Thankful for Much - Live with Lon!

Welcome to Live with Lon. I am so glad that you're with us today. We are in the Gospel of John, catching up to the triumphal entry where we have already reached that passage in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And chapter 12 of John is where we catch up. So we've been catching up and then we'll merge all four Gospels and we'll cover them together. So today we begin John chapter 11.

Wow! What an amazing chapter of Scripture! And you say, you know, you've said that about John 8 and about John 9 and about John 10 and John 5 and John 6. I know!

I know! John's Gospel is just chock-a-block full of amazing spiritual truth and we have another great chapter to begin today. John chapter 11. Praise the Lord!

So, are you ready? Let's pray. Dear Lord Jesus, as we open the Word of God today, we pray that you would teach us about you, that you would teach us about how to please you, that you would teach us about the things that you value and that you love, and Lord Jesus, the things you cherish from us. So use your Word in a special way in that regard today. Make our hearts open and receptive to the Holy Spirit and your truth today. And we pray this in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, what'd you say? Come on! Amen! And what? Amen! Okay. Now, here at Live with Lon, we study, say with me, the Bible.

Come on! The whole Bible, nothing but the Bible, and then we apply to our life. And we're gonna do that in just a moment, but remember I told you that we are running, not a sermon, just a thought, our one-minute ad that points people to Jesus. We're running it, and we run it on secular radio, and right now we're finishing up the first quarter where we ran it in Chicago and Seattle, and now we're already started up in Portland and Pittsburgh. So pray for us because we're saturating the airwaves in these cities for three months. Now I got an email about, not a sermon, just a thought, and let me read part of it to you, and then I'll read you my answer.

Sometimes people don't give their email, but this person did. Here we go. Your recent ad threatening people that they would go to hell if they don't share your beliefs was revolting, and you should be ashamed. I am happy for people to believe whatever makes them happy, but no one has a right to impose those beliefs on others.

No mortal has authority over anyone's morality other than our legal system to protect ourselves from each other. Instead of threatening people, tell positive stories of human forgiveness, redemption, love, and understanding. Your message was one of hatred and bigotry for those not like you, and that is fundamentally immoral.

I am writing a formal complaint to the radio station. Wow. You say you answered him? I did. Listen to what I said.

I wrote him back, and I said, dear, and I used his name, Lon Solomon here. Thanks for writing and sharing your thoughts with me. I understand your outrage at what I said on the human logic level, and on that level, of course, you are probably right. The only problem is that the Bible claims to have higher authority than human logic, and it says, quote, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them. End of quote, John 3 36. Trying to make people believe what I believe is immaterial, trying to help them believe what God says in the Bible is essential. Sincerely, Lon Solomon.

There it is, baby. Well, I'm sure he did call the radio station and give them an earful, but thank God for the First Amendment, and thank God we can be on the radio telling people about the Lord Jesus Christ, and about how to really get to heaven, and about how to really stay out of hell. So, thank you for your prayers. Let's continue to pray as we saturate these cities, and you say, when you say saturated, what do you mean? I mean, we buy, I don't know, $75,000 or more in a quarter, and we're on the classical station, the news station, the rock stations, the oldie stations, the country stations, the hip-hop stations, all of them. Yeah, and we're on them often. So, if you remember the woman who wrote last week said, I'm sick of hearing you on my radio. That's the idea. Saturation advertising with the gospel.

So, thanks for your prayers, and thanks for your financial support that makes it possible for us to do this. Now, you say, what is a not a sermon like? Well, just before we dig into the Bible, let me give you one.

It's right off the top of my head. I'm telling you that fame and fortune are not what they're cracked up to be, and Madonna said that as part of promoting her new album. What's interesting is that people will sacrifice their integrity, their honor, and their reputation to get the very fame and fortune that Madonna was talking about. Jesus comments on this in the Bible, however. He said, what good is it if a person gains the whole world and loses their own soul? Instead, Jesus calls us to a different, a higher way of living. He calls us to live for Him, and to live for eternity, where everything we're living for is everything it's cracked up to be and more.

Why not join Him? For more information, check out our website, not a sermon dot com. That's not a sermon dot com. You say, wow, Lon. Who makes, who does, who makes those up? I do. You say, you do?

I did, I, that's amazing. Well, praise the Lord. Now, we never push church, we never push our, you know, Live with Lon, or supporting our ministry. No, it's all about Jesus.

Just Jesus and knowing Him and what He can do to change your life. Okay, enough. I'm just trying to give you a preview of what you're supporting and what you're praying for, and this is what people are hearing right, right on the radio station between Bon Jovi and ACDC. Yeah, all right. Well, let's get into the Bible now. What do you say?

All right, here we go. John chapter 11, verse 1. Now, a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister, Martha.

