The Cost of Worship - Pastor Efrem Smith | Elk Grove

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More about Pastor Efrem

Rev. Dr. Efrem Smith is a pastor, consultant, speaker, and author. He is passionate about life transformation, multiethnic development, healthy churches, and community development. Within his church congregation he is known as Pastor Efrem, Pastor E, and Dr. E.

Pastor Efrem was the founding pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church, a multi-ethnic church in Minneapolis, MN, He served as the Superintendent of the Pacific Southwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. He also served as the President of World Impact, an urban missions organization. Currently, Pastor Efrem is the Co-lead Pastor of Midtown Church, a thriving and multi-ethnic community in Sacramento, California. He is also Co-Owner of Influential LLC, a speaking, consulting, and coaching ministry. Pastor Efrem is the author of Raising Up Young Heroes, The Hip Hop Church, Jump, The Post-Black and Post-White Church, Killing Us Softly, and Church for Everyone.

Pastor Efrem is a graduate of Saint John's University and Luther Theological Seminary. He completed the Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary and received an honorary Doctor of Ministry degree from Ashland Theological Seminary. Pastor Efrem is married to Donecia, and they have two daughters, Jaeda and Mireya. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

I don't know about you, but I I sometimes treat items, treat things based on how much they're worth. You shouldn't do this, but I I I find myself doing it from time to time. I mean, as an example, I treat my new balance tennis shoes different than I treat my Nikes. Like, you know, the new balance, you know, I go walking, I go running in them, you know, if they I can be in the yard with them. But but I've never like said, ooh, my new balance is there's a scuff on them. Let me clean them. But like my Nikes, oh man, it's like if something as soon as some little bit of something get on my Nikes, I'm like cleaning them, trying to get them right again. I'm trying to get them right. Because it's this this Nikes, it's not new balance. My first car was a used car. And I'll be honest, I was young, I didn't treat it all that well. I mean, you you you might see, you know, uh a rapper from Wendy's or Burger King, you know, in my first car, you know what I mean. You might you might see cups from, you know, it was messy, you know what I mean? I mean, it's like, you know, it's like it when I was dating Donisha before we got married, like I had to be like, oh man, this car is too messy. I better go do some things before I pick her up and take her on a date. But it was a used car, I didn't treat it right. But when my first new car, I I still remember it was a Nissan Ultima. That was my first brand new car, right off the car lot, brand new, zero miles on it. And I and man, I I took that thing to the detailed car wash, not the one where you go to the gas station and you just go through if you pay a little extra. Like, I mean, I I mean, like, I took care of it because it was in my mind, this was more valuable, it was more expensive. Do do you tend to treat things that are more expensive a little different than the things that you got on discount? The things you got on clearance, you treat those a little different than the things that they weren't on sale, but you wanted that. So you bought it, you you paid the extra money, but you're treating that different. You don't wear that all the time. That's for special occasions. You treat it different. At least we should. But what about giving up something that cost us a lot? What about releasing something to others that we spent a lot of money on? It's one thing to have something valuable, something expensive, and to treat it really well. It's another thing to have something valuable, something expensive, and be willing to give it away. Be willing to release it. And that's what our text is about today. It's about, for a godly purpose, being willing to let go of something, to give up something of great value. And is that in and of itself an expression of worship? Is worship more than showing up at church like we did today, though that's good? Is worship more than standing and singing songs like we just did, though that's good? Is worship more than we parked in the parking lot? We came in here. We are going through an order of worship. We are in a worship service right now, but is worship biblically more than just what we're doing right now? Go with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, beginning with verse 1. There is a word in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, beginning with verse 1. It says this. Now the Passover and the festival of unleavened bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. But not during the festival, they said, or people may riot. While he was in Bethany reclining at the table in the home of Simon the leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar, a very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, Why waste this perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor. And they rebuked her harshly. Leave her alone, said Jesus. