Welcome And A Personal Encouragement

Good morning, church. How are we feeling today? I feel like you you sound good, which is half the battle, you know. You look good, and um I'm I'm excited to preach this morning, like Pastor Chuck just said. Um, my wife preached earlier, and I was taking notes and so proud of her for preaching such a beautiful word. Um it was so awesome. Um, while I was uh I was standing here in worship, I can't see the back row because the lights, but there was a lady with like a with just a pink a pink shirt. Where are you? You're back there. I think you're standing next to a good looking gentleman. Where'd they go? You're right here. I see you. What's your I think it's pink. Yeah, you, yeah, you yeah, yeah, yeah, you while while you were worshiping, you you were just calling out, and I just want to encourage you that that when people are going through it, that they tag you in. And I feel like that spirit has already been on you, it's been on your life. But I but I just want to remind you that that that's who you are. I I was reminded, you know, when I was younger, annoyingly enough, my mother would always come to my basketball games and she would just yell out, rebound, and I'd be like, Mom, I'm trying everything. But but it was the it was the call outs when I was younger that sustained me through my life when I was older. So I just want to encourage you to continue to call out, continue to tag yourself in in moments because Jesus is gonna continue to use you as a faithful servant, amen. Amen. Yeah, I'm excited. They haven't put my time up, which is good, but also dangerous. It's dangerous, and I just want to just preface this before we start. I, you know, I felt like God gave me this word around Easter, and I was able to preach it uh last week. And I as I was preparing this message, I kept telling Jade, my wife, I just feel like you know, God is doing something in me personally through this message. And I want to just encourage you as we get into this message to just open up your hearts. You know, I believe that God has a special moment um prepared for us at the end of this service, and the way that you were worshiping was encouraging me that, hey, like God wants to do something and is doing something in this service, amen. Uh so prepare your hearts, and uh, I'm I'm just excited to preach, amen. Before I get started, I do have one question. What determines someone from being a White Sox fan and a Cubs fan? What like is it is it no like I see, I see, I see majority like Cubs fans, and I know we're in a particular fun week. It's funny because Pastor Chuck, you guys are playing each other, the Cubs versus the White Sox. In New York, we're playing, it's the Yankees versus, I don't even know the other team, so it doesn't even matter. Um but I was just wondering, like, you know, to be a Yankee fan, it's it's really much like you you love history, you love winning, you you just love good things in life. And to be a Mets fan, it's just like you just love, I'm not sure what you love, you know? So I just I didn't know what side like is the determining factor, but um just make sure that you are a house united, you know. It is okay to be one side or the other. Um, but is is it a majority a Cubs team here? Okay, I just wanted to know. I just wanted to know. Or is it is it majority, is it majority a socks team here? Okay, okay. I'm I'm I'm not sure. I'm I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Uh Pastor Chuck, this is the house divided, my brother. You'll have to figure that out later. Um like uh like Pastor Chuck said, we are we are from Texas uh by way of New York City. I was born and raised in New York City, and uh we just moved to Texas about a year and a half ago where we've come alongside our in-laws to just continue to help um build the church. We love Jesus, we love the church. We have a photo of my family. My little boy is really who I want to show off. That's my little guy. He um we were at a Rockets vs. New York Knicks game, so you know we had to rep, come with our Knicks jersey. And the other day the Knicks were playing because we're we're in the playoffs right now, and I was watching, and uh, I'm from Brazil, that's where my family's from. Uh do we have a Brazilian here? Tá bom. So we were we were he calls me Papai, which is how you say dad in Portuguese, and he goes, Papai, you you're watching basketball? And I'm like, Yes, he goes, Okay, be right back. And he he runs to his room, and I'm just hearing the drawers open and everything. And next thing you know, he comes out, he goes, I need help. And he had his basketball jersey on, and he wanted to wear it the whole night, and he's worn it for like three days straight, went to sleep with it, and I'm just like, as a dad, the most proud thing. I'm like, my son is doesn't want to take off his New York Knicks jersey. He's sleeping in it, and then he's sleeping with like two basketballs, and I'm just like, okay, thank you, Jesus. Make me a millionaire as I get older, please. Um, so that's what we're praying for. If you want to pray alongside us for my son, my family, um, that's what we're praying for. But he we think he loves Jesus. Um, every Sunday when he goes to church, he