Feelings are Indicators, Not Dictators!
I Love My Church - Week 3
Pastor Mike Signorelli
V1 Church
Tired, Worried, and Busy? Martha, Mary, and Jesus | Luke 10:38-42 | I Love My Church - Week 3 | Pastor Mike Signorelli
(upbeat music) - Luke chapter 10 verse 38, did you all find it in your Bible? As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. If you have a physical Bible, you can underline her home. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me. Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. Y'all, let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray right now, your word is sharper than any two-edged sword and divides a sunder, even the soul from the spirit. Your word cannot come back void. I ask God that this sermon, this message, would be a life-altering, transformational experience, not by the cunningness of words, not by eloquence, but God through divine revelation and an impartation of your spirit as the word is going forth, and we receive it as good soil in our soul. Church, if you believe that, can you shout amen? Amen. Okay, so let me just set the scene for you. Martha and Mary, so we are now at this home, and if you look at the text, it says that there was a woman named Martha and she opened her home. So the first question that I've got, because this is 2000 years ago, and it was very uncommon for a woman to own a home and live alone, where is her man's? If you're gonna be a biblical scholar, you gotta help me, like where is her man's? Why does she own the home? Some of you single people right now are like, "Where is my man's?" (congregation laughing) Nobody has more of a vested interest in me launching more locations than the single people of V1. Every time I'm like, "We're launching Manhattan," they're like, "Woo, that pool of men keeps getting bigger." I'm trying, I'm like, "Why?" The single women just go from campus to campus. They're taking notes, and it's not on the sermon. Mm-hmm, yeah, mm-hmm. 5'11", ah, I'll take it. (congregation laughing) Now come on, jokes aside. The question is, "Where's her man?" So she lives and she owns his home. Now biblical scholars believe that possibly she was a widow, so we don't know. There could be some other circumstance, but what we do know is that she owns the home and she's alone. And I do think that sometimes the pendulum can swing too far into independence. And can I just tell you that God does not want us to be dependent, but he also doesn't want us to be completely independent. Some of you are like, "Lord, lead me." And he was like, "You're not giving me any room to lead you "because you make all your own decisions, "you have all your own strategies, "you have all your own plans, "and there is no room for me to lead you "because you are too independent." And so some of us have the problem being too dependent. I'm like, "Wake up, take a shower, "get out of the bed, do something." But then some of us are too independent. And the Bible says, "Lean not on your own understanding, "but in all your ways acknowledge him "and he will direct your path." And so how many of you are thankful that his ways are higher than your ways, his thoughts are higher than your thoughts. So even just looking initially at this text, we see that she is independent. And then let's kind of look at what she has. But Martha was distracted, everybody say distracted. She was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and she asked, "Lord, look at, "Jesus, Lord, don't you care that my sister "has left me to do all the work by myself? "And then look what she does to Jesus Christ? "She tells Jesus what to do. "Now I know why she ain't got no man. "This is what she said. "Tell Jesus, now imagine. "Jesus, tell her what to do. "Some of you got a Martha spirit "you need to get delivered from. "See, the church right now globally "and I've traveled all over the world "in the last several years "is plagued by this Martha spirit. "We're always concerned with what someone else is doing. "We go to church and we're like, "What do you think about V1 Church? "It was all right except for Mary. "Did you see that girl on the worship team? "Did you see her? "Who does she think she is? "Where were her clothes bought? "What do you think about the church? "Oh, it was great except for the pastor. "I go for the worship and the fellowship, "but pastor Mike, Jesus, tell him what to do "because he doesn't know what he's doing. "Well, how many years have you been a pastor? "Well, I've never been a pastor. "Okay, guy at day. (audience laughing) For my international people, that means shut up. (audience laughing) We have this Martha thing, but here's the title of my sermon. Feelings should be indicators, not dictators. We're one of those churches. Wow. (audience laughing) You know, there's those churches. Oh, wow, it's kind of annoying for the visitors. They're like, "Why do they think everything he says "is so great?" There's