Validated By Jesus, Not the Crowd | Restoring Warriors Daily Devotional | Matthew 26:12-13

Validated by Jesus, Not the Crowd | Matthew 26:12–13

In Gospel of Matthew 26:12–13, Jesus Christ defends and honors a woman whose bold act of devotion drew criticism from everyone else in the room.

She stepped forward in obedience.
Others stepped back in judgment.

And Jesus made it clear: her devotion mattered more than their opinions.

This is a reality every man will face. When you take your faith seriously—when you change habits, lead differently, and live with conviction—you won’t always be understood. People may question your discipline, your priorities, or your intensity.

But approval from the crowd is temporary.
Validation from Jesus is eternal.

You don’t need everyone to understand your walk. You need to stay faithful to your calling.

In this message, we cover:
– Why obedience often invites misunderstanding
– The cost of living for approval vs. living for Christ
– How to stay grounded when others question your faith
– What it means to lead with conviction in a noisy world

Stay faithful. Keep showing up. Heaven sees what others question.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

They start to have their own opinions and people they question your intensity, right? You're on fire for Jesus. Hey, welcome back to the Restoring Warriors Daily Devotional, where every day we challenge men to dive deeper into the word. Hey, right now, uh, Restoring Warriors, we're a men's group. We meet every Tuesday night here in Denver, Colorado. But we're currently expanding, we're planting new men's groups in living rooms across the country, expansion groups. So if you've ever felt a calling to lead a group, uh, go over to restoring warriors.com, click on join a group, and we can direct you from there. All right, right now we're back in the book of Matthew. We're in chapter 26, and we're in verses 12 and 13 today, where it says this when she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. Wow, what a great promise by Jesus there. All right, so there's moments when doing the right thing, it's gonna make you stand out. You're gonna be seen by other people, and and not always in a good way, all right. Kind of like this. You start taking your faith really seriously in your life, right? And you start to change habits, you lead your family differently, you start to really protect your time and what what you're letting into uh your your brain, your you protect your purity, you protect all of your priorities, and then suddenly the the room starts to have opinions. All the people that you grew up with, all the people that surrounded you, they start to have their own opinions. And and people, they question your intensity, right? You're on fire for Jesus. They don't understand why you're so disciplined now. They may even criticize your devotion. Does that sound familiar to anybody? I know I've experienced that for sure. And that's exactly what happens to this woman as well. She stepped forward in bold obedience while others they stepped back and started to judge her, right? But Jesus didn't stay silent, he started defending her. Then he did something even greater. He honored her publicly and he promised them that her story will be remembered wherever the gospel is preached. And here we are reading about it today. Man, and here's the here's the mirror moment for men is obedience to God. Sometimes it's going to invite misunderstanding from people, sometimes it's going to invite judgment, but but approval from the crowd is temporary. All right, validation from Jesus, now that's eternal. And you don't need everybody to understand your walk. Most people probably won't, but you do need to stay faithful to your calling. All right, so keep leading, keep showing up, keep doing the right thing, even when it costs your reputation, because heaven sees what you're doing. All right, let's take a moment to reflect. Pull out a journal, take take the next five or 10 minutes and reflect on this question here. Where in your life are you hesitating to do the right thing because you're worried about how others will respond to you? All right, and here's your daily challenge for today is take one step of obedience today, one step that aligns with your faith. Even if it feels uncomfortable or or goes against the expectations that others have for you. Then finally, let's pray. Jesus, give me the courage to obey you even when others don't understand. Help me care more about your approval than the opinions that surround me, Lord, and strengthen me to lead with conviction, with humility, and with faithfulness. It's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Thank you for tuning in today. Hey, if you were encouraged by us devotional, I encourage you to send it to a friend. Like, comment, make sure you subscribe. All that helps us in the algorithms and helps us uh preach the word of the gospel of Jesus to more and more people. Hey, really grateful to be on this journey with you. Can't wait to see you on the next one.