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them anytime you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. From this text, I want to preach to you on the title, The Cost of Worship. The cost of worship. God, I pray this would be your message that ultimately you would be preaching. God, God, I only want to be an instrument that you would use to say what you want to say. To these, your beloved children, my sisters and brothers. God, I desire to be obedient to your word. So please let it be done. In Jesus' name, amen. The cost of worship. My brother, one of our other pastors, Pastor Otis Amy, uh, preached on this text at our Sacramento campus last Sunday. And uh, we wanted to pull you in as the Elk Grove campus into this word because we believe there's something here in this text that our whole entire congregation should process and and work through and wrestle through of what it means to not just come into a house of worship, not just to uh attend a service of worship, but to be people of worship. That we would have a lifestyle of worship, that worship would not be limited to, contained to uh these few minutes that we find ourselves in together. And we're talking about the value, the expense connected to, the cost connected to worship. I talked to you about the idea of do we treat things that we deem more valuable differently? But I also want to talk about how sometimes it might be uh it might cause us irritation to watch somebody waste something of value? Have you ever seen somebody treat something of value like it wasn't worth much? Have you ever seen somebody just throw something of value away to not to waste it? Um could you imagine if you decided to take someone to an expensive restaurant and you said, I I got it, I let me treat. And and the person you took to this expensive restaurant opened up the menu, and they ordered the most expensive item on the menu since you paying. Since you said you got it. They order the tomahawk steak. Not to share with you. And could you imagine? You said, I'm treating, I'm taking you out. They order the tomahawk steak, and then when the tomahawk steak comes, they take three bites of it and go, that was so wonderful, and they push the plate away. And the service says, Do you want a to-go box? They go, No, I don't want a to-go box. I'm full. That was one. All I needed was a little taste. That was wonderful. Thank you so much. You can take it away. Would that bother you a little bit since you're paying? You'd be like, No, I'm taking that, give me a to-go box. You would say, That's a waste. Why would you do that? Why would you order the most expensive thing on the menu, take three bites, and then just push the plate away and say, I'm done now, I don't need no more. No, I don't want a to-go box, no, I just wanted that. That you would say, that is a waste. And yet, in part that's what this story is about. People looking at a situation and thinking it's a waste. Looking at the act of a woman named Mary and thinking that she is being wasteful. At least at first glance, that's what Mark chapter 14 and its initial verses is about. It's about people that think that this is a waste of time. That what this woman does with this expensive perfume is a waste. The religious leaders who are scheming to kill Jesus are doing this because they believe that following Jesus as Messiah and Savior is a waste. To think that he is God is wasted thoughts. To follow him as someone who would change lives is a wasted agenda. To follow Jesus is a waste of time. But then there are the disciples that are following Jesus, that they believe that this woman who is anointing Jesus, preparing him for burial with this expensive perfume, they think that's a waste. That she is wasting something expensive on Jesus. This is a waste. Why are you doing this? But this isn't the first time that the disciples have thought that something was happening around Jesus that was a waste of time. They probably thought it was a waste of time when the woman with the issue of blood was attempting to touch his clothes so she could be healed. They thought it was a waste of time when he went off to GPS and went to Samaria to sit at a well with an unnamed Samaritan woman so her life could be changed. They thought it was a waste of time when children came and sat on the lap of Jesus, and Jesus said, No, don't keep these children from coming to me. There were multiple times when they thought it was a waste, but when you totally don't understand what's going on, you might think something that you need is a waste when you don't realize how valuable it really is and what it means for you. Be careful what you call a waste. Be careful not to throw somebody away because you don't deem them as valuable as God does. But let's talk about this woman, Mary, for a minute. And I want to help you out because there's other stories similar to this in the Gospels. Please don't confuse this story in Mark 14, where there's a woman named Mary that shows up at a house of a guy named Simon who's a leper, who's uh diseased, who would be seen as unclean, disabled, but yet he's healed by Jesus. This is a different story than the one you find in Luke 7, where Jesus is at the house of another person named Simon. But this is not Simon the leper, this is Simon the Pharisee or Simon the religious leader. There's also an unnamed woman who comes into that house to anoint Jesus as well, but she is not named, and all they say about her is she lived a very sinful life. But yet we have two stories where Jesus is in a house