Wasted Worship | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

thank you worship team thank you band our production staff thank you for leading us in worship tonight i've asked sister hannah to sing a psalm that's going to kind of set up what i'm going to preach tonight but before she does i'm going to read the text and i guess i'm going to set up her song and then and then she's going to help me here in a moment but mark chapter 14 and verse number 3 very familiar story that i think is fitting to preach at the end of this year and it may not make sense until i get into my message but the bible says verse 3 and being in bethany in the house of simon the leper as he sat at meat speaking of jesus there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious and she break the box and poured it on his head and there were some that had ignation within themselves and said why was this waste of the ointment made one more verse for it might have been sold for more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor and they murmured against her they murmured against her i promise this is not going to be a message of of doom and despair and gloom this is going to be a message of praise and a message of worship but before i get into my message i do want sister kay to sing this psalm but let me give you my title it's a simple simple thought that i want to preach in the very last sunday evening of 2020 simply entitled wasted worship wasted worship and if i could if i could subtitle i'm just going to preach along these lines a few never's 2020 has taught me a few nevers i don't know if that's proper english or not but it just it fits it works a few nevers that 2020 has taught me before she comes let's put our bibles down let's pray father we love you lord i'm so grateful lord god this year is coming to an end but it's not over yet and i believe there's still something lord god that needs to happen in this place tonight lord before we call it a year before we close the books on this 20 20 year lord i just believe there's some more worship and some more praise that's going to be uttered from this house today lord i pray in jesus name every heart lord that's here tonight every every soul that is in this place lord god they would feel your presence that your word would speak to them and lord what you have given me lord god will be given to them and your word will not just be heard lord but we want a response of worship to take place in this house tonight in jesus name we pray amen and amen you may be seated let's worship with sister hannah the room grew still as she made her way to jesus she stumbled through the tears that made her she felt such pain some spoken anger heard folks whisper there's no place until at last she knelt i've come to pour my praise on him don't be angry if i wash his feet with my tears you don't know the cost i can't forget the way life used to be i was a prisoner to the sin that had me bound i spent my days poured my life without measure into a little treasure box until the day when jesus came to me and healed my soul with the wonder of his touch himself don't be angry if i wash his feet with my tears and i dry them the night jesus found me you don't know the cost of the oil you don't know the cost of come on and just love him come on and just love him love him love him hallelujah jesus oh come on somebody just praise him let it pour out of you you may be seated in this place today luke chapter 7 i want to read another account i believe of the same of the same story the book of luke says it like this in verse number 36 and one of the pharisees desired him that he would eat with him and he went into the pharisees house and sat down to meet and behold a woman in the city which was a sinner when she knew that jesus sat at meat in the pharisees house brought an alabaster box appointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment now when the pharisee which had bitten him saw it he spake within himself saying this man if he were a prophet would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him for she is a sinner i want to skip down to verse 44 jesus is teaching simon a little lesson here and he turns to the woman and said unto simon see us now this woman i entered into thine house and thou gave us me no water for my feet but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with hairs of her head thou gavest me no kiss but this woman since the time i came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet my head with oil thou does not anoint but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment wherefore i say unto thee her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much but to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little and he said unto her thy sins are forgiven and they that sat and meet with him began to say to themselves who is this that forgiveth sins also and jesus said to the woman thy faith hath saved thee go in peace this time last year if you remember we were coming up with our new year's resolutions for 2020. this time last year we were coming up with themes with our planning committees churches organizations we we had a great cliche we we came up with this great theme 2020 vision i saw it all over churches everywhere organizations it just felt right 20 20 vision it's going to be a predictable year a year filled with vision and opportunity somebody said amen our economy was at an all-time high and everyone had a job everyone had a good feeling of good things to come a new decade was about to begin with a new horizon to press towards but here we are again in december and we're looking towards a new year and i i saw this post on social media that that made me made me chuckle a little bit speaking of of the year 2021 maybe you saw it it simply said nobody claim 2021 as your year we're all gonna walk in real