he begs to take communion. Um, so he he thinks of it as a little snack, but before he has the snack, I go, What do you say? He goes, Thank you, Jesus, for your body. And he he puts the little wafer in his mouth, and I go, What's next? He goes, Thank you, Jesus, for your blood. And I'm like, Okay, we're we're on the right track. Um, he's gonna be three next month, so um, I'm just excited, excited about life, excited about my boy, excited about my family. Um, but we're gonna jump right into this message, amen. I said that three times already, so this time I'm telling the truth, okay? We're gonna be reading from the book of Mark this morning. If you have your Bibles, you could turn there. If you have your phones, you could just uh tap there. While he, Jesus, was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, he was reclining at the table. I love the the imagery of Jesus just reclining. Jesus, our Savior, who does it all, taking a rest. You know, it's those little things that we skip over in our in reading of the Bible to go, if Jesus is able to recline, I can recline in life. I want to encourage those of us who are in a season of I I don't feel like I could rest. If if Jesus could do it, you could do it. And the woman came with an alabaster vial of expensive perfume of pure nard. She broke the vial and poured the perfume over his head. But there were some indignity remarking to one another, Why has this perfume been wasted? For the perfume could have been sold for over 300 denarii and the money given to the poor, and they were scolding her, but Jesus said, Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a good deed for me, for you, for you always have the poor with you whenever you want. And you could do good by them. I think he was trying to remind the disciples, hey, the what I am teaching you, what I am bringing you on the journey for, you will always have works to do. But but loving me will always be the top priority. You will not have the physical form with me for you forever, but you will always have me. Let it be a reminder for you to good for you to do the good things that I'm commanding you to do. You have to first love me, you have to first think about me. For you will always have the poor with you whenever you want, and you can do good by them, but you do not always have me. She has done what she could, she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. Truly I say to you, whenever the gospel is preached in the entire world, what this woman has done will be told in memory of her. And Judas Iscariot, snitch, who was one of the twelve, went off to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. They delighted when they heard this and promised to give him money, and he began seeking how to betray Jesus at an opportune time. Does anyone here remember what it was like when you were younger where your parents would give you an allowance? Anyone remember that? I feel like in today's age, uh, you know, I'm not sure what the kids these days, but it feels like, you know, they don't have to earn as much as we did when we were younger. Now it's just a click of a button, I've transferred money into your account. There isn't like this, I have to work for what my parents are giving me. Do we have any young teenagers in the room today? Do you earn an allowance or you just get money? You have jobs, okay. Yes. You know what? You win. I'm happy that you have a job. I love that for you. Um, but for me and in my house, uh, my mom had this little Tupperware, um, and it would reset every single Monday. And our chores would be written out on a little piece of paper, and um all of my chores would just be in that little Tupperware. And I would I would open the Tupperware on a Monday and go, okay, these are things I have to do. My mom is asking me to clean the windows, to do this, to do that. And on Friday, if I would have done all those things, we would wake up and there would be marbles inside the Tupperware. And these marbles, the color of them, represented how much money our mom and dad was gonna give us. So I would always just reach for the Tupperware on a Friday and just go, do I have enough money to get my Lego set? It's what I was into. I would I was devoted to building my Legos on a Friday night into Saturday. So then I had to, by the means of it, do my chores throughout the week to be able to get what I was devoted to. As a kid, you could find me Friday night on my desk just building a Lego city, just something. Um, and I look back now and I thought they were these big, massive cities, but they were these mini ones. Um, because I look at the price now and I go, my parents could not afford the massive cities because they just cost so much. See, I was devoted to it, so so I worked hard for it on the other side. See, devotion towards something or someone is always going to cost you. See, I am devoted to Jesus, so it cost me my time. I can't step out of my house without listening or reading the Bible. To the point now where I, when I take Romeo to school, he goes, Popeye, Bible first. Because he knows we don't get to listen to music if his dad hasn't listened or consumed the Bible first. This is what I'm trying to get at is that my devotion is