“When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.”
— Luke 7:37-38 (NLT)
Then the woman, after washing Jesus’ feet with her tears and drying them with her hair, poured the perfume from the jar over the feet of Jesus, the “beautiful alabaster jar, filled with expensive perfume” (Luke 7:37-38).
9.
Worship is bringing our very best
We have already explored that worship is all about coming to give in Part 1 – The Approach. But there is a lot we can learn about the offering that we bring from this passage. I think the offering that the woman brought gives us an indication of the condition which we should bring our offering; we must bring an offering that is beautiful, filled and expensive.
Beautiful
The jar holding the perfume, containing the offering to Jesus was beautiful. Not just the contents themselves, presented in any old jar, but a beautiful, alabaster jar. Alabaster was used (and still is) for creating very decorative, ornamental carvings that when treated resembles marble. We can expect, therefore, that this jar was delicately carved, glittering white, stunning. This was something that the woman would have valued very highly, it may even have been the most valuable item she owned. She brought the best, most beautiful thing that she possessed to the feet of Jesus.
Beauty is captivating and right at the heart of God. We know God loves beautiful things because all around us his creation shouts of his beauty and his goodness. When he created the world, he created it beautiful – extravagantly beautiful! Just look at how the sun rises and sets, the explosion of colour, the spectacle of it all. Just imagine the way light sparkles when it hits the ocean, or the dazzling brightness of waking up after snow fall. I have recently been watching the BBC series “Blue Planet II” and I cannot believe the complexity and the diversity of the beauty of some of these creatures – and all of it, every single, intricate part of our planet was perfectly designed by our creative God.
It is clear that God loves beauty!
True beauty is something of a very high standard of excellence, because true beauty is a reflection of God himself. It is a reflection of all that is good, pleasing and perfect.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good” — Psalm 34:8
Our God is beauty. He is excellence. And so when we worship we must bring our most beautiful offering, the best that we have to offer.
Beauty is powerful. Think about it – we are drawn to beauty. I don’t mean superficial beauty – the beauty of only the appearance, the outside. External beauty without a character of beauty is not true beauty. “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion” (Proverbs 11:22). I mean the inner beauty that Peter refers to, “the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Peter 3:4).
True beauty comes from the inner-most part of our being. It is the beauty of our hearts when they are peaceful, full of faith and trust in God, not striving or restless but confident in who God is and who we are. It is the beauty of our spirit when it is in alignment with his spirit and filled with his joy. True beauty is knowing that, despite the broken world we live in, with God it is well.
Think of the most beautiful person you know and how you feel when you are around them. A person of true beauty is secure in who they are, is confident in their purpose, is kind, is honourable, is hopeful. And they invite those around them into that security too. They speak comfort and peace. They speak love and truth. In their presence, the worry, the fear, the pressure that we so often face is loosened, and we can just be, delighting in the truth that God loves us and he is good.
Beauty invites us in – it draws us towards. It nourishes our souls, comforts our hearts, and inspires our minds. In the same way, God is drawn towards beauty. He is enthralled by us (Ps 45) and he delights in us when we cultivate gentle and gracious inner beauty (1 Peter 3:4-6). This beauty will look different for each person. Because we were all created uniquely and reflect a different facet of the enormity of God. But when we worship, we must bring the best that we have, because an offering of beauty, of excellence, reflects the beauty and excellence of the one we worship.
Filled
The alabaster jar was filled with perfume. It wasn’t half empty or just whatever was left over from when she had previously used it. It was full to the brim. In the same way, we must come to worship God filled to overflowing, not empty, exhausted and running on fumes!
“My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendour all day long.” — Psalm 71:8
Now I don’t know about you but my mouth is not always filled with praise to God – I know there are times when all sorts of other things tumble out of my mouth, things that I can sometimes be ashamed of. So how do we make sure that our mouths are filled with God’s praise, all day long?
Fill up with the right stuff
Luke 6:45 tells us that what we speak flows from what is in our hearts. “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart”. Have you heard the expression “garbage in, garbage out”? We need to make sure that we are filling ourselves with the right things so that only the right things flow out of it!
When Paul writes to the Philippians, he instructs them to “…fill [their] minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable.” (Phil 4:8). We need to make sure we are watching the right things, listening to the right things, surrounding ourselves with the right people.