slow be good be quiet and don't touch a thing thank you allison crawley for that and it's funny but it's true we're kind of we're kind of we're kind of teetering going into a new year and and and and if we could do anything right it would be to look back at 2020 and try to learn something from what it taught us amen and a few nevers were taught to me in 2020. uh look look back with me at luke chapter 7 and verse 36 i'm going to kind of parallel between these two accounts or these uh well the two accounts of what i believe was one happenstance but luke 7 and 36 says and one of the pharisees desired him this means nothing until 2020. one of the pharisees desired him that he would eat with him and he went into the pharisees house and sat down to meet and the very first never that i took away is never take the assembling of ourselves together for granted i could have read that verse back in 1999 2009 2019 and we would have thought nothing of it but now when you read a verse where somebody goes into somebody else's house all of a sudden it starts meaning something to us you're telling me that you all sat around the same table together like more than 10 of you all sat together y'all had a meal together they let more than eight sit at a table then it split up your family at the restaurant you mean jesus you actually came in to this pharisee's house and you all sat down together and i began to read this and i thought man let me tell you something never take the assembling of ourselves together for granted i don't know about you but i don't ever want to go back to parking lot services david said i was glad when they sent it to me let us go into the house of the lord he didn't say i was glad when they said unto me let us go to the house of the lord because i'm sick and tired of parking lot services 88.1 i'm so thankful for our webcast i'm thankful for our webcast and it has its place but listen i don't ever want to go to webcast services ever again i'm more than happy to come into the house of the lord listen listen pastor already said it it's not a right to be in this place it's a privilege to be in this house we are privileged people to be able to come together and worship in one mind in one accord with like-minded fellow believers apostolic one god pentecostals i'm thankful to be in the house with you today i could give just a little bit more monitors thank god for the house of god thank god for a place where we can come together it blows my mind when i think that there's actually people out there that come up with excuses to miss the house of god listen i almost lost my mind a couple weeks ago i was at home quarantined i didn't get tested but i was smart enough to quarantine if you know what i mean read between the lines and i texted my wife and i said baby i'm about to go crazy i'm about 200 yards from y'all and it's driving me crazy that i'm not with y'all listen the sound was good the video was good i even felt the holy ghost through my computer i felt it it was strong i'm not going to say that you can't feel the holy ghost and there's not something in watching a webcast but there is nothing like being in the house of the lord there's nothing like feeling the presence of god there's nothing like understanding that when the power flows out that you can be under the spout where the glory comes out nothing like the house of the lord listen i'll do brother tyler i'll do anything i have to do to be in this house i hate wearing those masks i can't breathe in those masks flying home last night man listen i didn't cough at all last week i i couldn't i couldn't help but the cough when i was in the airplane i can't breathe trying to get oxygen sitting in the middle seat of all things because i'm too cheap to pay for an outside seat or an inside seat got a person on each side of me i'm just thinking oh god oh god i got to find a cough drop or something god help listen but when it comes to the house i'll do whatever it takes i'll tell you what i'm sure not going to go to my favorite restaurant and wear a mask but not come to the house of god because i don't want to may wear a mascot i sure won't go to my favorite restaurant and get my temperature checked but i'm not going to come into the house of god and get my temperature checked there's nothing listen to me somebody we're talking about little things we're talking about the very the very small necessities and making sure that we keep this virus from spreading but oh my god as long as we can keep the doors of the house of god open i will be here because it's my privilege to be in the house of the lord somebody clap your hands and shout amen but look at me in verse 36 and jesus went to this pharisee's house and sat down to meet him if i could have just a little bit more monitor you're almost there you're so close and behold a woman in the city which was a sinner when she knew that jesus sat at meat in the pharisees house brought an alabaster box of ointment this was the best alabaster box i could find it's not even the shape of a box but it's all i could find in my office it reminded me of anything that could be an alabaster box look mark mark uh 14 3. we're just going to kind of parallel these two stories and and being in bethany in the house of simon the leper as he sat at me there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very very precious and she break the box and poured it on his head let me tell you about spikenard spikenard is a precious oil based ointment it's transported in an alabaster box to preserve the fragrance because it had been imported all the way from nepal it was extremely and understandably costly very very costly it took five hundred thousand crushed nards spikenard crushed nards or roots the spikes of a fragrant east indian plant to make just one pound of spikenard 500 000 roots had to be crushed to make a pound of