costing me something. See, I'm devoted to my wife. I love her. So that means I'm not running around trying to look at other women. It's costing me something. On the other side of it, it's it's well worth it. I'm devoted to my family, I'm devoted to the church, I'm devoted to the things in life that I love, so it always has a cost to it. There are things that I have to gladly sacrifice, there are things that actually hurt when I sacrifice it, but at the end of the day, I know the worth of the thing I'm sacrificing it for. It's gonna cost me in certain places. See, what I love is that Mary's devotion to Jesus breaking this alabaster vial cost her something. But let's start at how a random woman would have gotten this vial. We have this little photo that's gonna come up soon, a little map of just the reality of what it took to get this vial. We're all the way in Jerusalem, but the products for this perfume would have come all the way in India. A 3,000-mile journey. They would have had to climb up the Himalayan mountains, would have been a 10,000 feet hike to be able to just get the flower, come right back down from that mountain and begin the process of extracting the oil from this flower. So already we see a process to be able to get this perfume. And it's not like today where a 3,000-mile journey is a six-hour plane ride from New York to LA. This was a 3,000-mile journey on the back of a camel, the back of a horse, a little bit of a walk. And then you had different tribes who monopolize the trade routes from different deserts to be able to get this perfume to Jerusalem. So so that there's there's a cost already to have this perfume. There's work that goes in to be able to have such a thing. To the point where this perfume and this oil, because of the process, it was made just for kings, as we see here. All the way to the right here is where we are in India, and all these different steps and trade routes, all the way to get to this star in Jerusalem, and then it ends up in this woman's house in Bethany. This oil that was just meant for kings because it's what they were able to afford. This oil that was meant to maybe prepare people for their burial. There are so many different scenarios on how Mary would have gotten this oil where maybe her family saved up from time to time and would have filled up the alabaster vial just a little by little till it got to the top. Or maybe it was passed down from mother to mother to, hey, when you get married, this is gonna be the future for your family. Buy a plot of land for this. So many different ways, different scenarios that Mary would have been able to get her hands on this perfume. But we know that it was worth a lot in monetary value, sentimental value, and ritual value. And here's the the beautiful thing about this text is that she gave everything and he became her reward. It wasn't what she thought he would do with her life, it wasn't like here is this breakage, Jesus, I honor you, but but can you give me the plan for my life five years from now? Could you give me the plan for my life ten years? Jesus, I I need this big blessing, so I'm gonna give you this. No, it was Jesus, you are everything to me. Jesus, I I love you so much. Jesus, I am willing to sacrifice my future, my right now, my reputation. I'm willing to sacrifice everything to remind myself that you are king of kings, that you are the Lord of Lords, that you're the Alpha and the Omega, that you are the beginning and the end, that you are the author and perfecter of my faith. Jesus, you are everything. When we say yes to Jesus, we don't just lose something, we always gain him. And he is always worth more than what we put down. And today I want to give us three costs of devotion, three costs of sacrifice from this text so that we could live the lives that Jesus has called us to live. And the first thing down, I know you're taking notes, it's gonna cost you your reputation. Sometimes being a Christian in and of itself is just gonna cost you. What I love is that she didn't just stumble into this room full of men who were probably politicking, having lunch. No, it was a decision that she made that no matter who is there, no matter the obstacles in front of me, I am gonna get this to Jesus. It's gonna cost me something. Think about what she had to walk through. Like I said, a little dinner at Simon the Leper's house. Jesus, the guest of honor, a room full of men, disciples who would have been traveling with him for three years, religious observers trying to figure out is this Jesus really the Messiah? Just people spectating, all the different types of people who were there, people with opinions and positions to sense how things ought to go, yet married. Not really caring. I don't care about my future. This has the potential to make me just someone in the neighborhood that people begin to call out and people begin to walk away from, but I do not care. She's already out of place before she does anything. Her presence alone in that room would have been a statement. Her walking in would have just been a statement in and of itself. And she knew it. And she didn't quietly come hoping that nobody would notice. She came in with this alabaster jar that was worth a year's