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies.” — 1 Cor. 6:19-20
Paul instructs the Philippians to put into practice what they learned and received from him, both from his words and his actions (Phil. 4:8). We need to surround ourselves with those who are honest, trustworthy, integral and honourable. People who encourage us, build us up and speak truth into our lives. People who instruct and teach us in the ways of God (Psalm 32:8) and who will correct and challenge us when we are straying from the right path (Prov. 12:1).
Ultimately, though, we must take our instruction from the Word of God for:
“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives.” — 2 Tim. 3:16.
God’s word corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. If we fill our hearts and minds with the truth of who God is and what he teaches us, our mouths will be filled with praise that is acceptable to Him.
“For out of the abundance of the heart [our] mouth speaks” — Luke 6:45
Learn to be joy-filled in every situation
The word “joy” appears over 150 times in the bible and the word “rejoice” (meaning to have joy) around 200 times – not to mention all the other variations like “joyful”, “joyfully”, “joyous”. Clearly God puts a great emphasis on the importance of feeling and expressing joy.
“Let the righteous…rejoice exceedingly.” — Psalms 68:3
God desires that we serve Him “with joy and gladness of heart” (Deuteronomy 28:47).
First things first, there is a big difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is an emotion, a feeling experienced because of something good happening. “Hap” means chance and is the root of the words happen, hapless, haphazard and happenstance. Happiness is fickle and subject to the circumstances around us.
But true joy, biblical joy, is much more than something we feel by chance. It is the deep, foundational, soul-satisfying contentment that we experience when we build a relationship with the one who is the source of joy (Galatians 5:22-23). It comes from being content with whatever we have, whether we have almost nothing or everything (Philippians 4:11-13).
1 Peter 1:8-9 teaches us that it is through faith, even when we cannot see God at work, we are filled with “an inexpressible and glorious joy”. Our joy comes from God himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit and his glorious hope (Romans 5:13). As we develop our relationship with God, as we grow in faith and hope for things to come, as we spend more time in his presence, we will experience fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11).
True joy is developed through relationship with Jesus, through fixing our eyes on him, spending time with him, serving for him and enduring through him (Acts 20:35; Rom. 5:3-11; Phil. 4:13). It is only then that we are able to remain joyful even when we face trials, seeing them as opportunities to develop endurance and be refined, rather than losing our joy in the midst of them.
Be filled with the Holy Spirit
“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” — Ephesians 5:18-19
Although we know that the Holy Spirit is given at the moment of salvation (Ephesians 1:13; Galatians 3:2) to all believers, as a seal of their future glorification in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 4:30), this isn’t the same thing as the filling of the Spirit referred to in Ephesians 5:18. This idea of filling indicates that we should be so completely immersed in the Holy Spirit that he completely and fully consumes us. The Holy Spirit dwells within every believer but He can be grieved and His activity within us can be quenched (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). When we allow this to happen, we do not experience the fullness of the Spirit’s power at work within and though us.
So how can we “be filled with the Spirit”? Well first we can look at what the verse in Ephesians tells us not to do – be drunk on wine. In order to be filled with the Spirit, therefore, we can assume that what we feed our bodies and minds with can either help or hinder this. Sin and disobedience hinder the filling of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 7:1) – when sin contaminates our body and spirit, it can prevent the Spirit from filling us so it’s important that we regularly confess our sins and imperfections to God and renew our commitment to being Spirit-filled and Spirit-led.
Instead we must drink of the Spirit. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “We were all . . . made to drink of one Spirit.” Jesus, when talking about the Holy Spirit said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37–39).
So how do we drink of the Spirit? In Acts 4:31 it says that “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:31). Prayer is key – we need to develop a lifestyle of prayer before God. To be filled with the spirit, we simply ask him to come. God is always with his people by his Holy Spirit so when we pray, ‘Come, Holy Spirit,’ we are asking for an increased sense of the presence of God.
“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” — Romans 15:13
Come full of energy and enthusiasm
Revelation 3:16 warns us against being lukewarm Christians. And it’s not timid about it either. The message version puts it like this – “I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You’re not cold, you’re not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit.”