a Martha. There's a Martha. Why do they say, "Wow." Nobody says, "Wow," and I talk. That's the Martha spirit. Always worried about somebody else. Always distracted. So just turn to your neighbor and just tell them your feelings should be indicators, not dominators. They should be indicators. Now tell them this, your feelings should be indicators, not dictators. So your emotions should not be dictating you and they should not be dominating you. And guess what? If you're emo like me, you can't stop from feeling the feelings. If I had bangs, they would be over my face. If I could grow bangs, they would be, "Hello darkness, my own friend." (audience laughing) But here's the thing. I can't stop from feeling it. It's what I do with my feelings. Am I allowing my feelings to dictate my actions or am I walking by the spirit? Because listen, when Martha was looking at the dishes and all the chores and the preparations for her house and Jesus was there teaching, she looked at Mary and something inside of her said, "This work could be a lot less if you would help me. "Why are you not helping me? "I never feel like I don't have help "and I also don't have a man "and I gotta do it myself." And I, do, do you feel it? So let me ask you, is it about Mary or is it about Martha and her feelings? Sometimes the issues that you think so real are so real are not a reflection of the other person as much as it's a reflection of you. It's your identity producing the issues. It's not your issues bothering you. It's you being in an environment that triggers you. And so what do you do? You don't remove the trigger. You go to the source of the pain. You allow the Lord to deal in your identity because the thing that's soliciting you is the impetus for the thing that heals you. Because God can't heal what's not revealed. So He'll put you in an environment that'll cause you to act out so He can get it out. I'm trying to teach you today. I said He'll put you in an environment where you act out so He can get it out. And some of you are running from the local church. I don't like the way it makes me feel. I don't know the way it makes you feel is an indicator of what God wants to heal. Martha and Mary, Martha, Martha. Now you know when dad says your name twice, you're in trouble. Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed. Or indeed only one. Now another translation, the ESV says, it says, Martha, Martha, you have anxiety about many things. You all thought anxiety was a new problem. Said you have anxiety about a lot of things. But here's what's interesting, is that she was trying to make the issue about Mary. But what Jesus responded with was like, no, no, it's not really about this. You actually are worried and have anxiety about everything. Like you're worried about many things. So what you'll notice about people who criticize and complain is that they wanna convince you that it's coming from an intellectual perspective. Well, what did you think about the church? Well, let me tell you what I think. I came in and this stage was off by three centimeters. And the volume was 97 decimals. I preferred 91 decimals. It's like they wanna, but if you could follow them through life, you would find out that they criticize everything on their job. They criticized everything at school. They criticized everything on the sports team. They are critical not because things are worthy of criticism, but because their identity can only produce criticism. Like they're critical because critical is an identity that produces criticism. And if you get sucked into that, you'll actually never be able to enjoy anything. These people are at Disney. Everybody's having the best time of their life. Mickey Mouse is waving. Goofy's like, oh, hi. And that person's like, Disney. It's disgusting here. Who do these people think they are? See, what you realize is that there is no place that will make a Martha happy because happiness is not the result of the external, it's the result of the internal. And what happens is the climate and the condition of your soul becomes the things that come out of your mouth, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so all they can do is complain. Matter of fact, I bet you that Martha is probably more critical of herself than she was of Mary. And usually it becomes the grand distraction. How can I get you focused on Pastor Julie so you don't recognize my own stuff? I'm gonna blog about her. I'll make a video about her. I'm gonna talk about her at lunch because maybe if I could get you focused on her, you wouldn't recognize anything wrong with me. We have a generation of Martha's that are demanding that Jesus deals with Mary when really the solution is sit down next to Mary. Listen to Jesus. Now I'm gonna speak prophetically. We have an appending election here in the United States. It's about to get wild. If you're a Democrat, you better love me. If you're a