wage. So not only was her presence a statement, she's carrying around anyone's future who possessed that jar. See, there are moments in your life where just showing up for Jesus is gonna cost you something. Before you even open up your mouth, before you do anything, just the fact that you walk through the door in some situations, it's going to cost you something. And what I love is that she just doesn't open this jar, she she breaks it, which is another statement in and of itself, because the moment you open this jar, you couldn't just close it right back up. So the moment it was open, it had to be used. The sound alone would have stopped everyone in their tracks. The smell. Every single eye on her. This is the moment where most of us would have wanted to explain ourselves, right? Oh, I did this in order to get this. Oh, let me tell you the context behind why I why I let why I did this. Let me let me figure out if let me tell you why one plus one in this scenario equals four, add a little extra on top. Let me let me just tell you why. But I love Mary doesn't sit there and explain herself because she knows the cost is right in front of her. She knows that she is sacrificing her future and her life and her reputation just to remind herself, Jesus. I love you. Jesus, you are worth it all. Want you to understand what I'm doing so you don't think I'm irrational. No, it didn't matter to Mary because she knew who Jesus was. She says nothing, she pours it out. Her actions are louder than any words could speak. And there is something genuine about sacrifice that doesn't need to justify itself. When you really know who Jesus is, you you start to praise and worship a different way. When you really know who Jesus is, you're not afraid to dance while worship is happening. When you really know who Jesus is, your your prayers begin to sound. A little bit different. Because you understand worshiping. I'm present. What others tell me what others feel. When I'm looking to work there is a comfort. Because what I've been I've been in the trenches. I've been in the ditch. I've been in the places where I'm coming myself. So a sacrifice. For my Lord and Savior. Come on, somebody. We're talking about Jesus here. No longer will I edit myself. I know who Jesus has called me to be. I know the words he's spoken into me. I know how he knit me in my mother's womb. The cost, it's gonna cost you something for sure. But the other side of that, it's always Jesus, church. It is always Jesus. Some of us in this room, we we have our reputation stashed up in this little jar. Jesus has been asking us, hey, could you break that? You're so worried about who you are, who you're gonna become, that you've put all of your identity in this jar, now you're not even allowing me to outwork it because you have your whole future set up in this jar, and I need you to sacrifice it in front of me. I need you to break it in front of me for me to actually do the work that you think is needed for your future, but we haven't even started yet because you have your whole future lined up in this jar. The cost has been some friendships in this room. The cost has been some family members. I understand. I've been there. A seat at the table that you used to sit at. Others look and call it a waste, just like the disciples did. That's a waste. Oh, oh, you're you're every single Sunday now you're worshiping Jesus. How cute. Oh, you think you're better than everyone because you think you have all the answers? How cute. You know what? Let's not even hang out with said person anymore. Let's not even do this. The seat at the table you used to sit at, it might cost you. But then when the person that used to say something is in dire need and they need prayer and they need somebody to go to and they need a little pick-me-up, they need a little encouragement. Who begins to be the first phone call? Hey, can you come back at the table that you used to sit at? The cost right now is a lot. But what Jesus has in store for the future is worth so much more. Like I said, others call it a waste. You begin to hear the little whispers in your friendship group. When the public cost comes, church, the question isn't whether it hurts. It does. The question is, are you anchored to Jesus? To when the room starts pushing and it starts to get a little tight. The room called it a waste. Jesus called it beautiful. And what Jesus calls beautiful does not need the room's approval. Alright? It's gonna cost you your reputation, but the room that you're surrounded in doesn't need your approval for you to continue to walk forward in what Jesus has called you to do. You'll hear the loud murmurings, you'll hear the quiet whispers. Yet in your heart, Jesus is going, Thank you, beautiful and faithful servant. Thank you. The second thing it's gonna cost is your future. It potentially might cost you your future. You know, the great Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan till you get punched in the face. And then what are we gonna do? See, every New Year's where we're told to make these New Year's resolutions, you know, when you go sit down with a mentor or someone you know, they go, hey, what's your what's your what's your one-year plan? What's