God doesn’t simply want us to be on fire as followers of Jesus. He demands it! He can’t stand it when we are not full of excitement and passion and actively rejects what we do if we do not give it our whole heart. Why should we expect God to bless something that we aren’t even invested in?
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” — Ecclesiastes 9:10
We should be working hard, doing the best we can at all times with what we have to offer. Not giving God our sloppy seconds. Not praying when we remember, if we remember. Not going out late the night before and coming exhausted to serve. Not just going through the motions, saying the right words, singing the right notes, without putting any heart into it.
The verse in Romans 12:1 urges us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice – our whole body! It’ s clear that true and proper worship takes everything we have, not whatever we have left once we have done everything else we want first.
When we worship God, whether that is through praise, prayer, studying God’s word, tithing or serving, we should be zealous in our pursuit of him, passionate, committed, fervent, devoted, enthusiastic, eager, keen.
But in order to be able to bring an offering that is full, in order to serve full of energy and enthusiasm and worship with our very best, we must also learn how to and make time to rest. We need to find a way to balance the busyness of life, the call to serve and the many things we need to do each day with the requirement to “rest in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1).
In the story of Mary and Martha in the Gospels we see this laid out for us. Martha and Mary are sisters and are friends of Jesus. Jesus comes to their home for dinner and Martha sets about serving and being hostess. However, Mary simply sits at Jesus’ feet and listens to him. Martha is angry that Mary is neglecting her responsibility and asks Jesus to tell her sister to come and help her. But Jesus has these words to say to Martha:
“My dear Martha, you are worries and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it and it will not be taken away from her.” — Luke 10:41-42
Denying ourselves physical rest is not a virtue, it can be a form of pride. We think, if we are busy, if we do everything we need to and more then we are somehow in control and winning at life. We need to learn to take time to prioritise those things that are more important and finding time to rest has to be up there!
I am impatient when I’m tired. I don’t treat people with the care and attention that I should and I don’t treasure what is right in front of me. I can be short tempered and snappy. I am never at my best when I have neglected time to rest.
Rest is essential to our spiritual walk with God, but so many of us don’t appreciate the value of it or plan regular time into our schedule for it. Rest isn’t selfish. It allows our mind, body and soul to be renewed and enables us to carry out the tasks that we have been entrusted with even more strength and focus.
Scripture is filled with God’s promises to provide rest. We were created to need him and when we seek him, he is an endless source of peace and strength.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” — Matthew 11:28-30
Are you acting more like Martha or Mary? Is the offering that you are bringing to Jesus filled or is it running low? Maybe it’s time to plan in some time to rest in your weekly schedule, both physically and spiritually.
Expensive
And finally our offering of worship should be expensive. True and proper worship isn’t easy or cost-free. It’s not something that we do to feel better about ourselves or for a pick-me-up. It will cost us – everything we have.
“If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life” — Mark 8:35
“Whoever is not willing to carry the cross and follow me cannot be my follower” — Luke 14:27
I think we need a reality check when it comes to what living a Christian life is like. Living a life dedicated to worshipping God is not some sort of additive to or painkiller from the every day things of life. It isn’t all about making our lives better (although I do honestly believe we only live our best life in relationship with God).
Worship costs. Living a life of honour to God is going to take sacrifice and dedication. It is going to mean giving up time, ambitions, possessions, relationships. It is going to be difficult sometimes.
But there is a promise.
Luke 6:38 says “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Quite often I will finish a time of worship feeling physically exhausted because I have given all I have. However, the promise is that when we come to him, he will give us rest and peace that surpasses all understanding. Although we may be physically exhausted at the end of worship, we will be spiritually revived after an encounter with the one who brings peace.
And finally, for our worship to be pleasing to God it can’t be reluctantly given or an after-thought. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” It is out of relationship with God that we give. Because we want to, because we are thankful and because we love him.
Thank you Jesus that your sacrifice for us at the cross was devastatingly beautiful, filled to overflowing and at huge cost, a price that we could never pay.
I can never praise you enough for all that you have done. I long for your presence with me.
Come, Holy Spirit and fill me with your presence and with joy. I commit to pursuing more of you and your will for me every day of my life, no matter the cost.
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