Republican, you better love me. If you're an independent, you're gonna be the most mad. Sometimes I think in American politics, it's two wings of the same bird. And it's a big WWF drama that we all have to pretend we believe. But I will tell you this, kings and kingdoms will all pass away. There's just something about that name. The name of Jesus. Y'all, we could be fighting over presidents, but I'm thankful we have a king. And while everybody is talking, while the talking news, the pundits, the talking head, while all the drama is unfolding, I wanna be seated at the feet of Jesus. And guess what? I'm not too interested in my opinion. I wanna hear what he has to say. And there's something about this posture. I believe this sermon is prophetic. We've gotta sit down at his feet and begin to receive. And by the way, let me just say this. You cannot talk and listen at the same time. You sometimes have to shut your mouth so that you can hear what's coming out of his mouth. And I believe that there's too many Christians that are interested in dispensing their opinion that they can't even hear Jesus while he's speaking. Everyone's like, I don't know if I should clap, run to the altar, give me a barf bag. What do I have to do? But there's two different kinds of churches. There's churches with Martha's, and there's churches with Mary's, but we don't wanna be either one of them. Because the point of this sermon is not Martha versus Mary. It's be Mary before you become Martha. Did you catch that? Be Mary before you become Martha, because Jesus didn't say that she shouldn't do it. What he said was you're out of priority. Like if your priority is sitting at my feet, if your priority is receiving from me, then from that place of identity, from that place of intimacy, then you go on to do what I've called you to do. And one of the worst things that can happen is you join the local church and especially a church that you perceive as influence so that you can get close enough to the leaders so that you have influence, which reveals that you're serving for significance. Serving for significance is the hallmark of the orphan spirit. Sometimes people join a church. I know it's hard to believe, but they never joined to learn. They never joined to sit at Jesus' feet. They learn to serve and in serving, give themselves a feeling of significance. That's dangerous because if you put your identity in your position, all I've got to do is take away your position and you have no identity. If you think that you're a singer, then what happens when you lose the ability to sing? Then do you stop to exist? If you think that you're a preacher, but nobody schedules you to preach, then do you have an identity crisis? No, I'm a son who gets to preach sometimes. You're a daughter who sometimes sings. And so you take away the preaching, but you didn't take away my identity because I was always a son. I was a son when I plugged that thing in during load in. I was a son when I preached the sermon. I'm a son when I'm in a stadium, but I'm a son when I'm in the streets. So you can't take anything from me because I don't get my significance from what I do. I get my significance from what he says I am. Significance is inherited, not earned. You can't earn it, you inherit it, you receive it. And I'm telling you, there's so many people. Pastor Mike, I joined this church because I have a ministry. We'll calm down, Martha. We all have a ministry. I don't know if you realize that. We all have a destiny. Jesus died for all of us. But Pastor Mike, you don't understand. I floated into the room. I don't even walk anymore. And I have prophetic work that are so accurate that it would make even Elijah look like he was a false prophet. And Pastor Mike, you don't understand. I can preach so much better than you. Praise God, I'm, you probably can. And you, they're these people and they don't realize, listen, you're peacocking. You don't need to show me all your feathers. I believe that you're beautiful. But because Jesus said so, not because your talent said so. Because even if those gifts were from God, they only glorify him when you use them. So stop the competition, this Martha and Mary thing. Look at, he says, Martha, Martha, the Lord answered. You're anxious and upset about many things, but few things are needed. And indeed only one, Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her. The question of the church of the 21st century is not a question of sin and not sin. It's better versus best. Hey, that's great that you did that event. That's great that you, that you did this. They did that, the programming. Oh man, it was amazing. But the question is what's better. Intimacy is better than production. I said intimacy is better than production. You've got Christians that scroll more than they read the scroll. You've got Christians that can only pray for five minutes but they can gossip for five hours. You've got Christians that don't understand intimacy, what we understand industry. Lord didn't ask us to learn the industry and even worship. This is how stupid we are. We made worship into an industry. Worship is intimacy. How many people downloaded your song? Well, I don't know, it seems as if everybody heard it but the Lord. Is it industry or intimacy? This is the question of the church right now. Who will sit at and listen to me homie? If you come to V1, you're like those services are a little long. All I'm trying to do is make up for your Netflix binge watching. 