your five-year plan? What's your ten-year plan? I'm like, I don't even know when I'm cooking tomorrow for dinner. You're trying to ask me to figure out what my future looks like. You know, we put so much energy into figuring out what our future is going to look like. We begin to protect it. We have this picture of what we want it to look like, where I want to be, how much money I'm gonna make, you know, who I'm gonna marry, who I'm gonna stand beside with, how many kids I'm gonna have. All these things. And Jesus is going, hey, I've given you grace just for today. Yet we say we worship the one who holds our future in our hands. We're we're so worried about what tomorrow is gonna look like. And Jesus is like, hey, you missed the thing I put right in front of you. See, and the jar was, I think, both of these things to Mary. It was the it was the the dreams and the means to to get to the dreams. I had this big dream for my life, and I had the means to be able to do it. This jar represented both those things for Mary. The perfume could have done hundreds of things. She could have sold it for money and invested it, saved towards land, use it for leverage for a future marriage, pass it down to the next generation as an inheritance. It represented every option that she had, especially in a world where women weren't counted, didn't mean much. Everything in her future was represented in this jar. It would have been like just going, you know what, I'm gonna invest my whole 401k, my savings into this. It would have been like a pass-down Rolex heirloom that your grandfather gives you to the next generation. It just has this value to it that you cannot put money on it, and some of it you can. And she poured it all out. One irreversible act. It wasn't like a little undo button, it wasn't like, okay, we came up with the take back C. She could not take it back. It was an action that was just a one-time thing. Once the neck broke, like I've said, it was done. No saving it for later. And in that moment, Jesus didn't replace her plan with a better one in that moment. He didn't hand her a brand new jar and say, Hey, good works, here you go. Let me just give you the same thing you wasted on me, right back to you. He didn't promise her provision or security or return for what she gave up. He simply said, She has done a beautiful thing. In our church, we we have these things called freedom groups, where for 12 weeks it's where people want to find freedom in the different areas of their life. They go to this group, and then we end it off with this beautiful conference. And we were hosting our conference last year in November, and there was a beautiful young lady in our church, and she has two other girls in her car with her that did her little freedom group, and they're stopping by Chick-fil-A to get dinner before the conference, and next thing you know, she gets into a car crash. It's the worst thing ever. She calls her husband. I'm at the church, and someone says, Oh, Jamena just got into a car crash, and we're like, Oh my gosh. She calls her husband Raheem, and Raheem's like, I'm on my way to figure everything out. You need to get to church. You need to complete what you started. We'll figure out the cost later. We'll figure out how to fix this later, but but but you committed to something, and the end result is Jesus. So I need you to get to church to finish what you started. See, there was a man who understood the cost of what his wife put in to go, I need the end result to be Jesus. We will figure this out later. And Jesus is going, You've done a beautiful thing. You probably need to call insurance, you probably need to do this, you probably need to do that, we will figure that out later. The cost, the sacrifice, hey, the work I've put in, I want to finish it. I want to finish the good works that I started. Some of us in this room need to be reminded of the sacrifice of things that we've started, but we've laid off because the sacrifice and the cost got too expensive. It got a little bit too hard. Jesus, you know what? You are the author and and you you're you're everything, so you'll just fix it. And Jesus going, No, no, I need you to finish it. The reward again isn't gonna be this beautiful future. But he reminds us, hey, you've done a beautiful thing. There are other promises that he fulfills for us daily and for our future, but we can't do these things in a response to go, you're gonna give to me, so I'll just do this, God. No, no, we are our posture. It needs to be one of sacrifice. But here's what he's also said, which I love. She has anointed my body for burial, for burial. And that time when people were being buried, they would anoint their whole body with oil, with this perfume, so that as their bodies began to decay, it would be the perfume that you would smell and not their bodies. And people who were poor, they didn't have much, couldn't, weren't afforded these rituals. She didn't know what she was doing when she came to honor a king, which is what those rituals were made for. She was reminding the people in this room he is Messiah, he is king of kings, lord of lords. I don't, she didn't even know what was gonna happen in a few days, but she was preparing the