No Regrets | Doing More

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Sign up at harvest.org. The life of Judas Iscariot comes into view today, as Pastor Greg Laurie warns us against following his example. Judas is typical of so many people today. They want to give only that which is required by God and preferably get by with the bare minimum.

If they would be honest, their question would be, what is the least I can do and still technically be a Christian? Okay. This is thin ice and dangerous ground to be treading upon. When you're on the road, every once in a while, you may see an unusual speed limit sign.

Most mentioned the maximum speed, but a few post the minimum. Why is that? Well, because if you fall below the minimum, you're in danger. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us realize the danger of falling below the minimum in our walk with the Lord. Instead, we'll focus on giving our all and hoping to hear those words, well done, good and faithful servant. Jesus is more popular than ever.

By the way, this is nothing new. Jesus was popular in the first century as well, especially after he raised Lazarus from the dead. The name of Jesus was on everyone's lips. Wherever Christ went, crowds of people would press on him. He would be thronged. Matthew 12 says, large crowds gathered him and he got into a boat and sat down because a whole crowd was standing on the beach. He had to get into a little floating pulpit. In effect, you get a little distance from the crowd. We read over in Luke 12 that so many thousands of people gathered together to hear Jesus.

They were stepping on each other. And then in John 12, the text before us, a large crowd of the Jews learned that Christ was there and they came not just for Jesus, but that they also might see Lazarus whom he raised from the dead. So Jesus was very popular.

But here's the problem. This popularity would be short-lived. And the same people that were singing his praises now would be shouting for his crucifixion in only days. That's because they never really understood his real mission. Even his own hand-picked disciples didn't fully get it until he died and rose again from the dead with one exception.

And I would like to say it was Peter, James, and John sort of the favored three that Christ would take with him on special occasions. But it wasn't. Nor was it any other of the disciples that Jesus hand-picked. In fact, it wasn't a man at all. It was a woman. It was a woman who had greater insight spiritually than those who effectively spent every waking hour of their life with Jesus for some three extended years. Who was the woman that seemed to get what all the guys missed?

Her name was Mary. And it's worth noting that every time we read of her she is at the feet of Jesus. So maybe that's why she had such great insight she seemed to grasp an essential truth that was largely missed by the others.

And it was this. That Jesus had come to die. So she had a unique understanding as to who He was and why He came. And because of this she brought the most incredible valuable gift she could. And Jesus was so moved by her sacrificial act that He commended her and said, this will be a memorial that will never be forgotten. So what did this woman do that so impressed Jesus? Did she deliver an amazing sermon? No. Did she pray an incredible prayer of faith? Actually no. In fact what she did was not really very practical at all.

In fact you could even say it was somewhat impractical. But it was very heartfelt. So let's see what she did and why Jesus commended her. John 12 starting in verse 1. Six days before the Passover celebration began Jesus arrived in Bethany the home of Lazarus the man He had raised from the dead. A dinner was prepared in Jesus' honor.

By the way I am reading from the New Living Translation. Martha served as she usually did. And Lazarus was among those who ate with him. And Mary took a twelve ounce jar of expensive perfume made from the essence of nard. And she anointed the feet of Jesus with it wiping His feet with her hair.

And the house was filled with a fragrance. But Judas Iscariot the disciple who would soon betray Him said, this perfume was worth a year's wages. It could have been sold and the money could have been given to the poor.

I love John's commentary here. It is not that Judas cared for the poor. He was a thief. And since he was in charge of the disciples money he often stole some for himself. Jesus replied, leave her alone.

She has done this in preparation for My burial. You will always have the poor among you. But Me you will not always have.

We will stop there. And so this room is abuzz with conversation. A lot is going on. And the reality is Jesus was pondering and thinking about what was ahead now.

You know it is not always great to know everything. And Jesus did. In fact He would describe how the Son of Man, speaking of Himself, would be betrayed by one of His own. He would be delivered to the high priest and crucified by the Romans.