spikenard and if you add i did some research if you add spikenard to any other perfume it will enhance the perfume and give it an enduring power now i don't know about you but there is a difference between the colognes and perfumes you buy in macy's and the ones you get off amazon.com and the reason why there's a difference is one is oil based and the other is water-based and they can smell the exact same matter of fact matter of fact i've got one of my favorite listen for like 39 it's one of my favorite colognes that i bought off amazon and it's actually it's actually a knockoff of i don't know probably a three or four hundred dollar cologne but the problem is it only takes about 20 minutes for the fragrance to leave your clothes because it's water-based but they put spikener they put an oil this very very intense powerful oil into other colognes and perfumes in order to keep the fragrance the aroma of that cologne or that perfume that's what it was for so what we had here is we had a box of pure spikenard i'm talking about it wasn't in something else it was the stuff it was the ointment it was the oil that goes into other stuff you get what i'm saying here so what she had in this alabaster box this box that was protecting the aroma she had the pure oil of spider what you think about this because the bible says that it was it was up to a year's wages that she had in that box in today's economy the box of oil would have been worth somewhere around twenty to thirty thousand dollars the days of jesus the bible says that those in the house made the estimate that what she wasted was a man's salary for a year which is why this next verse takes place mark 14 and 4. it says and there was some that had ignation within themselves and said why was this waste of the ointment made for it might have been sold for 300 pence the average worker would make one pence a day and they had 300 working days a year they couldn't solve for 300 pence and have been given to the poor and they murmured against her first of all let's figure out who the they is okay because let's find out who's in the house because i kind of want to know who these people are that are murmuring against this worship that she's pouring out to jesus christ for first of all let's look here number one we have simon the leper who had obviously been healed of leprosy or he could not have been around those that were non-lepers we have number two we have lazarus who have been raised from the dead after four days we have mary and martha the sisters of lazarus and then many people believe that simon the leper was indeed the father of lazarus mary and martha and it would seem that all of jesus's disciples were in attendance because the bible says even judas was here and i feel if judas was there then i obviously peter and john were there i gotta assume that the other 12 the other 11 were there so even judas was there and the bible says that some murmured against her and they had ignignation within themselves it's a bad place to be when you count the cost of worship and feel it's too costly i'm gonna say that again it's a bad place for a person to be when you count the cost of worship and you come up to a conclusion that it's too costly when you feel that worship is a waste and too much worship has been given let me share another never the 22 has taught me never hold back on your worship you may not be given another opportunity to finish what you started how many times in 2020 did we turn the lights off in this place on a sunday night and absolutely had no idea that the following sunday we wouldn't be turning the lights back on that we wouldn't be unlocking the doors again how many times did we go home not having a clue that this virus was gonna sweep through our community and we could no longer have church in-house but i'm so thankful that when we have an opportunity to praise him we gotta be able to say lord i'm gonna give you my best praise now i said i'm gonna give you my best praise now somebody clap your hands until the lord brother andy i need some more monitor just come on bump me up a little bit more please sir we ought to never take for granted the opportunity we have to praise him right now that's good beautiful thank you we can't wait for next sunday we can't twist open in alabaster boxing and just let a little dab fall out a little dab will do you just a little bit of praise just just lord i'm just going to open it up and just kind of just drip out a little bit of praise we got to say god when i'm in your presence and i have a box filled with worship i'm gonna break it open and i'm gonna dump every bit of worship every bit of aroma every bit of fragments let the oil pour out upon my savior upon my god upon my lord my king my messiah when this woman broke open her box she poured out the entire contents there was not a screw lid on top it that she could just she could just pour out just a little bit a lot of times when we pray for somebody we have these little vials of oil and we'll unscrew the top and we'll dab a little bit and put it on your forehead this was not what happened in the presence of the lord when that woman came into the town she said i'm breaking every bit of content can you imagine what the aroma smelled like in that house if you've ever if you've ever broken a cheap i've done it if you've ever broken a cheap bottle of perfume fell out of the cabin and broke on your sink you can't hardly walk into the room but what about would you have a pound of spike what did that smell the strongest most powerful most expensive perfume that's ever been made it still is i got to read in that this spider is still the most powerful perfume aroma in all of the sense of perfumes and clones so here's another 20 20 never i've learned never take your sense of smell for granted if you're a fellow covid recovery you know exactly what i'm talking