At His Feet, Part 2

Welcome, friends and new listeners. I'm Sharon Otz, thanking you for joining us today on The Sound of Faith, because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message at the feet of Jesus is an intimate word for His disciples who desire to draw nearer to Him, who have discovered in the midst of this topsy-turvy, even chaotic world we live in, where we are often pulled in many directions and face situations that can break our hearts and drain our spirits. There is one thing that is needful and one place that is safe at the feet of Jesus. And you have to choose and I have to choose, and we can choose the good things that will feed our spirits, build up our inner man, give us joy and happiness and hope, even in the midst of all kinds of distractions and troubles. Or we can choose the utter frustration and the utter futility of trying to appease and satisfy your flesh, because that is one possibility. The flesh is never satisfied, never. The more that you cater to its desires and whims, the more it demands. Your flesh is bossy.

It's bossy and it's domineering. And when you think, well, I'll just do this. No, then the next thing you'll be doing that. Amen.

That's how it works. Amen. But he said, no, Mary thinks it's more important. I know Martha, nobody in Bethany, Martha, nobody in Jerusalem bakes bread like you bake bread.

You're the best. But Mary would rather sit and get fresh manna from heaven. Amen.

Because she knows that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And folks, once you have tasted heavenly manna, you are spoiled. I said you are spoiled. Amen. Once you have tasted the good word of God, once you have tasted of the Holy Spirit and the powers of the world to come, Paul said in Hebrews, you are spoiled.

Nothing else will satisfy you again. Amen. And you know, I found out you cannot shame people. You cannot scold people. You cannot berate people into becoming more spiritual to get them to come to church, to get them to pay their tithes, to get them to join the choir, to get them to go on to street meetings, to participate in things. You can't berate them to do that. You've got to inspire them to do that. Amen.

You say, well, how do you do that? Well, if you can feed them some fresh manna from heaven, if you can serve them some real good spiritual beef steak and they get a taste of that, they're not going to want McDonald's hamburgers anymore. They're going to say, I want to go get some prime rib. Amen. If you can do what God said through the prophet Jose, when that is a parallel of the backslidden nature and condition of Israel, and you know that Jose's wife was a prostitute and you know that after they were married and had kids, she backslid and went back out there on the streets. And you know what God said?

And it's a parallel. He's speaking about Gomer, but he's also speaking about Israel. He said, I know what I'll do. I will allure them into the wilderness. I will allure them into the wilderness. And when I get them in the wilderness, I'm going to take the Bible and I'm going to beat them over the head till they straighten up.

That's not what he said. He said, when I get her out in the wilderness, I'm going to speak kindly to her. I'm going to speak gently to her. I'm not going to rub it in her face that look what you did. You went back to the pigsty. You will backslidden heifer you.

No, she knew that she didn't need nobody to tell her that. He said, I'm going to tell her I missed you. I've been waiting for you. I've been waiting for you to come back to me. And when you come back to me, I'm going to restore to you the years of the canker worm and I'm going to restore to you the years of the Palmer worm and the caterpillar, which are all devourers.

I'm going to restore to you. Amen. And that's what God told me to do. He told me instead of beating people up about why don't they do this, that and the other, just keep feeding them good food, spoil them with good food and make them want to come back and get another helping. A few years ago, brother John Carver called me and told me I had a dream about you, Sharon. And he said in the dream you were cooking this big, huge, juicy, fat beef steak. And when you got it ready, you went and fed it to the people at Faith Tabernacle.

And you know what? That inspired me. That inspired me to take that time to stay in the word of God, to hear the word of the Lord. Amen. It inspired me to get away and I always have loved to study the word of God.

I mean, that's never been a problem for me. That's always been something I loved. Amen.

But it inspired me to really dig in there. Amen. And also, let me throw this out. Preachers and teachers have got to be fed to. You can't just give, give, give. You got to be fed. I've got to be fed to. I have to sit under good preaching and teaching.

Amen. And I listened to a lot of preachers and teachers. I read tons of material. People say to me, where do you get your stuff from?