body. Jesus knew she still didn't comprehend what was happening, but but her sacrifice made a way to remind us in this room that he is king. Her act, the disciples called the waste, the one that cost her everything. She's been holding on to this, became woven into the resurrection story. Not because she planned it that way, but because she gave up her plans and then he placed her in his. Can I just encourage you that that sometimes your sacrifice is way bigger than yourself, church? That you'll find yourself woven into someone else's story, someone else's blessing, but it was because of your sacrifice and your obedience that led you somewhere. We need to realize when we feel that little feeling, that push to always follow what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us. Because there is blessing, not always for us, but for someone else on the other side of it. When you give Jesus your future, you don't end up with nothing. You end up inside something bigger than yourself that you could have ever built on your own. What I love is that she wasn't concerned about her future, she was concerned about Jesus. You know, scriptures tell us, God, I want my heart to break for the things that your heart breaks for. How often are we concerned about Jesus? Or are we always concerned that Jesus is concerned about us? I want to concern myself and the things of Jesus for this world. And the third thing is it's gonna cost you your right now. It's gonna cost you your right now. See, Mary didn't act. Mary's act didn't make sense in the moment. There was nothing practical about it, it wasn't strategic by any means. If he had a financial advisor, they would have said, do not sell the stock. Hold it, hold on to the Bitcoin. Hold hold hold on. She said, nah, this is worth it. Think it through. There is a better use for this. Don't waste this on this. Don't waste this on on him? On Jesus? The one who calls himself Messiah? The one that says that all life will flow through me? No, don't do that. Judas, on the other hand, was thinking about the moment. 30 pieces of silver. Real money right now. In my hands today. I could see it, I could count it, I could spend it. Jesus, at the moment, and still now, for some of us, is a lot harder to quantify. The kingdom was a lot harder to hold on to. Which is what he was trying to get the disciples to understand. And some of them couldn't. Some of us are still on that journey trying to figure out what is this kingdom of heaven. What is it supposed to feel like on earth as it as it is in heaven? I want to be able to understand it. I want to be able to grasp it. I want to be able to touch it, to feel it. And so often when we can't do those things in relation to what Jesus has for us, we go, the cost isn't really the cost for me. I want to be able to feel it right now. I want to be able to touch it right now. I want the healing right now. I want the anxiety to go away right now. I want the depression to go away right now. I want the addiction to go away right now. I want my marriage problems to go away right now. I want all these things to go away right now, which rightfully so. I'm with you. But it also takes a little bit of work and understanding and walking out the journey with Jesus to get to the things that He wants to take away from us. Short-term gratification always feels more real than long-term devotion. Because you could feel one right now, and the other you have to trust. I could feel this right now, but the other I have to trust that you're outworking what you say you're gonna do. God, I don't I don't necessarily feel it, so I'm gonna lean towards this side, and I think God is asking some of us to hey, can you just trust me? Could you just believe? Could you just walk it out a little bit more? I know the feeling, I've been there. I want to feel this right now, and so often we look back, hindsight is so much better than foresight. Because if we would have made that decision, we would have ended up here. Yeah, but I could just look back and go, God, you are in the midst of all the things. So I'm able, I'm able, I I could actually begin to trust you based off of what you've done in my past. You've always fulfilled the promise, you've always showed up. Matter of fact, you didn't just show up because you were always there with me. I was the one just neglecting what you were doing, I was the one neglecting the fact that you were there with me. You've never not been there. See, Judas didn't just lose his faith in a dramatic moment of the breaking of the vial. He made a series of small calculations that led him to a table with the chief priest. As we read in other books, you know, John tells us that he would just steal money here and there. It wasn't just a one-time thing, it was something that he was doing consistently. He was the treasure of the group. The 30 pieces of silver wasn't just his first compromise, but it was his last one. Every small trade, every small taking had been preparing him for the big one. And this is how short-term thinking works. It doesn't just ask you to sell Jesus all at once, it asks you to keep your options open. Hold a little back while I make the practical choice just this once. It's like a savings account