not that far away from his crucifixion, from going to the cross, and you have two women from various places of life that uh that they feel like the best thing they can do in the presence of Jesus is to give up something expensive in their expression of worship. That what we see from these two women, one named Mary, one unnamed, but is said to be scandalous, to live a sinful life, is they're willing to release something expensive to them in worship to Jesus. Mary, the one we're talking about here in Mark 14, is the sister of Lazarus and Martha. So you may, some of you Bible connoisseurs know the story of Jesus going to the house of Mary and Martha, and one of them is in uh the the the kitchen preparing and and doing things, and the other sisters just sitting with Jesus. So this is the same Mary and Martha. They had a brother named Lazarus. Lazarus was sick and he wasn't doing well, and so they sent word to Jesus to come heal their brother Lazarus. They had heard that Jesus is a healer, so they sent the word out. But by the time Jesus gets close to their house, uh their brother Lazarus is dead. So they're thinking it's a waste of time, Jesus, for you to show up now. Lazarus is dead. Jesus basically says, let's go to the cemetery and see about him. They're like, What? You should have came to our house to see about our brother. You you could have came to the hospital to see about our brother. When he was breathing his last breath, you could have came and see about now. We're gonna go to the cemetery and see about him. He's been dead for days. And Jesus calls Lazarus, the Bible says, out of the grave back to life. So maybe that's a reason to worship God. Now, now you might say, well, I don't have a story like that. But but you do have a story. Uh he, you know, maybe he didn't raise your dead brother back to life, but he he he raised your dead agenda back to life. He he led your he raised your dead emotions back to life. He raised your dead dead thinking back to life. Maybe your marriage was dying, maybe your career was dying, maybe you felt like you were dying inside, and somewhere you found yourself in a place of worship, and God called your whole life back to life. What I'm saying is Mary had a reason to worship Jesus. Do you? Mary had a reason to worship God. Do you okay? So if we're in agreement on that, at least a few people say yeah, okay. Okay, if a few people said yeah out loud, okay, the the issue becomes in we we all have a reason to worship, but do you have ways of worshiping? Just because you have a reason to worship, don't mean you do it, don't mean you express it. You you you you you you may have reason to love your children, but but sometimes you don't like them. You have reason to love your spouse, you you have reason to love your parents, you you you you have reason to love your neighbor, but you don't always. So we have reason, there's a reason we should worship God, but how do we worship God? And should worship cost something? I want to present to you a different biblical way of thinking about worship. To not just see worship is our gathering here right now, but I want to give you a bigger biblical picture of worship. One, Jesus himself says that the greatest of commandments is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. So the greatest commandment points to an intimate, loving relationship between human beings and God. So maybe we should place our understanding of worship there. To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, with all your mind. So I want to present to you that worship is expressions that come out of our intimacy with God, our identity with Jesus, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Let me say it one more time. That worship are expressions that come out of our intimacy with God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love love the Lord your God with everything. So, out of the overflow of our intimate relationship with God, I'm not I'm not connected to God because my mama told me to, I'm not connected to God because my daddy told me to, I'm not connected to God because of what the pastor said. I've had my own experiences in life that I am so dumb that God is real and I'm connected to God. I love God, I believe God is real, I believe God is real, and so out of the overflow of my own personal relationship with God, I out of the overflow of my finding identity in his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and rose for me, and out of the belief that the Spirit of God lives in me, what I sense in me is not just my gut, it's not just instincts. There's something in me that says, Don't go there. I believe that's God. There's something in me that says, Yeah, that's cool. I think that that's God. There's something in me that drives me to stuff that I wouldn't do just in my own power. I don't know if I like you better yet, love you, but there's something on the inside of me that reminds me that I'm loved in spite of how flawed and broken I am, which then leads me to love you. And that's the Holy Spirit. So, could it be that that's where worship should reside? That's where worship. So, here's the big question that I want to wrestle through real briefly. I'm gonna give you three points real briefly from this story. But the question that I'm trying to answer in this sermon is how do we worship beyond the church service? How do we leave this place today as