'Cause you never said that your favorite sports team went too long. Matter of fact, when it goes into overtime, you watch more intently. What if I told you we're in the overtime of history and heaven is counting on you, clicking into intimacy to hear from Jesus, to do what God's called you to do. And with all the sin and we've been doing, we might as well stay in church for two hours instead of one. Praise God. I'm preaching to myself because it takes a Martha to see a Martha. I'm telling all myself, I've got the playbook to competition and rivalries. I got the playbook looking at somebody else. Listen, can I just tell you, they can't help it that they had a child when you were infertile. They couldn't help it that they got a full head of hair and you didn't. Come on, talk to me after I get back from Turkey. (congregation laughing) They could, they can't help it that your dad died prematurely and there didn't. They can't help it that they got a promotion on the job while everybody was hating on you. But you can help how you respond to what that elicits in you. Because if you will break competition with celebration, maybe you would get something too. See what this in the orphanage, we call the local church. We can't be fighting for resources when we serve the God of abundance. If He did it for them, all it becomes is a story that He can do for you. It becomes a spirit of prophecy or it becomes demonic gossip. We get to choose. If somebody else's marriage gets healed, you could be mad and say, "Well, my husband would never take me to church." Or you could say, "God, if you did it through their husband, you're going to do it through mine." It can become gossip or it can become a prophecy. But we choose because our feelings cannot be dictators. They must be indicators. Oh, I used to be so mad walking around New York City. Here I am. My dad was a murderer, died prematurely. Look at that pastor over there. Second generation ministry, they raised a quarter of a million dollars to send them to New York. I'm living in a 600 square foot apartment with my family. Nobody helped me. By the way, I'm more genuine and authentic than them anyways. I mean, I was filled with then coming into V1 church, trying to pastor people when I needed to rebuke myself. Break competition with celebration. It's not about them. It's about their presence making you manifest. Did you hear me? It's not about them. It's about their presence making something manifest in you that God wants to deal with. Then the Lord begin to deal with me, Mike. They have a biological father. But if I'm your father and I own a cattle on a thousand hill, why are you tripping about their quarter of a million dollar launch budget? Is that another way of saying you don't believe that I'm your supply? Mike, that pastor that you're mad at in New York City, do you think maybe he has his own struggles or do you think his life is perfect? And so I sent you to this city to be an encourager. I sent you to this city to be one that's an ambassador of me. And which assignment are you going to choose? Binnerness, which makes you a son of Satan or celebration, which makes you my son. Okay, Lord, I'm sorry. See, because let me just tell you, for most of us in the house, we want Jesus' seat. This is the seat we want. Oh, Jesus, I'll tell you who my dad should have been. I'll tell you where I should have been raised. I'll tell you what skin color I should have had. You know, it takes me four hours to straighten my hair, just so it looks like that woman in church next to me. Jesus, I'll tell you how it should be. Oh, Jesus, by the way, they're pastoring that church wrong. If you would release me, I'll tell them how to do it the right way, especially Pastor Jocelyn. Jesus, you know. Pastor Danny's cool, but Pastor Exica, I'll tell her how to do it, right? This is what people do. You understand that, right? Because they believe that if they don't do it, it won't be done right. As if Jesus isn't in the room. Jesus told Peter upon this rock, I will build my church. So it never was Jocelyn's church. Never was Mike's church. So do you trust Jesus? Or do you not trust Jesus? Oh, no, no, but Jesus, I have to help you. I have to do, no, no, no, you need to sit down. You need to listen to me. You need to shut your YouTube channel down. I don't need your help canceling people because