Break Your Box

bottle water, horse troff, plant pots

Intro

Who is excited to be a part of Encounter Conference?!

HONOR VERNETTA, DENNIS, & PASTOR SCOTT

This is a freedom weekend. This weekend is centered around the CROSS of JESUS CHRIST

It is through this cross that we get to accept this freedom — This NEW LIFE

Some of you may be here and you’ve never really heard the GOOD NEWS of the CROSS

You’ve never walked in Spiritual Freedom

Some of you may not even know you’re bound. Tied up by sin and the powers of this world

Jesus is here to set you free!!

You have to understand this — Jesus was perfect. He was all-man and all-God.

Not half and half — but all and all.

Jesus is the only one who can save you because He is the only one who is perfect

The Bible says that He who KNEW NO SIN — BECAME SIN so that we could stand right before God.

I want to tell you a story tonight about someone who understood this truth … Her name was Mary …

We’re going to go to the Gospel according to John. This is the fourth book in the New Testament.

I love the Gospel of John because it shares a unique perspective on Jesus. John, who is the author and who was one of the 12 disciples, is writing this book to help people make a decision: TO FOLLOW JESUS AS GOD.

THAT PEOPLE WOULD SEE JESUS FOR WHO HE REALLY IS. THE MESSIAH. THE CHRIST. GOD.

So every detail that we’re about to read — keep this in mind. John is trying to show us how Jesus should be worshiped and seen.

John 12:1–8 (ESV)

Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table.

Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

^^^ Introduce water bottle as box

When you were a kid, did you ever have a favorite toy?

Moosey - Toy Story leading me to sinners prayer - praying for a slinky dog toy

We all have things in our lives that we value — that we treasure. Things that are special to us.

It may be something silly like a special toy — or it may be something of immense value like Mary’s Alabaster Box

And for some of these things we treasure more than we’d like to admit

Maybe it’s a relationship, a substance, a job, maybe its money …

Our lives as defined by our passions. A passion is something you are willing to suffer for

Like Mary - We all have a BOX

Some of it aren’t even bad things — But it’s wrong when we value money or our jobs so much so that we shape our entire identities on WHAT WE DO instead of WHO WE ARE

Mary understood that there was only ONE THING that was worthy of value

THERE IS ONLY ONE THING that’s worth breaking my box over — AND HIS NAME IS JESUS

ONLY JESUS IS WORTHY OF YOUR LIFE

You see, this alabaster jar, wasn’t just some jar of perfume she had laying around the house.

It would have been this little jar that held only about 12 oz

It was made from Nard, which was so costly that this small 12 oz would have cost a years salary — in todays perspective, it would’ve cost around $45,000

It was probably a family heirloom. This wasn’t something you went to United and picked up.

It would have been her very livelihood

SHE BROKE IT AT THE FEET OF JESUS AS AN OFFERING — hear me — BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY OF IT

She wasn’t looking for something in return

She understood who Jesus was — THAT THIS IS THE SON OF GOD!

AND HE IS WORTHY OF MY LIFE

Jesus isn’t a means to your end.

Jesus isn’t like yoga or a keto diet.

He is King. He is Lord.

Some of us might just be pouring out a little at the feet of Jesus

We have poured a little instead of breaking what has needed to be broken.

We have sampled of what’s meant for us to be submersed in

Maybe the thing you’ve seen as optional — God sees as mandatory

”oh I go to church a couple times a year”

”I read my Bible every once in a while”

”I like some parts of the Bible, but some parts are just too hard to understand”

Serving Jesus isn’t a part time gig. It’s will take everything. It has a cost. It will take you breaking your box.

When you break it — THERE’S NO GOING BACK!

I can’t go back to what’s been broken!

when we ask “what’s in it for me?” we are missing the CROSS

if God never blessed you again - would the cross be enough for you?

The paradox of freedom

In Romans 6 the Bible says we are slaves to righteousness …

The servants greatest desire is the pleasure of their master

Mary understood that Jesus was worthy of everything — not for any other reason other than that He is God.

Let me tell you — Jesus is worthy of your life, your worship

Not for any other reason than because He is God and we are not.

Some of you are struggling to find your place in life because you think YOU should be at the center of your life.

Mary understood that it wasn’t about her, it was about giving JESUS EVERYTHING BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY

ONLY JESUS CAN REDEEM YOUR LIFE

He is the only one who can save you

Good deeds can’t save you

Knowledge cant save you

Friends cant save you

IT IS JESUS ALONE!

Mary broke her box and washed Jesus’ feet the week before the CROSS. This is all leading to the CROSS.

The greatest sacrifice and comeback of all time - JESUS CHRIST - is about to happen and Mary is anointing Jesus for His burial.

Sacrifice always leads to resurrection

John 12:24 ESV

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

If you are willing to break it, God can redeem it!

What was DEAD can become ALIVE in Christ!

“God first gives a dream, then He destroys it, then He restores it - so that all the glory belongs to Him.” - David Campbell

Band

God isn’t interested in making you a BETTER person before He makes you a NEW person!

The oil that Mary used was Nard, which was typically used for burial preparations. It was in anticipation for Jesus’ death.

But church … Do you remember who else was in the room?

Lazarus! Someone that had been buried and dead and Jesus brought back to life.

As Mary was laying down her livelihood, as she was anointing the Messiah’s feet before His death, there was a testimony in the room saying “GOD CAN DO IT AGAIN”

He can take the BROKEN and REDEEM IT

He can take the DEAD and make them ALIVE

Church - You are in a room full of Lazarus’s!!

If you don’t have the faith — borrow some of mine! Just look around you at all that God has done!

His Word is true!

TESTIMONY — GOD DO IT AGAIN

We all have a box.

We all have a box that holds what we value most.

TELL THEM ABOUT PAPER

God is asking you tonight — Can you give me everything?

Even the thing you don’t want to

The thing that’s too valuable

“Can you trust Me with everything?”

We always want control over what we don’t have faith for