You know, where do you want to begin? I mean, I don't know. I just listened to a lot. And of course I don't listen to false doctrine.

Of course I don't feed my system poison. Amen. My spirit is like a magnet. It just draws the word of God to me. Amen.

And then I asked the Lord to let me serve it up a nice beef steak, but it all comes from first sitting at the feet of Jesus, sitting at the feet of Jesus. Amen. And let me tell you something that I think God bless every woman here. Every female in the building ought to get blessed to know this. In those days, women were not allowed to study the word of God like men. Amen. And certainly not in the same proximity of men.

Amen. Now in those days, rabbis, which was a teacher, in fact, the word rabbi means great one. In Hebrew rabbi means great one because to the Jewish mind, being a teacher of the word is the highest occupation and calling there is. So they called their teachers great ones and rabbis itinerant rabbis would travel from one town to the next town. Just like we have evangelists today go from church to church and they would go to the town and here's the thing. Often they would go and stay in somebody's house like Jesus did at Mary Martha and Lazarus house and while they were at staying there and receiving their hospitality, then they would bring people to come in. The men of the town could come and they could sit at the feet of the rabbi and here is teaching and here's how it would go. The rabbi would sit on a pillow in the middle of the room and all the men would sit on mats around him and he would teach them, but women were not allowed to be present.

No women, only the men. Do you see what Jesus did? He elevated Mary a woman to be equal with the men. He elevated her to be able to sit at his feet with the guys and hear his words and Mary knew that this was revolutionary. Mary knew that he was defying the traditions of men and he was saying in me, there is no division between male and female.

Amen. He was letting her sit right there at his feet with all the other men because the Bible tells us later, Paul went on to say that in Jesus Christ, there is neither male nor female. Just like there's no Jew or Greek.

And I want to add my little part and there's no black or white. That's out there. Out there. Women don't make the same amount of money for doing the same jobs as men do. Even in the high brackets where women make it all the way up to the so-called glass ceiling. Often men still make more money.

Amen. Did you see this week that the brand new fighter jet that just got released, the first person who got the fly it was a woman. Come on, 50 years ago, that would have never been thought of. But basically out there, there is a, they say there isn't, but we all know there is discrimination with women and men often. And out there, there is discrimination with Jews and Gentiles.

There is. I mean, most of the world hates the Jews. You know who loves the Jews? Christians. Spirit-filled Christians. They're the ones that love and stand up for and defend the Jews.

And you know what? Israel, the nation, they know it. That's why they say, come on, come on to the Holy land. Come on, get on the airplane. Come on over.

You're going to love it here. They say, walk where Jesus walked because they know that we love them and it's our money that's helping them out there. You have the discrimination with the black and white and sometimes it gets downright ugly, but it should not be in the body of Christ because Jesus has elevated everybody. Paul said we're all wanting Christ. So he elevated Mary. Now this was the first time we see Mary very, very quickly. We're going to go to the second time we see Mary look in, uh, John 11.

I'm going to paraphrase now for time and because you know the story. Their precious brother Lazarus got sick. They sent word for Jesus to come and heal him. Now wouldn't you expect Jesus to be on the next camel to Bethany? You would think he was going to come right away, but he waited. He waited. And by the time that he got there, Lazarus had already been dead four days. Now you have to know as much as they loved him. Martha and Mary must have been quite upset with him.

Amen. And so we find out that finally Jesus shows up. He comes a little while later and let's read just a couple of verses of what is said between him and Mary. Okay, let's look at John 11 verse 20. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary sat still in the house.

I want you to see the difference in the two personalities. Martha being the hands on energy, got a control freak, got to get everything done. She heard Jesus was coming up.

She runs out to him, but Mary sat in the house and said, let me just put this aside out there. There is no right way for a person to grieve who's lost a loved one. And you can't judge the way someone grieves because these two women who both love their brother, they grieve differently.

Some people when their husband or wife dies or loved one dies, they're so busy, busy, busy. They got to go to the mortuary. They got to go to the cemetery. They got to get the flowers. They got to get the house.