worshipers? How do we live this week out in a in a world of chaos and conflict and challenge? How do we still keep worshiping God? How do we how do we worship beyond the church service? So glad you want to know this. One, show up, show up. Says here in Mark 14, verses 1 through 3. Now the Passover and the festival of unleavened bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him, but not during the festival, they said, or the people may riot. While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. So I said show up, but it's not just showing up, it's how you show up. What do I mean by that? So the Passover is being celebrated. At that time, that was a religious uh uh experience that it it for them back then, it would have been like Easter Sunday is for us now. For them back then, it would have been like having Christmas services. It would be like in the church in the United States America, in the United States of America now, like Easter Sunday is a big deal for us, Christmas services are a big deal for us, you know, a good Friday service, and we're gonna have a good Friday service this Friday at the at the Sacramento campus for everybody to come. We hope you would come out Friday, 7 p.m. We're gonna have a good Friday service. And so just like those services are important to us, Sunday morning is important to us. The Passover was was was hugely important for them. And so they showed up, just like you showed up for church today. They that you know, millions of people would show up because they're celebrating that their ancestors were delivered out of slavery in Egypt into the promised land, and so they're celebrating how their ancestors were slaves under the powerful thumb of Pharaoh and Jesus, God, God uh delivered them out of slavery, God the Father delivered them out of slavery in Egypt, and so they're celebrating that. So a lot of people show up, but everybody don't show up for the right reasons, everybody don't show up with the right heart. Remember now, it says here that that the chief priests and the teachers of the law they showed up, but they were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly. Everybody that show up don't have the agenda of God in their heart. Some people are secretly planning, scheming against God's agenda. Scheming. But there's a woman who shows up, and this woman with this very expensive perfume made of pure gard, she shows up. And so, because the question here is how do we worship beyond the church service if God and God's agenda only exists between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. something at Fortune School that is currently occupied by Midtown Church Elk Grove, then all we would need to focus on is making sure we show up here and we show up with the Heart. But what if God exists beyond Sunday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. something? What if God exists? Does that mean wherever God is, we should show up as worshipers? See, I used to have this limited thought about God in church. So it's like, you know, I grew up where we dressed up for church. You know what I'm saying? We dressed up and and and we went there because we're going to church to worship God as if God was, and again, please hear me right, because going to church is a good thing. You know what I'm saying? Showing up is a good thing. I'm glad it's casual. You know what I'm saying? Here at Midtown. But but but if I only see God here, I'll show up one way here, but I'll show up at work tomorrow a little different. I'll show up at school tomorrow a little different. I'll show up at home a little different. I'll show up at the grocery store a little different. But if God is omnipresent, if God is everywhere, then everywhere I show up, God already is. And if God is already there, should I be the same worshiper that I am at church in the grocery store? On my block, in my living room, on my job. Some of y'all are gonna have to turn your cubicle into a worship service tomorrow just so you can get through. Some of y'all you need church at home as much as you need church here. You need church at your job as much as I know you can't preach at church, but you can secretly sing in your soul. Some of y'all need a hymn just so you can get through. So this woman didn't have any shame. She showed up to worship God. She didn't show up at a temple, she showed up in a house. So what I'm saying is, worship should take place wherever God exists. And if God exists where the unhoused are, we should go worship there. If God exists where the undocumented immigrant is, we should show up in worship. Not in judgment, not politicizing, not polarizing, but where the poor is, if God is where the poor is, if God is where the undocumented is, if God is where foster children are, if God is where people that are unemployed are, if God is where the rich are, if God is where the divorced are, if God is where the humanly trafficked are, we should show up in all the spaces where God exists and worship God. And sometimes you need to show up as truth, as light, as love, as grace, as forgiveness in the name of Jesus. Be where God is and worship. Don't you limit worship to just here. Extend your worship to every place God is, where the lost is, where the broken is, where the demonized is. I know some of y'all say, well, I don't know if I'm gonna show up there yet. I need a class on that. Show up where the I'll I'll show up