And three days later He would rise again. He knew all of this. He knew He was going to take the beating and the whipping and the crucifixion. And worst of all He knew He would bear all the sins of the world. And it was weighing heavily on Him this night.

And I don't think anyone happened to notice. Except Mary. She is watching Him. She is saying, something is troubling the Lord. And I want to do something so extravagant. So amazing that it will be a great blessing to Him. So she breaks open this box of expensive perfume.

Look at verse 3 again. A 12 ounce jar of expensive perfume. She anoints the feet of Jesus with it wiping His feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance. There is a good possibility that this bottle of perfume was a family heirloom. We find out later it was worth $25,000-$30,000. She took the whole bottle of expensive perfume and poured it on His feet.

It was an act of complete devotion and adoration. Judas Iscariot with calculator in hand. A man who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing instantly calculates how much of a waste this was.

As I said $25,000-$30,000. What a waste Judas says. And he had a point.

But this wasn't about perfume at all. This was about sacrifice. She brought the most valuable possession she owned and gave it to Jesus. What is the most valuable possession you own? Let's say a hurricane was coming to California.

Or maybe a fire. And you only had moments to remove from your house your most valuable items. What would you grab first? I have thought about this. What would I really grab? And honestly I thought I would grab probably things that my kids and grandkids made me. Because I couldn't replace them.

I would grab my wife. I wanted to say that first. I left that out. I am not talking about humans. I am talking about objects that I could not replace.

And so you stop and think about it. What is your most valuable physical possession right now? Like what thing do you have in your house? In your garage? In your pocket? On your wrist? On your finger? I don't know where it is. In a bank account somewhere?

What is the most valuable thing you have? Ok now question number two. Would you be willing to give that to Jesus Christ? That is literally what this woman did. And Judas did not get it at all. Judas is typical of so many people today. Like dutiful Pharisees they want to give only that which is required by God and preferably get by with the bare minimum. If they would be honest their question would be what is the least I can do and still technically be a Christian?

I have even heard it stated another way. How much can I get away with and still be saved? How many sins can I commit and still technically maintain my salvation and know that I will go to heaven when I die?

This is thin ice and dangerous ground to be treading upon. You don't ever want to think about the minimum you can give. You want to think about the privilege of the maximum you can give to God. You know someone might say well I go to church once a week. That should be good.

Or better yet once a month. So many things going on on Sundays. I will read the Bible if I have time. I am very busy. You know I have got to check my emails.

Check a few news sites. Update my social media. Feed the dog.

Do this and that. And if I get to it I will read a little Scripture. You know I will give in the offering if it occurs to me.

Let's see what change I have. There is a little lint. Can the church use some lint?

Here you go. Kind of an afterthought instead of coming prepared to give. The reality is some people will give more to a waitress in a restaurant than they will give to the work of God. At least the waitress gets 10 percent. I hope you give that much. Better yet 15 or 20. I will give 20 percent.

Well great. That is nice. Do you give 20 percent to God? Well what is the bare minimum? 10 percent.

10 percent of the gross of the net. See that is the way we think. We want to give the minimum.

Not the maximum. And we will pray if it occurs to us. If there is crisis we will pray a lot.

But if there is no crisis you know yeah if we get around to it I will sing the worship songs at church. But I don't really like it when they go too long. And if they start the hand lifting stuff it kind of makes me a little bit uncomfortable. These emotional outbursts.

And then it even gets worse. You can find yourself one of these people and then if that is not bad enough you will be critical of those that do more than you do. You are critical of them. Well why do they do that? Do they really need to do that?

Do they really need to go that far? You know maybe that is one of the reasons we don't see the work of God in quite the same scale as the yearly church saw it in the first century as recorded in the book of Acts. As modeled by Mary these first century believers had a sense of abandon about them. God would say to Philip, go to the desert and wait for further directions. And he would do it.

God would tell Peter to take a disabled man by the hand and pull him to his feet and Peter would go for it. They took risks. They put the farm on stuff.

And you know what? God blessed them as a result. They were simply in love with Jesus and they were willing to give it a try.