They got to get the dinner. And everybody's thinking, huh, why aren't you falling down and just, you know, screaming and crying and boo hooing and somebody else is, is that's what they're doing. But everybody's different because for that type of personality that's helping them get through it. That's actually strengthening them. They feel like I can't control that. That is what it is, but I can do this and it helps them. That doesn't mean that behind closed doors that they're not crying in their pillow and sobbing.

It just means it's how they are able to cope where the other one is melted like hot wax because they are so broken. Amen. So you see the difference right there in verse 20 and let's go on. Then Martha said unto Jesus, Lord, if thou had has been here, my brother had not died, but I know that even now whatsoever thou will ask of God, he will give it to thee. And of course Jesus said, your brother will rise again. Let's drop down to verse 28 because they go on and talk about the resurrection. Verse 28 and when she had said so, she went her way and called Mary, her sister secretly saying, the master is come and calleth for thee.

The master is come and calleth for thee. And what happens as soon as she heard that she arose quickly and she came unto him and then she and Jesus have a little conversation which practically mirrors what was already said about the resurrection. Here's the point I want you to see that Mary already knew that Jesus was there. She knew he was there when they first came and said, Jesus is here and Martha got up and ran out, but she stayed back. But when Martha came and said, the Lord calleth for thee, she jumped up and ran out.

Why? Because when Jesus calls your name, when you hear the Lord, when you hear the master, when you hear the savior call your name, you're going to get up and run to Jesus. Amen. And if he's calling your name here this morning, he may be saying, Oh, I want you to come a little closer. I want you to come away with me, my beloved. I want you to come into the prayer room. I want you to come into the sanctuary. I want you to come into my presence.

I want you to sit at my feet. And if you hear the Lord calling your name, you need to do like Mary did. You need to come and run after him. There's one of my favorite verses in the song of Solomon and it says that call me and I will run after thee. Call me and I will run after thee. Amen. That's what the beloved was saying to her beloved. She says, just call me and I will run after thee. Amen.

You know how it was when you were young and in love when your lover called your name, you dropped everything. Amen. Some of you guys didn't have a car back in those days.

Didn't matter. You get out there and get on the bus. Your honey called you up and said, you can come over. You got there somehow. Amen. You made a way. Amen.

You didn't care. You were going to get there. And that's what the Lord is saying to us. Amen. And so we see that Mary came and when she came, she fell down at his feet again. And of course we know that she said, Oh master, if you had only been here that my brother would not have died.

Amen. Let's look at verse 32 when we'll see it. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet.

There you go. Every time you see Mary, she's at the feet of Jesus. She fell down at his feet saying unto him, Lord, if thou had been here, my brother would not have died. And so she was saying, Oh Lord, the same thing our sister said, if you had only been here, have you ever prayed that prayer? Have you ever said, Oh Lord, if only you would have done this or Oh Lord, if only this wouldn't have happened, you can fill in the blank.

Amen. But when you know that the Lord is calling your name, Amen, he is going to work it out. Okay, so that's the second time that we know that she was at the feet of Jesus. Now you know what happened? How many know Lazarus was raised from the dead?

How many know that story? Lazarus was raised from the dead and you can imagine as sad as they were is how joyful and happy the great prophet says, the deeper that sorrow carves into your heart, the more joy you can hold. So if you got beat up out there in the world and in sin and you have a deep chasm of hurt and wounds in your heart, that's all the more joy that you can hold that Jesus wants to fill you up. Amen.

So of course our brother has been raised from the dead. So they were so happy. What do you do when you're so happy? You celebrate, you have a party and that's right up Martha's alley. Oh wow. Nothing she likes better than having a party, than having a banquet, than having a dinner.

She was so happy. And that's where we're going to see here. John the 12th chapter. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead. I like that, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead and there they made him a supper. Oh, supper's too weak. This was no supper, honey. I think a supper, you know what I'm getting ready to have you after church. I'm talking about a celebration.

Oh, the next three words. Why am I surprised? And Martha served. But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.

Of course he was the guest of honor. They were celebrating Lazarus. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikener very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then said one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him. Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag.

