is what we hear Jesus say to his disciples at the end of his Olivet Discourse. You may recall this passage from a few months back in our Matthew study. Matthew, chapter twenty five verses thirty one to forty. These are Jesus words. Listen to what our Lord and King says. Starting In verses thirty one, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne before him will be gather all the nations and he will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
Then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. That was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you were thirsty and give you a drink.
And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you. And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you and the king will answer them truly. I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Jesus makes it clear that there is a connection between how we demonstrate our love for him and how we practically meet the needs of the poor brother or sister among us.
Now, I would love to take this topic of serving the poor even further, but for time's sake, I can't. So let me close this section by sharing two very important points. Point number one, our primary mandate as the church is to serve those who are poor, who are part of the family of God. Family First started the local church level extend to the city, to the country, to the end of the world, are there any brothers or sisters in Christ not able to survive?
We must pour ourselves out to meet their needs first. Point number two. We have to define the word poor.
There are many people today in our city and in our nation from all walks of life who are spiritually poor, this is a group of spiritually poor people, is made up of those who have a lot of money and those who have some money and those who have no money.
There are spirit. They are spiritually poor because they don't have Jesus. But that's not the kind of poor that we're talking about. Many Canadians are that kind of poor, but it's my opinion that we do not have any Canadians who are physically poor or if they are physically poor, they have access to what they need.
You see, when we talk about serving the poor, that doesn't mean we're obligated to sustain a person's self-defined standard of living. You're not poor if you have an iPhone but can't afford the monthly payments, you aren't poor. If everyone else has a certain kind of car that's better than yours, maybe you don't even have a car that doesn't necessarily make you poor. Here's the poor test. Do you have access to food and water every day? Do you have shelter?
Do you have clothes? If a person can say yes to all those questions, then by definition, they are not poor. There are people alive today who cannot say yes to all of those questions. Those are considered the poor. If you do not have access to these basic things, you will physically die. Those are the ones we need to focus our efforts on. Again, this is my opinion, but we don't really have poor people in Canada because as of now, there are avenues where all of a person's most basic needs can be met in our country.
What we have are people who are used to a certain standard of living and who have not learned how to go without certain luxuries. We don't know how we don't know how to endure hard times, but that's not the same as being poor.
Mary. She poured out her love for Jesus when she dumped a bottle of fragrance all over him. Christians were to pour out our love for Jesus in part by meeting the needs of the poor among us.
And now we come to our third and final example of love being poured out. See this in our last two Verse is Verse is 12. Importing this ointment on my body. Jesus says she has done it to prepare me for burial.
Truly, I say to you, whoever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she's done will also be told in memory of her here.
Jesus points forward to his burial and he says that this is why Mary did what she did, what's implied in a burial, what should happen, what hopefully happens before a person is ever buried will hopefully they die first. And that's where we have to see this third example of love being poured out, we see love poured out when we fix our gaze upon Jesus Christ and realize that he poured his entire life out for us when he said his blood on the cross.
Jesus, this this pouring out began in the garden of Gas is the night prior to his his crucifixion or the early morning of it's there when the blood began to flow. If you remember the story, Jesus is praying to the father and he's in such agony over what he's about to experience. In mere hours, as he hung on the cross, the thought of him being separated from his father was so crushing that and so overwhelming that his capillaries actually burst from the stress and drops of blood were sweated out of his pores.
The blood began to flow in the garden of the Salmoni. But then Jesus continued to pour himself out physically during the interrogation he received at the hands of the Romans see from the Garden of Gethsemani, Jesus was betrayed by Judas into the hands of the religious leaders. They in turn, hand Jesus over to the Romans and the Romans. They scourged Jesus. They whipped his open bare back 40 times. They jammed a crown of thorns upon his head. The blood started to flow a little more now.
Then Jesus poured all of himself as he hung on the cross. The Romans, they stapled him to a wooden beam, nails through each wrist and a single nail through both ankles. They elevated him were for six hours. He hung, suspended between heaven and earth, the God man we murdered, the one who came to save us, and the blood continued to pour out until he died. And then Jesus was buried and then he rose from the dead, just like he said he would, and then he ascended physically to heaven on the cross, Jesus poured his life out for us.
His blood was the price that had to be paid in order for God to offer the free gift of forgiveness to sinners.
And the disciples thought Mary's appointment was expensive. Jesus poured out a truly priceless gift that day, it cost him everything to love us the way that he did. He paid it all when he poured out his life on the cross. That, my friends, is true love. It's a love poured out. Father, we worship you. God, we thank you. We can't there's not enough words to to to describe and to express our gratitude, our adoration, our our worship towards you for loving us the way that you did.
Lord, you poured out everything so that you could display your love towards sinners, so that you can wash us of our sins, so that you should you could give us eternal life, that you could fill us with your presence, your Holy Spirit, that you can give us a future hope and promises to to know you and to be with you now and forever, to be a part of your family. God, you did it all before any of us turned around to pursue you while we were enemies, while we were sinners.
The Bible says you died for us. What love?
We didn't offer you anything. We didn't make your life better. We didn't we didn't bring anything to the table. You poured it out all for us.
And Lord, those of us who have received this free gift of grace by simply believe in upon you, our lives have been transformed and now we love now we love you and others not to earn your faith or not to earn your love, but as an expression, as really we can't help it because your love poured into us so much pours out of us.
We have to love if you're in us, Lord, teach us, give us great a burden of compassion and give us great wisdom to know how to take the message from from here tonight and learn how to practically meet the needs of the poor around us.
Give us wisdom or guard, guard and guide our steps in doing that. But we want to do this like Mary did freely when she poured her ointment upon you.
We want to freely pour ourselves out in love towards you and love towards others. So help us do that. Lord Lord, if there's anyone here who's watching tonight who doesn't have a relationship with you yet, open up the eyes of their heart, show them their sin, show them you on the cross and bring them Lord to a place of faith. Will they trust in you for the very first time? Do that we pray. Do all these things.
We pray Jesus in your sweet and your powerful name. Amen.