Yeah but Greg what if it fails? Hey I would rather try and fail in my attempt to bring glory to God than never try anything at all and even worse criticize others who try. Can people tell that you are a believer? Or are they surprised when they learn of your faith? Pastor Greg points out how the disciples were known for being men and women who had been with Jesus.

More on that in a moment. Whenever you send us a letter, an email, or post a comment on social media, we read every word. Pastor Greg, I've been encouraged by your teachings, your podcasts, Sunday services, online studies, and everything else I can get my hands on. I now have a peace that can only come from God. I found a great church home for myself and have been attending faithfully for the past six weeks.

Today I even signed up to be part of a small group. And while I love all the things I've been learning, what has truly blessed me is seeing God change my heart. I've never shed so many tears of joy over things I see God doing all around me and your ministry and teachings have been a big part of that. I'm so thankful and want to wish you God's richest blessings.

How have these daily studies ministered to you and your family? Would you let us know? Tell us your story by calling 1-866-871-1144. Again, 866-871-1144. Well today, Pastor Greg is helping us explore the outer limits of what we're willing to give and do for the Lord.

For a replay of today's study called No Regrets, just go to harvest.org. You know I have people periodically criticize me for how handsome I am and um no that's not true. That actually that's never happened in my life. No they'll criticize me and the fact that you laughed means you understood that was a joke immediately. Which in a way your laughter was a form of of insult but I'm okay with that. Now to criticize our evangelism. Oh we don't like your crusades.

We don't like that you have this music and and we don't like the this and we don't like that and what are the lights and we don't like it we don't like it. Okay whatever. What the heck are you doing? You know I mean that's my response. I mean maybe you don't like the way I'm doing it.

Well I don't like the way you're not doing it and then criticizing someone who is doing it. So I look at it that way. Do we do everything perfectly?

Yes. No we don't but but I'll tell you this. We're trying in our feeble ways at times to do everything we can to reach more people with the message of the gospel.

That's why we take risks. And we should all be that way. And that's the way Mary was. And that's the way the first century believers were. They were in love with Jesus. It was said of them in Acts 4 13 they had been with Jesus.

We read there in Acts, the members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John. They could see they were ordinary men who had no special training but they recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. Can people tell you've been with Jesus? You know after church I would I would hope they could tell.

If we go to a restaurant afterwards and people from our church I would hope they'd say oh yeah those are the Christians. Not because they're mean. Not because they're loud and obnoxious or because they don't tip. But because they're caring people. They're loving people.

They're having a lot of fun. They're talking about maybe what they heard at church or talking about their faith. And so that's a good thing. And that's what it means to be with Jesus. But what is it that brought this love and sacrifice for Mary? The thing that moved her was Jesus Himself. She reasoned there's nothing too good for Jesus.

And this is the most valuable thing I own. And He's going to go and die for my sin. And for the sins of everyone in this room. In fact He's going to die for the sins of the world. In fact everything Jesus has been saying He has meant. He has said what He meant and He has meant what He said. I think the disciples were He's talking mystically.

What does He mean? He'll be crucified. And she realizes He's speaking literally. He's going to literally be crucified. He's actually going to be betrayed. He really is going to die and rise again.

And I need to do something to say thank you in advance. And so she brought this bottle of perfume and broke it and poured it at His feet. So you say well that's a nice story Greg. That's a long time ago. It doesn't really have any relevance to us today.

But I think it does actually. I think we can still sit at His feet. What does it mean today to sit at His feet? Well what it means is to spend time in the presence of God. Well isn't God everywhere? Yes He is. But yet we also know that when two or more are gathered together in His name He's there in the midst.

Right? So we know that the Lord comes to us in a special way when we're in fellowship with other believers. So that's why church matters. We also know that the Lord inhabits the praises of His people. So when we engage in corporate worship together we can sense His presence with us. But we spend time worshiping and we spend time listening.

I mean Mary took time to listen to Jesus. Have you ever been saying something to someone and they're not paying attention? Let me restate the question.