That's the treasury bag of all the money of Jesus and the disciples and bear what was put there in. Then said Jesus, I want everybody to help me with these next three words. Then Jesus said, let her alone. Let her alone against the day of my burying. Have she kept this for the poor?

You will always have with you, but me, you shall not always have with you. So what's going on here? Of course we know it's the celebration that he has raised Lazarus from the dead and they put this big celebration on and Martha living up to her name. Amen.

She's serving, she's got everything going. They're all celebrating. And if you've ever gone to a Jewish celebration, if you've ever seen a Jewish wedding, they danced that Hora.

How many know what I mean? They all joined hands and they're dancing and they dance around. They even put people in the chairs and raise them up.

Come on folks. This is what was happening. They were having a celebration. They were happy.

Their brother had been dead four days and stinking in that tomb. And now he's sitting at the table with Jesus and they were having a party and a celebration. They were blowing the noise makers.

You do it. What were they doing? I mean, this was, this place was happening and in the middle of all this noise and celebration and laughing and singing and jumping and dancing. Here comes Mary with her alabaster box of precious ointment that she had saved for something special, something special because that ointment was worth a year's wages and she had been saving that. Maybe she was saving it for the day that she would be married so that she could bathe herself like Esther did before she went before the King. She was saving that for something special.

I got goose chills all over me just now and I'm as hot as you can be. But see, it was something special. Jesus had brought her beloved brother back and you got to understand these were two sisters. There's no mention of husbands or children. They lived with their brother. He was their life. He was the man of the house. He was their protector and Jesus had brought him back.

This was special. She would spare no expense to honor Jesus. And while everybody else was dancing and singing and and all of the festivities, she came in quietly and she knelt at his feet and she began to weep and wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. And then she opened that alabaster box and release the precious perfume of that ointment and began to anoint Jesus and that odor filled that room. Amen of the her worship and her gift to Jesus.

Let me tell you something. When it was over with and they all got up and left. There were two people in that room that went out smelling like the ointment from that alabaster box. That was Jesus and Mary. Amen. And so she was worshiping her Lord. Amen.

In the way that she best knew. And now we have this Judas Iscariot get quite indignant. Let me say this.

I'm going to have them up here. People get the anointings of Jesus mixed up. There are two anointings and the one the song was written about the sinner woman.

We don't know what her name was. People assume her name was Mary, but Mary was not a sinner. Mary is the one who anointed Jesus six days before his death to thank him for raising her brother from the dead. And it happened in Bethany, the other one with the sinner woman who did it because she was repenting of her sins.

That happened in Galilee. So we have two different ones here, the sinner woman and Mary. And we're talking about Mary. And here's the thing about it. Luke is the only one that tells us about the sinner woman.

He's the only one. But Matthew and Mark and John tell us about Mary that we've just read. Amen. And so Judas got indignant. He said, this could have been sold and it could have been given to the poor. And the Bible says he didn't care about the poor and he sure didn't care about Mary. All he cared about was his pocketbook because he was a thief and he was covetous and he had a covetous heart.

And that's why Jesus rebuked him in front of everybody and said, you leave her alone because what she's done, she's done for my burial. You're always have the poor. Jesus was not saying, don't help the poor. That's not what he meant.

He's saying, well, you will always have the poor to help after I'm gone. But right now she did this because Mary did it from a heart of love because Mary once was empty and bitter and broken. Amen. But now she was whole and she was grateful and she was thankful. And Jesus said, just like he told Martha, basically he said, let her alone. He told Judas, let her alone. Amen. Mary has chosen the good part and it's not going to be taken away from her.

Amen. Now I'm going to close today, but I do want to get this in before I finish. It's a dream that I had. I actually forgot I had this dream until I was going through my notes and I did tell you this dream once before, but it's been several years in this dream. I was teaching a large room full of women. I did not recognize my surroundings. The room was packed, packed with ladies and I looked through the faces and I didn't recognize any of them except for one face.