I lift them up and I bring them down low. I expose, I reveal, or I conceal while I'm healing. And I don't need your help. And we got a whole bunch of Martha's that think that they're helping Jesus. Jesus don't need your help. He didn't need it 2,000 years ago. He resurrected all by himself. And you got people are like, no, no, Jesus. I'll help you expose the false teachers and the wolves. I'll help you do that, Jesus. And Jesus is like, hey, gaiate. Benaki. Is that how you say it? Benaki. A key. Here, a key. I don't know if he would have done it. Oh, he, oh, I'm joking. I really think that some of us think we're big and bad adults. We think we're in charge. We think we know it all. We can flawlessly exegethe the scriptures. Our theology is perfect. Nobody else is this, but ours is. And I think the Lord looks at us and what he's saying in this hour is, Martha, you're anxious about everything. You didn't just try to cancel one person. You're trying to cancel 50 at the same time. You're anxious about everything. So everybody's a threat to the body of Christ. How did the body of Christ survive before your blog? How did the body of Christ survive before your YouTube channel? Martha, you're anxious about everything. Just sit down. Just sit down. And can I just tell you as the pastor of this church, this is also not my seat. This is, this is my seat. And so my invitation is come sit with me. Let's listen to what? Oh, Pastor Mike, that was such a great sermon. I don't know, I just sat at his feet and said, what do you want to tell your people through your Holy Spirit? Pastor Mike, aren't we going to do more ministry? You got to do it? No, no, we will, but we have to be merry first before being the true Martha. So yeah, Jesus didn't tell us, don't work. He just said, this is better. Start here. And then once we do this, we congratulate to that. Because see, what will happen is if you find your significance in your sitting, then you will not find any significance in your serving. And then your serving won't matter. And then if you get asked to preach or if you get asked to play on the team, or if you just get asked to plug something in at 6 a.m., all of it will be unto him. Because your significance is in your sitting, not in your serving. Am I getting through to anybody today? This is what the body of Christ needs. And let me, let me just, now let's go. So we just looked at chapter 10 of Luke. Now I want to follow the story in another gospel. So now let's go to John. And we're going to look at John chapter 11. Now this is a family. So there's two daughters and a son. So the son's name is Lazarus. Have you ever heard of him? So you have Mary, Martha, and you have Lazarus. And now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village that Mary and her sister, Martha. This was just right outside of Jerusalem. It says this Mary, this is the Mary whose brother Lazarus now lay sick. He was from the same, he was the same one that she poured the perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sister sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one that you love is sick." When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death." No, it is for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. And then he said to his disciples, "Let us go to Judea." Let me just tell those of you who are new to the faith, something that you're going to learn. He may not show up when you want him to, but he's always on time. He is an on time God. He will do what he said he's going to do. And I don't know when he's going to do it, and I don't always know how he's going to do it, but you see a consistent story amongst this family as Jesus is trying to teach them complete and total reliance on him. And I will tell you, I come out of that position way too easy. Am I the only one, strategist? We got a plan for a plan for a plan for a plan. If this doesn't work, I'll do this, then I'll do this, then if that doesn't work, I'll do that. And the Lord's like, when you get done, finish triangulating your entire plan, would you finally submit? Because God wants to do more through submission and surrender than you can ever do through strategy. And some of you are obsessing over strategy, and the Lord's laughing at you saying, "I could get all that done and more if you would just surrender." And this is what Martha and Mary are doing. They're strategizing. Our brother, sick, we have a personal relationship with Jesus and he heals sick people. Let's go get him to come. Sounds like a good plan, doesn't it? So Jesus delays to teach them a lesson. The lesson is, I don't submit and surrender to your plan. You submit and surrender to mine. So some of you are like, "God, why haven't you answered my prayer?" And he's like, "Oh, no, no, I won't be late, even though it feels like a delay. I'm just waiting for you to run out of strategy because the end of your strategy is the