about that's how you know i mean all you got is the flu until all sudden one day you wake up and you're like well i can't smell nothing psalm 34 8 says oh taste and see that the lord is good and i'm gonna admit that those senses are important to know that you've got something good but let me tell you about what 2020 has taught me the sense of smell is also very important when the woman that broke open the seal on the alabaster box the immediate aroma that filled the room was a call to worship and they missed it listen to me church family we better be careful that spiritually we don't lose our sense of smell to where the aroma when the alabaster box is broken open and that aroma pours into the room god help us that we're not so spiritually dead in our sense of smell is so gone that we don't even realize that there's been a call to worship well i wish somebody would praise him for just a moment in this place because whether you know it or not they've already sing songs they've already broken open the box there's already been a call to worship and if you haven't worship yet tonight this would be a good opportunity for you to throw up your hands and say oh god i give you praise i give you worship if our spiritual sense of smell is in working order the spike guard that feels this sanctuary should cause anybody to have ignoration it ought to cause us to worship there's nothing listen to me another reason you maybe seen another reason why i believe coming to the house of the lord is so important because your worship can inspire me to worship the very smell the very aroma that comes from your worship will cause me to worship because when i get to seeing what god's doing in your life and how god's changing your life and how god's rearranged things in your life and when i see you come running around the front of this place i can't help but to worship because that's my call to worship why in the world would someone else's worship cause you to have an attitude worship ought to stir up more worship something all that happened listen god help us and i don't believe this church i love that i'm telling you what i was so proud of this church sunday morning everybody's bellies full of fruitcake and turkey and ham and y'all been eating eating leftovers for two or three days and pastor these people these people still responded when there was a call to worship and we had we had run in the aisles on a sunday morning after christmas you know why because there was a call to worship and there was a response to the call to worship i think in my mind how in the world is this house that jesus jesus is in you got a bunch of i guess i guess my mind my mind i've got such an imagination i see them all just reclining back with their arms over the chairs and kind of just bible says they thought within themselves i don't even know if they even say anything to each other they just all thought it what they didn't perceive what is that jesus perceived what they were thinking he knew what they were thinking and sometimes listen sometimes oh my god sometimes we don't even realize who's in the house with us sometimes we get so we get so distracted by who came walking in the door who we didn't think ought to come walking in the door that we forget who's sitting right here at the table with us so distracted upon other things that don't even matter things that aren't even our business it ain't up to me who comes walking in the door and it up to me who worships god and who doesn't worship god and up to me if this has been their 10th time in 10 weeks they come to an altar and repent it ain't none of my business my business isn't jesus christ is sitting at the same table with me we're sharing bread we're sharing meat why do i care who's at his feet why do i even care it's because they had something cloud in them they had something cloud in their minds and they forgot whose presence they were in god help us never to get into that situation in the house of god that we're so so careful about who's around us and who's sitting in my seat and who who's sending my pew i usually sin why'd i come walking in and somebody was already sitting there and who are they and why are they there and did somebody tell them that was my appeal oh god help us to not forget help us to not get distracted that when we're in the presence of jesus christ it doesn't matter where we're sitting it doesn't matter what section we're in it doesn't matter who we're sent by if we're in the presence of jesus nothing else matters 2020 has taught me has taught me to praise the lord while i've got a chance we used to sing a song all the time around here maybe maybe not here in this building but up the road we sing it all the time we sing a song since we are to praise the lord while we have a chance we've come to praise hey remember that's all those man that was our go-to song when we needed the fire to fall man we just got on we've come to praise him and lived his holiness and let me tell you something that song means more to me now after this year of 2020 than that song has ever meant to me because i'm gonna praise the lord right now while i have a chance because i don't know if i'm gonna have a chance next sunday i don't know what's going to sweep through this community but i'm going to praise the lord while i've got the chain you may be seated while i'm on the subject of worship and giving god your best worship now here's another 20 20 never never take your breath for granted i'm struggling right now let's be honest with you something about covet it takes your breath away you don't even realize it at first you think everything's good i'm over it kobe you thought you had me but jesus came and grabbed me you know you think you're over it you're over it right and a week later you climb the stairs and you're at the top of the stairs going my dad my dad has a testimony thought