where you put a little bit here, you put a little bit there, and then you see this beautiful compounding amount. That's what was happening with Judas. I'm just gonna take a little bit here. I'm gonna take a little bit there. And this compounding moment happens, not just all at once. It was these little foxes that he was not dealing with. See, the moment you pull back from community because it becomes a little bit inconvenient. The season where prayer felt like it was too much effort, so you just stopped. The relationship that you knew just wasn't good for you, yet you continue to walk towards it. The version of yourself that continues to perform because it's easier to be the person you think you are versus who God is actually calling you to be. See, none of those things feel like betrayal. They they feel like survival. So they feel reasonable. Every time we make a decision towards it, this is reasonable. I can make a reason for why I need to do X, Y, and Z. It feels good. See, Judas is got Judas got 30 pieces of silver and spent eternity associated with the worst trade ever. What have we been trading lately? What have we been going? You know what, world? I'm gonna let you have this. Jesus, not so much. I'll trade in my salvation for what have we been trading lately that is allowing us to take walks and steps towards the other side of where Jesus is calling us to be. Mary got nothing in that room, no money, no applause, no immediate return. But Jesus said to her, your story will be told everywhere the gospel goes. She poured into a relationship with him, and Jesus poured her into history. You see how this works, church? I'm gonna pour into Jesus. In some way, he's gonna pour me into the history books of what this life is meant to be. It may not be where everybody hears it, it may not be where everyone knows my name on my street. It may just be my next door neighbor who thanks me every week that I invited her to church and it shifted her family and her kids and her grandkids. So often in this world, we want the notoriety for everything that we do, and Jesus is going. Could the glory be mine? I will continue to use you. Could you just posture your heart the right way? You pour into me, I will pour you into the history books of what I'm wanting to do. This is our Jesus. And I'll call the the worship team to come up if that's okay. See, short-term gratification gives you something that you could hold on today and lose tomorrow. I'm gonna sacrifice this now for this, and it's gone tomorrow. A lifelong relationship with Jesus gives you something that outlasts everything the moment could offer. It's just a moment, but it's not a lifetime. Jesus is offering more than a moment to us, but it's gonna cost something. You know, um, about 13 years ago, I found myself in in church. I was, I was, I grew up going to my mom's church, but it wasn't really like my church, wasn't my thing, so I was always in and out. I got to the age where I just said, Mom, I'm not going to church with you no more. She didn't like that too much. But she respected where I was coming from. So she said, My only requirement is you come on the big Sundays, Christmas, Mother's Day, all the things. I said I could do that. Um, but what I want you to do is just come after service so we could always go get our little Brazilian lunch. I said, Okay, I got you. Next thing you know, I find myself just completely detached from church, but still somewhat understanding who Jesus is and living a somewhat life for him, but not really knowing how to glorify him. I find myself, you know, in London in this little Euro trip that I was taking. It was my little sister, and I find myself being invited to uh what I thought was a play. Next thing you know, I'm in a church, and I'm just like, what is I got huddle-winged here? What is happening? Next thing you know, I'm my hands are up. I'm like, the worship is vibey, I'm loving it. Um the preacher was old but knew how to dress. I said, I can relate. Like, I like this. Salvation call happens, my hands are in the air, I'm crying. They give me a Bible, I'm like, I'm gonna read this every day. Do you have a church like this in New York? We just opened up a campus in New York. I'm like, I'm in. I didn't understand the cost though. So I get back to New York and I said, I'm gonna do this, but my actions kept me going the other direction. It wasn't until my mother didn't come home one night and she rings me up. She goes, I'm at the hospital. Could you come meet me? I go to the hospital. Doctors are doing just tests, MRIs. The next report comes, and they are telling my mom that she has stage four breast cancer, that she didn't have much time to live, that we just couldn't have to figure out our next steps. And I didn't know where to go. So I called a friend. I said, Hey, is is church having a service today? Yes, I was that friend who had a dire need. I need prayer. I go to church, I fully give my life to Jesus. Next thing you know, I'm serving every single team. I'm on our youth team, and someone goes, Have you ever thought about going to Bible college? I said, What? There's a college for Bible? Like, what do you what what I'm okay? I'm I'm good. I love Jesus, but not that much. Two