And the one face I recognized was Sister Stephanie Beasley. Now the women in the room were very excited and I could just feel the room felt like there was electricity in the air and I began to ask them questions. So then I asked the crowd to answer a question and I told them this question has a two part answer. Now here's the thing about it. I never heard what the question was in the dream and in the dream I didn't know what the question was, but I heard someone answer and I recognized the voice was Shirley Shirley Lawrence and she yelled out, the curse is broken.

Can you do that Shirley? And I said in my dream, that's right. Now we got the first part of the answer still don't know what the question is, but the first part of the answer is she yelled out, the curse is broken. And I said, that is right. And then I said, what's the second part of the answer? And all the ladies buzzing with the major, but nobody had any idea and nobody was saying anything. And then finally I said, well, I'll tell you the answer another time.

And the ladies went, oh, and they were groaning and I just started teasing them and I didn't, you know, answer them or say anything. And all of a sudden my eyes went back to Stephanie and I sort of focused in on her and she was sitting there smiling smiles, Stephanie with her usual pleasant countenance that she has. And I noticed specifically that she was wearing a man's white shirt and it was perfect.

Not a wrinkle. It was crisp. The collar was perfect. It was just like it just been starched. And she also had on a man's tie, but it was beautiful purple and white flowers.

Very feminine, very feminine. And I noticed that. And um, then I awoke and I'm lying there thinking, what does this mean? And I'm wondering this in my mind, into my spirit.

I'm thinking, I don't get it. Why was Stephanie wearing that? And I heard the spirit speak in my spirit. Stephanie represents all women.

She just represents women who have the same authority and position to hear the word of God as men do. And in my dream, these women were eager to hear it. And so then I fell back asleep and I heard the answer. The second part of the answer and it was speaking in tongues.

Remember, I don't know the question. So we got the curses broken and speaking in tongues. And I was, again, I was prompted in my spirit and I began to think on that and I, and the Lord spoke to me and said, the curse of being second class inferior subordinate for women is broken in Christ and in his church.

No more male and female, just as there's no more Jew and Gentile in Christ, women can both learn and teach the word of God. But I said, but I got that part. Oh yeah, I got that part.

Amen. I got that part. But I said, well, what about speaking in tongues? And the Lord spoke to my spirit on the day of Pentecost. They were all together in one place, in one accord, in prayer and supplication. And he quoted the verse to me, the disciples, along with Jesus' mother and the brethren and the women.

There was no separation of men and women. And when the spirit came, they were all baptized and they all began to speak in tongues at the same time, all the men and all the women too. And then Jesus said in Acts 1 8, after you receive power, you go forth. When you receive the power of the Holy Ghost, you go forth and you shall be my witnesses unto me. And God said to me, the women were also called to go forth and be my witnesses. Amen. It wasn't just for the disciples. Amen.

It was the women too. And I want you to know that in Jesus Christ, there is no curse on anybody for any reason or anything. Amen. And you've got to make up your mind and understand what a privilege it is to be able to sit at the feet of Jesus. And hear his word.

Amen. I trust you are encouraged by our message at the feet of Jesus. You may be familiar with the story of Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. You may remember Martha was the proverbial Martha steward of Bethany, who loved to cook and host dinners for Jesus and his disciples. But when her sister Mary chose to sit at Jesus' feet and hear his words, Martha wanted him to rebuke her and tell her to help her in the kitchen. Martha didn't want to trade places with Mary. She didn't ask to have a turn at Jesus' feet. Of course, Jesus replied, you are anxious and distracted by many things, but one thing is needful.

One thing is important and paramount. And Mary has chosen that one thing, and I will not take it away from her. Every time Mary is mentioned in the scripture, she is sitting at Jesus' feet. It was her choice to sit and be served by her Lord. And he said she has chosen the best part. It is our choice too. We can choose the good part and feed our spirits, or we can choose the frustration and futility of trying to please our fleshly desires. There is an unusual twist to Mary's story.

Why did Luke say that Martha was named, but Mary was called? Find out by ordering at his feet on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK123.

That's SK123. Mail to Sound of Faith. P. O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to soundoffaith.org. And order on MP3 as well. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P. O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. And request SK123. Till next time, this is Sharon Ott singing Maranatha.