he was over covered went out and he didn't do anything horribly manual labor i think he had a uh i think we had some weeds that need to be killed around the sevierville campus and so he he put on that backpack and he went just he wasn't he wasn't swinging anything he wasn't pushing a mower he was just kind of just walking around and just hitting some weeds came in to get cleaned up he said he wrote it all down for me he sent it to me he sent me the testimony because he said i sat down and my phone was in the other room mama was out mama was out mama's out of earshot and he said i just went he said i could not get air into my lungs he said he said i knew this is my this must be what it feels like to die and listen be careful if you've had kova be careful don't over exert yourself don't overdo it let me tell you this could be weeks later that this happens because your your lungs are so weak and and even though even though all the symptoms go away and you start feeling better and you're you're no longer contagious but something about your lungs there's still something inflaming them and you're not gonna be able to get that air in that you thought it happened to me i i was already kind of i was already warned for my dad but but i was watching for it in one day the same the same type of thing happened to me and it was the scariest thing that i've ever faced when i thought i could get a little bit of air in my lungs but i can't i can't i can't inhale and i got to thinking about i got to think about the scripture and psalms it says let everything that have breath praise he the lord and i've never listened to me brother luke stumble i have never appreciated oxygen and breath in my body to when i could finally go and i could get enough air into my lungs to feel that lightheadedness going away and i got to thinking lord if you put breath in my body i can't help but to return it to you and give you the praise that's due your name lord help me never think that you don't deserve every breath that comes out of my body if you gave it to me if you allow my lungs to expand into taking air oh my god i'm gonna return that oxygen and return that air and give your praise with it and i wish somebody right now would return the air that's in your lungs i wish your diaphragm would push it up out of your lungs and you lift up your voice and just say thank you lord for the breath in my body thank you lord for another day of life thank you lord that i'm still alive i could have been dead and gone i could have died of covet i could have lost my life i could be in the grave but i thank you that you gave me air in my lungs and because i have breath in my lungs i give you praise tonight somebody clap your hands unto the lord and just praise him with the breath in your body i feel the holy ghost in this place i believe by the time we can get through this this message tonight i believe somebody is going to wake up and realize that they've got some worship to give god they haven't given god quite yet but you may be seated right now i want to go back to mark 14 4. listen this is bother i'm being honest with you this is bothering me because it blows my mind when i think of who's in the house and the fact that they had an issue with worship mark 14 4. and there were some y'all forgive me forgive me i i want to know who it is that had ignation within themselves and said why was this waste of women made i guess if there would have been a house that was filled with religious rulers this story would have made sense to me if they were questioning saying who is this jesus and who she wasted that spikenard on his feet who is i could understand that but this is not the case because this house was full of people that had a testimony this house was full of people who had quit their jobs left their homes left their nets left their businesses left their ships they had left all they had forsaken everything and they had followed this man named jesus who they were so impressed with walked away from family walked away from parents walked away they walked away from everything they'd ever known they left their hometowns following this man sleeping in caves sleeping under the stars sleeping in places where no man would ever choose to sleep and here they are following this man because they were so impressed with him they saw the miracles they saw the wonders they saw they saw miracles performed over nature and over sickness and even over death these were the men they were in the house even the host he had been healed from the greatest disease of the day even the man who had been dead for four days was in the house with jesus and somebody out of this number that i just told you about had an issue with the worship that was being given to jesus does that irritate anybody else is that a problem from anybody else but we got to be careful because god's done a lot of stuff for us too we got to be careful because we've seen god do some amazing things we've witnessed some strong tower youth camp students we've seen god heal some people and change lives of people we've seen people who are about to give up on life and they turn their life around because they were in the presence of jesus and so we've got to be careful not to judge too harshly of these that are sitting in the house because we too if we're not careful we can forget about the many wonderful things that jesus has done in our lives i wish somebody would say amen i wish somebody would adjust the halo and say amen can't be too harsh here's another never never forget that jesus is still jesus even when miracles don't seem to be taking place luke 7 37 i'm gonna move move quickly behold a woman in the city which was a sinner when she knew that jesus was was set in meeting pharisees house brought an alabaster box of ointment here we go and stood at his feet behind him notice where she is behind him