beginning of the supernatural. Oh, I'm helping somebody right now." And a lot of times our emotions become indicators, but we allow them to become things that we obsessively dictate our actions. And what we do is we say, "Oh, I got an idea. I have a relationship with Pastor Jocelyn and Pastor Eddie and my husband. He would really like Pastor Eddie because Pastor Eddie is so relatable and he's a New Yorker. And he sounds like my husband and they could get together and they could talk about New York stuff. And then when they talk about New York stuff, then maybe my husband will think that God is cool and then he'll get saved and then he won't be acting the way he's acting. But because Pastor Eddie didn't hang out with my husband, my husband never got saved, so it's your fault. I had a plan and I had personal relationships. They talked to me one time during loading and I don't understand why they didn't help me. See, this is the foolishness that destroys the local church is putting our plan and our strategy in the midst of the supernatural and those things are incompatible. Let me just tell you, if Pastor Eddie was able to personally meet with your husband and talk him into Christianity, somebody else could meet with your husband and talk him out of Christianity. If it's a function of the intellect, it is not going to be fruit that remains. Your husband needs a supernatural experience at the cross of Jesus Christ and that's nothing your pastor can do. Stop being mad at people for not doing what your prayer life was designed to do. Sit down at the feet of Jesus. Oh, I'm trying to help somebody. Well, I'm mad at Pastor Mike because he looked at me one time and looked away. I'm almost legally blind. I don't know what I was looking at. Stop being mad at me. But even if I did everything in my power to help you, it would be insufficient for the miracle that you need. Only Jesus can do what you need done and stop letting your feelings cause you to distance from people. You got to choose isolator emulate. Wow. We're like one of those churches. You know, there's, I preach all over the world. There's always those tears. Wow. Revelation, wow. Make that a clip. So you have to isolate or emulate. That's really what you're, that's what your emotions will say. So when you look at Mary, you can isolate yourself and say, well, I'm just going to go over here. And I'm going to serve the Lord at home alone. And I don't need no church. And I don't need no pastor because the Lord's my pastor. He did say he was my shepherd in Psalm 23 anyways. Bad theology. All I had to do was delete 70% of the New Testament to be here at home alone. Then you got those kinds of best isolate. And then they make whole theological frameworks around woundedness. Well, I love home churches. No, you just hate being around people who trigger things that you haven't let God heal. I'm trying to help you. I told you I have the playbook because I am you. That's, you know what God did in his cruelty? He took one of the most wounded people and made them the pastor. And then he said, guess what Mike? Because you didn't make an excuse and you allowed me to heal it. I will use your scars and your stories to help other people get healed. And I just have to believe that you're here in the house of God across any one of our six locations because God wants to deal with the thing that he's revealing. Yeah, life is so unfair. Of course, it's unfair for all of us. But what are you going to do about it? Are you going to isolate or emulate? And when you look down at Mary, we're to become like Mary. We're to get down at the feet of Jesus and go back to that place of intimacy. And they're trying to manipulate Jesus. Jesus, come my brother sick. And Jesus is like, listen, no, watch, there's a template. I never saw this before. When they were at Martha's house, Martha told Jesus what to do about Mary. Did she not? And she's doing it again. She's trying to change Jesus whole schedule to come to her brother. She's trying to run Jesus, a woman without a husband trying to run the leader. Got real awkward. And you see that today, don't fall into the trap of witchcraft, which is manipulation, domination and control, witchcraft. Don't fall into the trap of witchcraft, always trying to control. Surrender submission is the antidote. And Jesus forced it out of his love for Martha. Now, what I love about Jesus is he didn't say that woman's trying to manipulate me. I'm not showing up. What he said is, I'm going to show up later than she thinks I should to show her who's really in charge. And then look, now we're John chapter 11, let's go to verse 25. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again because now he's dead, four days dead, which in Judaism, they believe that the spirit of a person would stick around the body for three days. So at four days, they would believe that the spirit finally departed from the body. And so four days was basically like another way of saying, it's done. He's dead dead. And so when Jesus shows up, he now says she'll rise again. Now Martha answered, look how Martha answered. I know he will rise again in the resurrection of the last days. She answered like a theologian. She had perfect Christian theology. Well, I know Jesus, what you're saying is true. They will rise again at the resurrection of the last days of the dead. See, sometimes we become like Martha that we always know the perfect Christian response, but we don't know Christ. We know, we know the theology. We know the scriptures, but we don't have an intimate relationship with the word. We memorize the scriptures. See the devil memorized the scriptures, but was not obedient to the word. Come on, I'm trying to help somebody right now. It was like Jesus was right there and Martha did not have a revelation of who he was, even though she had a theology about resurrection. And this is how Jesus responds. He says, I am the resurrection and the life. Right now we're living in an era where everybody knows the scripture, but who's obedient to it? Who's obedient to it? And she needed this alignment. I am the resurrection, he says. And then he calls Lazarus fourth and he's miraculously resurrected. But here's what I want to show you. Now go to chapter 12 as we close. Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus honor. I bet they would give him dinner after that resurrection. Now you got Lazarus who's raised from the dead. And it says Martha served while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with them. So look at Martha, she's still serving. Now Lazarus is reclining at the chair, at a chair. Now he's sitting there at that table and it's so amazing because here comes Mary again. Look at verse three. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, this fragrant oil, this expensive perfume. And she poured it out on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Did you know that most biblical scholars believe that because of this timeline and how close the events happen that Jesus would have been dying on the cross, still smelling like the fragrance of the oil that she placed upon him? Think about that. And then Jesus said afterward, he said this moment where she anointed me, the gospel will be preached all around the world. And this story will be a memorial forever to all those who hear the gospel. But we know in the book of Acts they gave extravagantly. Why do we not have a record of all of those people? Why Mary? Because when Mary worshiped and she poured out that oil, it was a sign that she understood who he really was and didn't want to miss the moment. One of the best indicators that you know who Jesus is, is you push aside all of the distractions and you pour out the oil, the very fragrance of your worship before the Lord. And you say, I don't care about anything else. I'm not living this life for the pleasures of this world. I'm not living this life to buy a house and a car in a middle class existence. There is more I am here to worship. And I believe that God is awakening the true worshipers in the earth in this hour that will say, well, you all are fighting about church politics and American politics. I want to lavish him with my oil. I want to pour out my life and the world would say this is a wasted life, but I want to waste my life at his feet. I want to waste my life in worship. I want to waste my life in dedication and prayer. You say it's a wasted life, but I call it a life of worship. When your husband says, I don't understand why you give money to that local church, well, let me tell you that man Lazarus was my brother. And I watched Jesus raise him from the dead. And the least I can do is give what I give in the offering. Oh, I don't care. Why are you waking up early to go load in in a nightclub in Brooklyn every week? Let me tell you, if you've seen the resurrection power of Jesus, you'd be waking up whenever you could lavish him with his oil. Is there anybody here who can testify right now that you have seen the resurrection power of Jesus at work in your life? And it won't make sense to those who don't understand. You know what I think is crazier about this story is how could Martha see her brother get resurrected from the dead and not join Mary in pouring out the oil upon him? She still elevated the serving above the worship. Can I just tell you at V1 Church, we are those that will pour our oil upon his feet. Let it be a memorial to our family. When my kids are like, Dad, why did we move across the country? Why did we sell our house? Dad, why did we wake up 52 weeks a year and assemble with the people? Dad, why did we endure so much persecution and backbiting and so many people gossiping? God, why did we just endure so? I will tell my kids because I have seen the resurrection power of Jesus Christ and I am convinced that nothing else in