MK 14:1-9 – WHEN THE CHURCH BREAKS OUT OF THE BOX

INTRODUCTION:

We are living in a time when the church-world is chasing fads and looking for new ways to draw a crowd that of people that are already saved. Not many churches today are looking for see souls that have never made a commitment to Jesus Christ saved.

There is not profit in that! It is easier to chase after those who already attend another church, know the church language and rules. Know how to be a blessing to the church rather than be blessed by the church.

In the 80’s it was a new word being used called – Paradigm meaning we all need to chase another model. The in the middle to late 90’s everyone started saying we need to “think outside the box” and it meant to try something new to get the same old results……get people who are already saved and already able to be a blessing. Now the latest craze is the word – “shift” It is another way of saying something different is about to happen even though we are doing the same old things in church.

SERMON CENTRAL ONLINE – 2/17/08

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who does actually try to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt, speech before the Hamilton Club, Chicago (April 10, 1899), in Swindoll, Hand Me Another Brick, p. 79.

V3 – THE CHURCH OUTSIDE THE BOX

Mark 14:3  And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.

A – The house of Simon the leper

B – Alabaster  Box – (stone) a crystalline stalagmitic rock or carbonate of lime often called oriental alabaster. It occurs only three times in the Bible about this woman.

C – SPIKENARD - A very expensive spice used in making perfume. It is also translated "perfume" (Song of Sol. 1:12 NASB, NIV) and "nard" (Song of Sol. 1:12 NRSV). Jesus was anointed by a woman with this expensive perfume (Mark 14:3; John 12:3). See Spices. 

D – What is inside your box

1 – Tradition, 2 – excuses, 3 – sin, 4-hurts, hang-ups, habits, 5 – brokenness 6- praise, 7-worship

E – SPIKENARD means (Trust-Worthy, Genuine, Unadulterated)

F – SPIKENARD – was very precious or costly

1 – What did it cost you to offer praise to the Lord today?

2 – What does it mean to you to offer praise to the Lord today?

3 – Her Spikenard was expensive but it was more valuable than just money – it was her praise!

4 – Her brokenness was precious to the Lord – It meant her praise had cost her something.

5 – Your worship releases the anointing into you situation.

6 – Your worship releases your blessing from the hand of God

7 – Your worship breaks the box of the past, the present, and the mundane

G – She broke the Box –

1 – The contents did not spill out even though the box was broken

2 – The anointing does not spill but is rubbed on

3 – When you break the box, rub on the anointing into your situation, then the answer comes

4 – When her trust-worthy, genuine, unadulterated, praise reached Jesus’ head – Jesus touched her heart

V4-5 – THE CHURCH INSIDE THE BOX

Mark 14:4  And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? Mark 14:5  For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

1 – Finds fault, 2-sees worship as waste, and 3-wants money instead of ministry

V6-9 – THE BLESSING THAT CANNOT BE PUT IN A BOX

Mark 14:6  And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.

Mark 14:7  For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.

Mark 14:8  She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.

Mark 14:9  Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

1 – Jesus said do not trouble her – most people have enough trouble already.

2 – She did a good work “on” Jesus

3 – She did what she could

4 – She is to be remembered everywhere the gospel is preached for a memorial of her.

CONCLUSION:

SERMON CENTRAL 0NLINE – 2/17/08

Vince Lombardi 

"All of the glory that goes with winning, all of the turmoil, all of the winning, all of the money; they dont last. But the spirit that it takes to try to get there those are the things that really endure."

Vince Lombardi 

"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time."