where the where where the I'll show up where the broken people are, but if they got spirits on them, I ain't ready for that one yet. I ain't we're gonna get you ready. We're gonna get you ready to show up and show out for God wherever God is showing up. Show up. Second, sacrifice. Sacrifice. I want to back up to verse three, and then I'm gonna go all the way to verse five. While he was in Bethany reclining at the table in the home of Simon the leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, why this waste of perfume could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor. And they rebuked her harshly. She showed up with expensive perfume. You know, um I used to um I used to uh really idolize uh as a kid my dad and my uncles and my grandfather, because you know, they they they they would wear these, you know, nice, nice jewelry. You know, they they would they would dress nice. I mean, my dad ironed his jeans for work. My dad had a job where he put the finish on on elevator uh doors. So he he, you know, every time I go to a hotel or I'm in an office building and I get ready to get on an elevator, I think of my dad, because for 45 years he worked for a company called HB, and and they built the frames for elevator doors, and then that finish that you see on there, that's what my dad did. Put the finish on elevator doors and the frame. But but my dad really cared about how he looked, that he would iron his work shirt and his work jeans and go to work. So if he did that, you could just think about what he looked like on Friday night, you know, clean and smell good. And I was like, man, that's what I want to be like, man. I want to, I wanna I want to be grown and you know, I want I want to smell good like my my uncles. And I remember I was a little kid, I wanted to I wanted to steal my my dad's cologne. He was like, boy, stay out of that. So then I didn't know what to do, so I just went and took like Johnson and Johnson talcum powder, and I was just like, you know, because I want to smell good, you know. I was only six, but you know, I wanted to smell good too, and I wanted to walk like my dad walked. He didn't, okay, never mind. My my dad walks with Jesus now, but anyway, and I should say he was walking to my mom like that. Okay, all right, just to establish it. Okay, so so so uh but when I got a little older, I remember my first cologne was English leather. My first cologne. I was like 11, and I was just like, but I didn't know what to do with it, so I was just like, Because, but that was a waste, you ain't but and that was that was cheap cologne. But I learned now, you know, now that I'm grown, you know, when you when you take cologne, you just go like you know, and go about your business. You know what I mean? Now there might be some people that break the rule. Like I don't know how many you're supposed to do, but I I think if you did, like, like, you know, when you and ladies, I don't know what you do for perfume. Like usually ladies are like, tss, and you know, and that because they sample in it to see if they like it. And then you know, but you know, so I like, you know, usually with cologne, I'm like, t, but if you was like, you would say, like, hey, that's too many. Like, I don't know what the rule is, but I think six, that's probably as far as you should go. And that might be too much. Like, I think between three and four. You know, then that's it. You know what I mean? But if you need it like six, seven, eight, that's that's a little much. I don't know what it is for women. If you like, then that's it, right? This woman for Jesus broke open the entire jar. Could you imagine? I would have been people would be like, that's why the disciples are like, hey, wait a minute, broke it open and like all over him. You ain't bathing, you're just putting on some. What are you doing? But this was where she was willing to go and sacrifice to worship Jesus, not just to worship any other man. You know what I mean? Not just some ordinary person, but for Jesus in worship, pointing to his death and resurrection, she was willing to sacrifice it all. What are you willing to sacrifice for worship? Wow, what a big question. Now, before you think I'm just talking about, oh, you're about to do the offering now, Pastor Ephraim. No, no, no, let's go with me for a minute. I think Pastor Tyrone is gonna do it later. But anyway, that's not where I'm going right now. I want you to think about it this way. I've been married to Donisha Lavon Norwood Smith for 33 years. And you know what? I can't, I don't know what the exact number is. I'm not bragging, but I've spent a lot of money on that woman. I I've spent a lot of money on Donisha. Now, before we got married, I was spending money like to get her back when she broke up with me, which I deserved. Or you know, or or that, you know, I don't know if every brother keeps like some I'm sorry money. Like if you don't, brothers, I would encourage you to somewhere secretly have a stash of baby, I'm sorry money. Baby, you know, hey. Probably won't work. But anyway, I I've spent money on Dinesha at times when I did, I wasn't even thinking of the how much it costs. I was like, well, you know, if I do this and I, you know, get an extra job at Super America, I can pay that off. You know what I mean? Like back in the day when we was just struggling. I have two daughters, Jada and Maria. I probably spent a