life matters more than sitting at his feet. I am convinced. I sought the Lord. He heard me and he answered. I was in the lowest low. I was in the minory clay. Nobody could save me. No pill could fix it. No therapist can solve it. But I called upon the Lord and he heard and he answered and he came running after me and I'll pour my oil out. And if my life is just an alabaster box, let it pour. Is there anybody who had jumped to their feet right now and get ready to worship with me? Trying to rattle your cage, trying to rattle your cage. I've been thinking so much about life lately. What is my life? What did my life mean? What was my life worth? And I've dedicated myself that I will be known as a follower of Jesus Christ. I want people to say, what was that guy? What was the total sum of all of his aspirations? All of his hopes, all of his dreams, I'll say it was for one thing to waste and see, you've got to understand, the alabaster box was her inheritance. It was literally a year's worth of finances. And once she broke it up and what she was saying is, I don't have a plan B. Matter of fact, I find it interesting that it's referred to as Martha's house. Said Martha in Mary's house. It was almost as if Mary was saying nothing else matters to me. No material possession, nothing else. But from that place, we're about to pray from that place. Wow, I feel something in the spirit. I feel a well of humility opening. I feel it. See, the only way that we would get embroiled in this much conflict is we forgot the joy of our salvation. Don't you remember how low you were? Don't you remember the stench of your own sin? Don't you remember? I mean, who are we? Who are we but those that said yes, unapologetically were washed by the blood of the lamb, then he put our feet on a solid rock. Who are we? And see what I believe is happening right now in this moment for many of you. Is the Lord is shifting you? You're here in this service by divine appointment, by the way. It's not that what Martha did was wrong. It was in the wrong order. If you will worship, if you'll sit at his feet, what are one of the signs that you're birthing in next level? You will feel a very intense draw to prayer. You'll have spontaneous moments of crying. You'll begin to have prophetic dreams that you don't know how to discern. You'll have lies and accusations from those around you, character assassinations. One of the ways that you know that you're going to the next level is all of a sudden you get discontent. You can't stand yourself anymore. You can't stand your job anymore, but your feelings are indicators, not dominators. Those are not dictators. They're indicators. Don't let these feelings cause you to isolate. Cause them to emulate Mary. Go into a time of worship and say, God, this is holy discontent. You're pushing me forward. You're pushing me forward when the mother can't keep the baby in her womb anymore. She's so uncomfortable. I got to get this thing out of me. Some of you have carried to a full term and it's time to birth the next level. These feelings that you have is what's up ahead of you. It's greater than what's behind you. Don't back down now. It's time to pour our oil. Hallelujah. Okay, I got to do this. I got to do this. If you have not surrendered your life to Jesus, I'm talking or maybe you're a backslider. But if you have not surrendered your life to Jesus, you're like, you know what? I've been this Martha. Super critical of everything around me. But I really just need to get at his feet and give him my life. And I don't think I've done that. I've gone to church. I've been around worship, but I've never just given my life to him. Would you just lift your hand and say, I want to do that now. I want to give my life to him. Come on, let me see your hands. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Come on, there's so many. Eight, nine, ten. Come on, eleven, twelve. Come on, this is the most important moment of your life. This is happening across all of our locations right now. Church, let's lift up one prayer with them. And then we're going to lift up a prayer together and then we're going to worship. Say this with me. Say, Heavenly Father, I thank you for the cross, where my sins were forgiven. Wash me with your blood. I want to break my alabaster box. I want to pour my oil. I want to give you my life. No more strategy. No more competition. No more striving. I want to sit at your feet. Save me. Make me your child. Jesus' name. Amen. Now everybody else lift up your hands towards heaven. We're going to pray this together right now. And I wanted you to, I just want you to say this, Father, I give you my all extravagant worship. I push aside my agenda, my will for your will. Bring me into true worship. True intimacy with you. I pour my love on you. I pour my love on you. Come on, let's just lift this song up. Come on. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]