Have you ever talked to someone who is holding a cell phone in their hand? You know and everything's fine. I want to tell you this. It's so important to me.

I'm so glad you're listening. And they get a text and you know they can't resist looking. It's just like endorphins release text text text. And they're like mm-hmm mm-hmm. And maybe they put it down below the table. You're in a restaurant. They're like mm-hmm mm-hmm.

That's very interesting. And what are you doing? I'm not doing anything. You know that's the way it is.

You don't listen. And you say could you just put your phone down or put it on mute or face down and give me your attention. The same is true of us when we come to hear from the Lord. Right now we're in effect sitting at His feet.

So I hope that we give great attention to the Word of God and hear what it has to say. Because I think when you sit at His feet you'll be energized to then serve Him. You know occasionally I hear people say you know I've just burned out of ministry. I just burned out. I had to just walk away burned out.

Just burned out. Look I've been in ministry now for 43 years. I started when I was two.

My first sermon I wore a diaper. And my message was we will all be changed. It's a true story.

No it isn't. But I've been doing this for a while. And I want to tell you something. I've never been burned out of ministry. Now I get tired in ministry.

Everyone does. Even Jesus got tired. And He said even to the disciples say let's come aside for a while and rest you guys. Have a meal. Sleep.

Take care of yourselves. But I've never been tired of ministry. In fact when I serve the Lord I'm energized.

There are times when I've come out to speak and maybe it's been a long week or a long day and I don't even feel like I'm fully prepared as I should be. But when I've come out and spoken there have been times my tank my spiritual tank has been almost on empty and it ended on full. Because as I gave the Lord gave to me you see. And I think when you sit at His feet and spend time in His presence you'll be energized to do the work of the Lord.

Let me flip that around. If you're serving the Lord somehow and you don't have that passion and that commitment maybe it's because you're not spending enough time sitting at His feet. It comes down to this. If your intake is less than your output then your upkeep will be your downfall. A quotable quote from Pastor Greg Laurie, if your intake is less than your output your upkeep will be your downfall. And there's more to come as Pastor Greg continues his message here on A New Beginning called No Regrets. You know the last couple of years have been such a trying time for everyone.

The pandemic and all the uncertainty, political tension, unrest in our cities, inflation, empty store shelves. But the counsel in God's word is the answer for the troubles and trials we're facing. And we want to reach out even further with these studies.

The only thing holding us back is the resources to make it happen. So Pastor Greg we hope our listeners might pray about partnering with us so we can reach further in their own community and and reach further into places they've never even been. That's right. It's an investment in kingdom business isn't that right?

Yes that's true. So whatever you can send to us here at A New Beginning we'll use that money to reach more people with the teaching of the word of God and the message of the gospel. I hope some of you will be generous because this enables us to do more but whatever you send I look forward to hearing from you. Yeah we hope you'll let God use you to make a difference, a real tangible difference in people's lives. And we want to say thank you for your investment. Get details about a book called Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table by Louie Giglio. It's a practical look at the encouragement of Psalm 23 and how it'll help us keep our enemy from having any say so in our thoughts and emotions. We'll send it to say thank you for your investment right now.

Just go to harvest.org or call us anytime 24 7 at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. Ever start your day off wrong? You know things started badly and just kept going downhill. A lot of it has to do with your focus where your mind is centered as the day starts. Why not plug into Pastor Greg's daily devotions?

They're free of charge. It's good encouragement to keep your eyes fixed on Christ. You can read each day's devotion or listen to the audio version.

Your choice. Sign up today free of charge at harvest.org. You know there's nothing like hearing the word of God and worshiping the Lord together. I want to encourage you to join us for something we call Harvest at Home. It happens every Saturday and Sunday at harvest.org. You can join Christians literally from around the world as we worship and we study the word of God together. So join us for Harvest at Home at harvest.org. Well next time Pastor Greg has more insights from his study called No Regrets. We'll return to our text in John chapter 12. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie. Go to harvest.org.