Now, Bethany was a small town, just a mile or so, from the Mount of Olives, and a mile and a quarter from downtown Jerusalem from the temple, and Jesus often stayed in Bethany with Mary and Martha according to the Bible, because all he had to do was walk over the top of the Mount of Olives, and he was essentially there. So Mary and Martha and Lazarus were well known to Jesus, and he to them. Verse 2. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent to Jesus, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. And when Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

Now, we're gonna stop there. Incredible beginning to a chapter, and man, there's so much, even in these four verses, I'm not even gonna be able to cover all all of it today, but what I really want you to notice, I really want you to notice verse 2. It was that Mary, the one that lived in Bethany, the sister of Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

Well, I want to talk to you about that verse today. Now, this happened twice to the Lord Jesus. There was a woman who anointed his feet with oil and wiped his feet with her hair just before he went to the cross. We find that in John chapter 12, where this woman did this. This is Mary based on verse 3 of chapter 12. So, is that the passage that John is talking about? Mary anointing the feet of Jesus? Yes, possibly, but there's also another time that this happened back in Luke chapter 7. Could this have been Mary who did it? Yes, possibly, because the way the author, John, says this was the woman who did that seems strange if she hasn't already done it.

You follow what I'm saying? She hasn't done it yet. She doesn't do it until the next chapter. Is it possible that he's telling us that in preparation for the next chapter? Yes. Is it possible she did it twice?

Yes. Is it possible he's talking about her first time, the first time she did the anointing in Luke chapter 7, which would make the past tense? This was the woman who anointed him make a lot of sense in John 11.

Yes, yes to all of that. Here in John chapter 7, the woman who anointed Jesus is not named. So, we're not positive who this is, but could it be Mary as mentioned in John chapter 11?

Yes, it could. And it's not Mary Magdalene who did this, because Mary Magdalene is mentioned in Luke chapter 8. In a way, Luke chapter 8 verse 2, that makes it clear that she's not the woman in chapter 7, because Luke would have immediately connected that being this close to one another. You follow what I'm saying? So, I think it's possible that what we're reading in Luke 7 is Mary the sister of Lazarus.

I can't be sure, but I think it's very possible. So, we're gonna look at Luke 7 now for the rest of our time in the Bible with the assumption that it was probably Mary Lazarus' sister. And even if it wasn't, the lesson of John chapter 7 is an amazingly important message, and I want to share it with you and me whether it was Mary Lazarus' sister or not.

Okay? All right, now here we go. Luke chapter 7, let's put it up on the screen. And one of the Pharisees asked him, Jesus, to eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down.

We don't we don't know where this happened for sure. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at his feet behind him weeping. And she began to wash his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head.

And she kissed his feet and anointed him with the fragrant oil. Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he spoke to himself saying, this man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is, who is touching him, for she is a sinner. I don't know exactly what kind of sinner she was, but I suspect she was a prostitute. Just by the way the Pharisee talks about her, what kind of woman this is, she's a sinner.

So, I suspect that. And Jesus answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he said, teacher, say it. Now, this is not Simon Peter Jesus is talking to, because right after the man thinks that she's a awful sinner, verse 40 starts and says, and Jesus answered and said to him, not Simon Peter, to the Pharisee. So the Pharisee must have been named Simon.

All right. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed him 500 denarii, and the other 50.

A denarius was basically about a day's labor, a day's worth of wages. So one guy owed him the equivalent of 50 days of work, month and a half. The other guy owed him 500, which is like a year and a half. If your salary is $50,000, this is like $75,000 you owe him.

Okay. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, he says to the Pharisee, which of them will love him more? And Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And Jesus said to him, you have rightly judged.

Okay, that makes sense, right? I forgive you a few hundred dollars. I forgive somebody else $75,000. Which one's gonna love me the most?

Well, probably the guy I forgave the most. Yeah? Okay. Now, and Jesus turned to the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in.

You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Therefore, I say to you, Simon the Pharisee, her sins, which are many, I don't argue with you, Simon, she has many sins, her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Wow.

You get the point, yeah? This is the, a woman with 500 denarii's worth of debt. Jesus forgives her and, and she loves him with all of her heart forever. And he said to her, Jesus did, your sins are forgiven.

Those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, who is this? Who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you, go in peace.

Now, when it comes to the, the power of Jesus to forgive sins, I would direct your attention to Luke chapter 5, where Jesus heals a paralyzed man as a way of proving that he has the authority on earth to forgive sins. So we're not going to talk about that here today, but we are going to talk about what Jesus said about people and how much they love him and how much they are grateful to him. And here's what he said, her sins, which are many, are forgiven because she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Friends, it's very interesting how Jesus equates our level of love for him and our level of gratitude to him, to our self-awareness of how much he has forgiven us, and to the reality of how much he has forgiven us in terms of our personal sin. Are you with me? Forgiven much, we love and are grateful much. Forgiven little, we love and are grateful little. That's what Jesus says. Now, that's as far as we're going to go in our passage, because we want to stop now and ask our most important question.

