Untitled Sermon

Mark 14:3–8 KJV 1900

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. 4 And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? 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. 6 And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. 7 For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. 8 She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.

We can fulfill the purpose of our lives by serving others in Jesus' name.

God’s people are to be identified as a loving people -

John 15:12 “12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”

1 John 4:7–8 “7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

John 13:34–35 “34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

God’s people are to be a praying people

Jesus said - “When you pray...”

In Luke 18:1 he says that “men ought always to pray”

Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:8 “8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”

But God’s people are also to be a serving people

In the upper room with Jesus he goes around and washes the feet of his disciples - when he sets the towel aside and set back down he asks those men a powerful questions?

John 13:12 “ Know ye what I have done to you?”

then he answers his question

John 13:13–17 “13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. 16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. 17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.”

Here this woman comes to Jesus to serve as only she knows how, by washing his feet, by tending to the need she observed with love and care

Sometimes we don’t even have our serving seen, nor noticed - but we can still serve wherever we are called

I appreciate how each of you have served each other in this church in some form or fashion. If I have seen it I know God has seen it and he will reward

Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent six years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now speaks on the lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. "You were shot down!" Plumb asked, "How in the world did you know that?" The man replied, “I packed your parachute.”

Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor."

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute? Who has done something that has helped make your day safer – or easier or more pleasant – or who have you witnessed ‘packing’ for someone else? Recognize them right away.”

While I want to encourage you to serve others - I also want you to be aware when others have served you - be quick to serve but be even quicker to recognize the service of others