lot of money on Jada Maria. I I I don't know, I don't even think about it. I just just I'm not gonna be too long with this, but just a couple years ago, my my youngest daughter, Maria, she she's uh working on her doctorate in in college right now. And um so she calls me when she was working on her master's degree in Indiana, and she said, Dad, I have the money, I'm gonna buy a car, but I would feel more comfortable if you were with me when I'm looking at the cars and talking to the people. I said, No problem. Denisha and I fly out to Indiana, we go to this Toyota dealership, we're walking around looking at cars, and um she sees this car, she's like, ooh, and she gets in. I'm like, hey, you're getting too excited in front of the dude. Don't do that in front of him. Like, don't get that excited in front of him. Just look at the car like this. Uh-huh. Like, I'm trying to I tried to coach you coming over here, but you look at the car, ooh. Like, I'm like, no, no. She takes the car on the test drive. She comes back, Dad, this the one. This the one, dad. So I'm looking at the guy, and um, to make a long story short, next thing I know, I'm in the finance office while Danisha and Maria are drinking lattes. I bought a car. I don't know how much money I've spent on my wife and my daughters. I just don't think about it. Until right now. But what if I had that same posture when it came to what I'm willing to sacrifice for God and God's agenda? What if when it came to God's agenda for the poor, God's agenda for lost people, God's agenda for Sacramento, God's agenda for Elk Grove. I'm telling you, you should hold us accountable. When you give here financially, you should hold us accountable. We should be good stewards. We should, we we gave a financial update on our other campus. And I know Pastor Tyrone feels the same way on this campus of being able to come before you and say, this is where the resources go. When you give here, we adopt schools and start tutoring programs. When you give here, we have initiatives and ministries to the unhoused. When you give here, it's so that we can have an intergenerational worship experience where there's ministry to the children and ministry to the youth, where there's staff. I mean, I mean, I mean, we we want to be good stewards of the resources. We want to show you that when you give here, lives are being transformed. There are ministries of marriage enrichment here. There are ministries where people's lives are being transformed. When people are grieving, we have ministries here where we provide no cost to low cost therapy and counseling for people that are carrying trauma. When you give here, the lost are found, the broken are blessed, the hurting are helped. So as long as we know that there's good stewardship in this house, as an extension of worship, we would give. But also, let me balance that with saying there should be good stewardship in your house, which means no church should be driving its members in debt. Your giving shouldn't be because I've seen this, I've seen theologies in parts of the church where they will let their congregation, the people, go in debt in their personal lives as long as the pastor's being taken care of. That's not our agenda here. Our agenda here is that you would be good stewards of your finances at home, making sure you're paying your rent, you're paying your mortgage, you're you're you're getting your groceries, you're you're taking care of your essential necessities, but that you also have the financial literacy to also say, all this belongs to God. All this belongs to God. I own nothing, which is why I can take a portion of my resources and release it to God's agenda beyond God's agenda for me. That's what this is about. That's the kind of sacrifice we're talking about. And third, serve. Mark 14, uh verse 6. Leave her alone, said Jesus. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them anytime you want, but you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly, I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. That's why we're talking about her right now. That's why this story is preached in churches around the world. Because this is still remembered. The chief priests and the teachers had all kinds of wealth. What did they do in worship of Jesus? They schemed to kill him. The disciples who were walking with him had resources. They might not have been as wealthy as the chief priests and the teachers of the law, but they had money. And a guy named Judas among them was the treasurer. And what was he scheming to do with the money? But yet, this woman, she served by pointing to the death and resurrection of Jesus. That's ultimately our worship. That's how we live points people to Jesus. It points people to the love, to the truth, to the justice, to the righteousness, to the liberation of God. That the way we live points people to God's agenda. We lift up the good news of Christ. And so I think worship is a posture of stating nothing I have, I own. I manage it for the purposes of God. And part of the purposes of God is that you are well, that you are healthy. Please know that God's agenda is loving you. God's agenda is your empowerment, your education, your freedom, your strength, your flourishing. But God's agendas, it includes you, it includes me, but it's bigger than you, and it's bigger than me, and that's why we worship. We worship out of thanksgiving. We