Are you ready? Come on now, here we go, come on, one, two, three, so what? Ha ha, yes. And I was thinking the other day as I was praying how great it is to be here on Live with Lon, to have left the pulpit where I preached every single week, and then for God to give me a chance to still preach every single week. And what does Jackie say? How, come on, how sweet it is. Or as Jackie would say, how sweet it is.

Now, I realized last week that I had this way up too close to the camera and it fuzzed out, so this week, thank you for telling me, this week I've got it back far enough that hopefully we're in focus how sweet it is. Now, what's the so what here? What's the not a sermon, just a thought here?

It's real simple, friends. God loves gratitude. God loves to be loved by us. He loves an appreciative spirit, which is what this woman had. She loved him and was so grateful for his forgiveness and what he had done for her, that she fell on the floor and washed his feet with her tears. You know how many tears you gotta cry to wash someone's feet? She must have been weeping uncontrollably, dried his feet with her hair, and then anointed his feet with fragrant oil, kissed his feet. Now, in the days of Jesus, people wore sandals and you know what?

Their feet got really dirty with all kinds of dust and excrement that animals left on the ground and who knows what else. People's feet were filthy and to kiss someone's feet? My my, that is a level of love and gratitude that was over and above the call of duty, but that reflected her sense of how much he had forgiven her, her awareness of the depth of her sinfulness that he had wiped out, which he says right here, woman, your sins are forgiven. There's a popular song today called Look What You Have Done and I was just listening to it the other day, the other night, as I was riding Jill around in the car. We ride around the car sometimes at night together and we listen to Christian music and Jill loves Christian music.

She sits in the back, my daughter, and she, she can't, she's not verbal, she can't really actually sing, but you know, she'll go, she'll go, yeah, yeah, yeah, trying to sing. It's sweet. I love it. And Look What You Have Done, this song came on and I just happened to start really getting into the words and in the song, the singer says, I was this, I was that, people had taken advantage of me, I was a slave to the, and telling all of these really sad and horrible things that were true of her before she came to Christ. And then the theme of the song is, but now you've come into my life, you've changed my life, look what you have done for me, look what you have done in my life, I'm a new person, she says, I'm a new creature in Christ, 2nd Corinthians 5 17. Wow. Friends, I hope you know that joy, I hope you know that forgiveness, I hope you know that feeling of gratitude and love for the Lord that you can't even express, it comes from so deep inside of you, knowing what He's forgiven you of.

I certainly do. Folks, my sins were not private sins, my sins were very public sins and they were not hidden. Paul said some people's sins go before them, some people's sins follow behind them.

I was a person, my sins went before me, they were obvious to all and I was just like the woman who was singing that song, look what you have done. My friends, when I came to Christ, I can't even express to you how grateful I was for what He began doing in my life and 51 years later, I'm still there, 51 years later, I still can't get over, Lord, look what you have done. Now some of us, our sins follow behind, we had more secret sins, you know, jealousy, slander, gossip, bitterness, envy, coveting, okay, God hates those sins just as much, self- righteousness, arrogance, it's just that there are more secret sins, but as we grow in our Christian life and as the Holy Spirit takes us deeper in our walk with God, we, if we're growing properly, should begin seeing those sins more clearly in our life and understanding how awful we were, maybe not outwardly, but genuinely, inwardly, but genuinely, and you know what happens when that happens, we stop judging people who have all those outward sins and we start looking at the beam in our own eye, yeah, either way the result ought to be more love and more gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well there's a verse of Scripture, Psalm 92, let me read it to you, verse 1, it is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to thy name O Most High, it is good to give thanks to the Lord and I hope that you and I have learned something about Jesus today that he loves to be loved, he loved this woman and he loved her gratitude. God loves the gratitude and the love of his people and I hope the more you grow in Christ, the more you find yourself falling in love with him and friends we ought to schedule a time in our prayer time every single day in our walk with God to say Lord Jesus I just want to remember back to what I was when you found me, maybe I didn't know back then how how evil and how bad I was but I know now and Lord I just want to say thank you, look what you have done. You know there's a great hymn and it says more love to thee O Christ, more love to thee. This is the prayer that I pray on bended knee and and this is a good prayer, Lord help me love you more and more as I appreciate the evil that is in my heart more and more and as I appreciate your forgiveness more and more. Let's pray, Lord Jesus make us grateful people, Lord I pray that you would make us people who come to you every day and in our heart we overflow with gratitude, with love, with appreciation, with thanksgiving for your incredible forgiveness and for the way you've turned us into new creatures in Christ. Lord help us understand your nature and your character that you take great pleasure in us being grateful like this so may we give you that pleasure we pray in Jesus name and everybody's said what a men and what a man you got it okay well we're gonna continue Lord willing John chapter 11 next week look forward to seeing you God bless you you