months later, I'm I am going to Sydney, Australia, going, can I can I do this? Next thing you know, I am in living in Sydney, Australia, doing Bible college. While we were there, I get this, and I I don't want to go because I'm going, I don't know if tomorrow I'm getting a phone call. Hey, my mom passed away. And my mom goes, I need you to go. I need you to go. I need you to fulfill the call in your life because you will know one day, but you don't know what I've sacrificed to get to this moment right here where my son wants to live for God. You don't know the cost. So I I need you to go. I need you to get on that plane on the other side of the world. Wasn't like it was here in the States, the other side of the world. I get a phone call one day, and my mom was just being a bit little cryptic. Next thing you know, I hang up with her and I call right back and I'm like, mom, what's what's happening? And she says, Oh son, I I love you, and I'm just afraid to tell you, but the the cancer has has spread to my brain. And and at that point, it's just just time. So I'm on the next flight out. On my way back to New York, she's at the hospital, and I'm like, okay, well, I'm not going back to Sydney. And like any mom wheel, she almost just almost smacked me in the face. She goes, You are going back. You are gonna finish what you started. Once again, I need to remind you, you don't know it, but but the cost, the the the sacrifice. We don't we don't know what's in store, but we've sacrificed this already in the name of Jesus. I go, Mama, my going. She goes, you are getting back on that plane to finish what you started. So I go, okay, so I need to figure out what my cost looks like. My sacrifice was the the last year of life that my mom had in order to prepare me for what God had for me. I didn't know what he had for me, but but I was putting my trust in him. I sacrificed my livelihood in him. So I go back to Bible college, we we finish up the semester. Um, I graduate with this little certificate where I wanted to do another year, but I needed to go back home, and I was able to spend one whole month with my mom. It was the most beautiful thing in this world. So now when I talk about Jesus, when I talk about sacrifice, when I talk about a cost, I know what the cost was, I know what the sacrifice was, but what Jesus has given me back in return, he never promised anything specifically to me. But the word also says in Ephesians 3 20 that he will give above anything I've ever planned, thought, or imagined. So I'm living a life that I go, I know what the cost was, I know what the sacrifice was. Church, dude. What's your sacrifice looking like today? What what's what's your cost looking like today? What what's what's what's what what do you put on your mantle every single day and you go that's worth something? And Jesus is going, could you sacrifice that for me? That that marriage that you hold on so tightly to, that you feel like internally is breaking apart, but you want to put on a show that everything is alright together. Think Jesus is asking for for a few people, hey, I need you to break that that jar today. That that relationship that you feel like you're in, that you're like, you know what, I know where I think this is gonna get me to, but Jesus is asking, could you could you sacrifice that? Could you break that thing that you hold so much value to? Is that what is valuable to you, or or is it me? And here's just a quick reminder for us the thing that we're holding on so tightly to, that we're afraid to break. Jesus said, Oh, she was preparing me for for burial. Can someone just tell me what happened three days after Jesus was buried? Can someone remind me what happened three days after Jesus was buried? That thing that we feel like we are holding on to. I think he wants to allow us to anoint that thing, to break that thing, and then when we begin to let go and walk and live for Jesus three days later and maybe a little bit more time, but he begins to raise that thing right back up that we're so deeply holding on to. This afternoon, right now. What is that thing that you've been holding on to that you feel like is worth so much more than who Jesus is? Could you break it this afternoon? Could you break what you think your future holds this afternoon to put it back in Jesus' hands? Could you break that marriage that's already breaking apart? Could you put it back in Jesus' hands? Your future, could you put it back in his hands? Your plans, can you put it back to his hands? We're gonna begin to worship right now. I want to encourage you if that's you, if there is something that you feel like you need to break, if you feel like there is something that is worth so much to you, could you begin to come down to the altar? Could you begin to just praise it and just metaphorically break it right here at the altar? Remind yourself. I'm not bound by this thing that I think is worth so much. I'm bound by Jesus. I'm gonna give it right back to Jesus, remind my spirit. I don't need anything else but Jesus. Like that's you. Come right now. We're gonna pray with you. We're gonna worship, and you can metaphorically break that thing. Stronghold! Okay, right now, do not wait another moment.