worship out of great gratitude. We worship because we know none of it belongs to us. This is really what worship looks like as I come to my close. Romans 12, verses 1 to 2. It says, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will. Oh, there's something rich here. I don't know if you're gonna shout on this, but I'm gonna try not to shout myself saying it to you. This is saying the most expensive item that you can offer God is you. It's not your car, it's not your perfume, it's not your cologne, it's not even your money. Because if you offer yourself to God, all of the other things will fall in place. You'll know what to do with your money, you'll know what to do with your time, you'll know what to do with your talent, you'll know what to do with your gifts. If you offer yourself to God, the most expensive thing you can offer God is you. That didn't make you shout, so let me go a little deeper here. Let's go back to the perfume. What did she do with the perfume jar before she anointed Jesus? She broke it. You know what that means? Even though you're broken, you're still expensive. Even though you're broken, you're still loved. Even though you're broken, you're still valuable. Even though you're broken, you're still worthy. Even though all the world tried to break you. That marriage tried to break you. That job tried to break you. That person that abused you tried to break you. That person that lied on you tried to break you. But the good news is you might be broken, but you're still expensive. Oh, you might have broke my heart, but you didn't take my word. You might be imperfect, but you're still expensive. You're still valuable. They ain't put you on the clearance shelf yet. You ain't marked down. I'm just preaching to me, Sister Stephanie. I guess. I guess I'm I'm just preaching to me. Ah, this is how you know a black preacher is really closing. But still got something to say. When me and Dinesha was young, and uh we didn't have much, I was a youth pastor uh in an inner city church, but there was a uh a family there, the Sterlins. And um Phil and Julia, she was in education as a principal, and he was in corporate America as a vice president at a Fortune 500 company. So they they were doing well. And I remember Phil Sterling and his wife came up to me after a church service and they said, you know, we really appreciate how you love on the youth, how you love on the kids of this church. So we want to love on you. Next time you have a date night, and it should be soon, he said, drive out to our house and we'll watch your kids while you and your wife go on a date. We want to love on you. So we drove out to their house. As my grandma would say, they was living in High Cotton. We drove out to big old house. You know, you got the vice president of Fortune 500 company and big old house. And and we went, we went in there and we we brought Jade and Maria. They was little, and uh so so Phil and Julia and their daughters were gonna watch Jada and Maria while we went out to dinner and and we went out to a movie. And so uh Phil said, So where are you going out to eat? Before um you going to a movie or something? I said, Yeah, yeah. He said, Where you going out to eat? And I said, uh, we probably gonna do Olive Garden. And he said, No, I made reservations for you at a steakhouse. And so that that's where you're going. And I was like, wow, he's willing to do that for us. And and then he said, uh, what you driving? I said, What am I driving? The same car I pulled up. He said, he said, he said, come with me. And we went to his garage and he and we went in the garage, and it was a light blue convertible jaguar. He said, This is what y'all are driving tonight, and we're gonna start watching your kids once a month when you go on a date, and every time you bring them out here and you take your wife on a date, and this is what you're gonna drive. I'm like, I'm trying. He's he said, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he put the he said he put the keys in my hand. So I went to Donisha. I said, Look, I don't. And you know, we can I just that is a multicultural church, but I grew up in a neighborhood where there wasn't a lot of white folks, so I'm just this white man giving us the keys of his car. What if we get pulled over? Is it wrong that I said that? I guess I can't lie in church. White people still come back to church next Sunday, even though I said that. Sorry, Pastor Tyrone, Sister Raquel. I'm like, this dude gave me the keys to his car. I'm driving a jaguar, you know, and I don't look like I, at that time I didn't look like I would own a jaguar. In the suburbs, going to this expensive steakhouse. And I thought to myself, That man loved us so much that he gave his only jaguar. So we could go on date nights. But I know the creator of the universe that was willing to release something more expensive than a light blue, convertible jaguar. He gave his only begotten Son Jesus to come down here as Savior and Messiah to go to Calvary's cross to have nails in his hands and nails in his feet, willing to be pierced in the side for my transgressions, for my iniquities, for my sins. And he went down in the grave on Friday night and stayed there on Saturday. I know it's Easter Sunday next week, but I'm getting ahead of myself, Sister Raquel. Early Sunday morning, he rose with all power for you and for me. Is that worth your worship?