weeping oh i want you to i want you to see this in your mind's eye sister sister hannah sang us so beautifully she begins to wash his feet with tears and wipe them with the hairs of her head this was this was not a custom for a woman to reveal her hair in the presence of men but she pulled her hair down and began to wipe the tears from off his feet with her hair and she began to kiss his feet and began to anoint them with the ointment and when the pharisee which had bitten him when he sought he spake within himself saying this man if he were a prophet would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him for she is a sinner here's another 20 20 never never think that jesus shows up without knowing exactly who else is gonna show up with him you see the pharisee accused jesus of being a false prophet that's what he was saying in his mind because jesus he thought he perceived that jesus didn't know who touched him but in actuality jesus being a prophet and being all-knowing god there's a good chance that jesus showed up to that house for the express purpose to receive the worship from that woman and 2020 has taught me that jesus doesn't care if 600 show up in this place or 200 show up in this place he already knew exactly who would be here even before we got here jesus wasn't caught off guard by who was in attendance at that house and he sure isn't caught off guard who's in attendance in this house but apparently the people who looked like worshipers must not have showed up to the house that day and maybe in the year 2020 the people that some of us thought were true worshipers they may have revealed who they really are and those people with testimonies that were reclining around the table apparently weren't much when it came to worship however they sure had an opinion of who they should have thought shouldn't be the worshiper listen don't you be intimidated even for a moment by people who sit on their hands in the presence of jesus while they look down their noses at your worship watch this i want to show you something in luke 7 and 44 jesus turned to the woman and said unto simon seest this woman come on come on think about this put your put yo in your mind's eye i need you to imagine what's happening here jesus at this point is righteously fired up i'm talking about in the temple kicking over tables he's righteously fired up zeal takes over him and he turns and he looks at the woman and he said hey hey hey pharisee hey i don't want to put any words into jesus mouth i would have said some stuff here he said look at this woman he points to her and he says don't just see what she's doing in verse 44 he says i entered into thine house and thou gave us me no water from my feet but she have washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head come on somebody he said thou gave us me no kiss you didn't show me no love but this woman since the time i came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet my head with oil thou didst not anoint him but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment let me revert back to mark's account of the same story marx said she hath done jesus said she hath done what she could she come a forehand to anoint my body to the bearing listen i began to study this and let me tell you something my brain my mind was blown when i began to study this right here what jesus was saying is she has done everything she can she's got everything that's in her power to worship she has brought the greatest thing that she could come up with she has brought me total praise she has bought brought me something that has cost her everything it's something that she probably would have passed down to her daughter when her daughter was married her daughter would have passed it down to the granddaughter when the granddaughter was married this is something that she gave to jesus that cost her everything it cost her her family name it cost her her future she gave to jesus everything she had jesus said she has done what she could she gave jesus something that nobody else was willing to give she gave the greatest possession that she possessed and jesus used her worship to prepare his body for its burial i just kind of think that jesus might have thought himself sinners are who i'm gonna die for i may as well have a sinner prepare my body for its temporary burial and i know it's not mentioned in the gospel account of calvary i just have to believe that the crowd could smell jesus coming please understand this is the strongest the spider is the strongest aroma there is it's the strongest scent in the world and she didn't dab him with this ointment she poured it over his head she anointed his feet with this ointment you cannot tell me listen i know some of you might feel like i'm a little farfetched but i'm going somewhere with this but you can't tell me that that scent wore off in such a short time in a short period because it was anointing for his burial jesus couldn't take anything else with him to the cross but he could take a sweet aroma that not even a roman soldier could take from him not even a jewish high priest could take from him his body had been anointed for burial and everywhere he went between his anointing and his burial everybody could smell the worship that would be poured upon his body let me tell you something tonight there is nothing that compares to the aroma of worship when true worship fills a house oh shut up true worship begins to fill a house there's there's atmosphere that begins to change when you walk out into the community people know where you've been people know where you go to church people know whose presence you've been in because worship there's an aroma of worship that nobody can deny they saw the cross they saw the blood they saw the wounds upon his back they saw a crown of thorns upon his head they they smelled the dust they