Giving Our Best For Jesus - Part 1

This morning, I'm going to ask you to turn with me to Mark chapter 14, and we are going to talk about giving our best for Jesus. Now this is a beautiful episode in the life of our Lord. And it was so important that it was recorded by all four Gospel writers. So before we dive in, we need to understand the setting a little more. Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha. And Mary, Martha and Lazarus were the friends of Jesus. He often spent the night in their home and took time to refresh himself there. Now Lazarus had been sick and he had died. And Jesus had revived him and brought him back to life. And as we read all of the Gospel accounts, we can tell that the feast that is described in Mark 14 is a celebration of Lazarus coming back to life.

Now picture it with me. The table is set. All of the notable guests are there. Jesus and Lazarus are talking. Martha is in the kitchen serving and cooking. And Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus. Her heart is absolutely filled with love for the Lord Jesus. And after a while, she quietly slips out of the room, and she comes back with something extremely exquisite and beautiful in her hand. It is an alabaster box, and inside there is some very expensive perfume. Mary breaks the box. She pours the perfume on the head of Jesus. She pours the perfume on His feet. And after she does this, she gets down on her knees, takes her hair and wipes the feet of Jesus and praises Him. This is where our message begins today.