saw the sweat but i just believe that there was an aroma that also came along where they thought oh something is beautiful that's passing by me somebody next to might have been shot and crucified but somebody else was saying i i smell an aroma there's something upon jesus that's different that i've never smelled upon another person who's walked by with a cross upon their shoulder i want you to stand with me and i want our musicians or singers to come and i did just a little bit more research to find out the exact spikenard that was poured out on jesus i told you it's an oil-based perfume but here is the qualities and and if we have any essential oil people here you're going to get a little a little bit out of this more than anybody else and i wasn't a believer in essential oils until my wife she convinced me she there's some truth to all this but i began i began to read about the qualities within this spikenard that came from nepal it is a mood elevator and enhancer that calms anxiety and heals emotional in psychological trauma and pain you might not get anything out of this that's okay if you don't that's okay i might be reading to this too much i don't know but i do know that jesus knew who was going to be there to anoint him and i do know that he allowed her to anoint him for his burial i find it interesting that the sacrifice of praise from a woman of ill repute would be an oil that would help prepare for what was about to be the greatest emotional and physical drama trauma of all time let me explain my title to you wasted worship judas said what a waste the contents of the box could have been sold and given to the poor the contents of the box were worth a man's annual salary and so the reason the story hit me between the eyes at the end of 2020 is because we have been given a year of uncertainty and i just believe that some people and probably not here but i just believe that some people wasted this whole year for the reason of cover 19. they wasted a year's worth of worship because the only wasted worship that there is is worship that remains in the box total opposite of what the disciples and with those that miraculous things have been in their lives the total opposite of what they considered a waste the only wasted worship that could take place in this is if there's people who have a box that they don't think is worthy to be broken in 2020 what could be more wasteful than a sealed alabaster box i just want the holy ghost to move in this place because i'm going to say some things in just a few minutes and i just want the holy ghost just to minister to somebody in this place because this is our last sunday night service and just possibly just maybe there's somebody in this room tonight who has been holding back on your worship because you just didn't know what was going to happen tomorrow and you didn't know what's going to happen next week and there were so many uncertainties and and everything that all your faithfulness from 2019 just seemed to kind of drift away a little bit in 2020 and you found it really hard to be in the house of god you found it really hard to make your way to the house of god and trust me i know there's people i want to make a disclaimer because there are those that can't be here and we totally understand that and i am not preaching to you please don't text me please don't apologize don't email me i'm not talking to you but there's others who have been reserved when it comes to their worship and they have wasted worship oh god help us god help us god help us not to view worship like the disciples did like those that were in the house did god help us not look at who is giving the worship in what form why don't you worship him i wish somebody what would it be like in here if the last sunday night service of 2020 of this crazy year that's what 2020 means it means crazy what would happen if the very last sunday night altar service was filled with people who said i refuse to hold back on my worship i refuse to go home with a whole box full of sphagnard but i choose to break the box and i choose to worship god like i have and worshiped him all year i choose to praise him in a way that i haven't praised him all year come on somebody i know there's uncertainties i know we don't even know who our president is i realize that there's all kinds of uncertainties in government in congress and shannon i know that but can we as apostolic pentecostals just forget all about what's going on in the world and just say jesus i praise you jesus i worship you jesus i'm going to bring a sacrifice of praise i'm going to give you praise like i haven't given you in 2020 yet come on somebody don't waste your praise come on somebody don't waste your praise don't you hold back until 2021 i don't believe that jesus has been given the praise that he deserves in the year 2020 yet i believe there's been some worship held back now by this church i'm talking about through the world i'm talking about through people who are in fear when they should have faith i'm talking about people who have said you know what i'm just going to take this year off i'm not going to praise them like i used to praise them i wish that we can make up for the worship that didn't take place i wish we could make up for right here right now i'm not trying to cheerlead you i'm just trying to make you understand there was a woman who said i am willing to give everything i'm willing to give on my future i'm going to give my retirement i give you everything i just believe the holy ghost can be poured out in this place right now i believe somebody who's seeking for the power could receive it right now because there's a call to worship i said there's a call to worship there's an aroma of praise in this place there's an aroma of worship in this place come on somebody respond shut it up come on give him your best praise and now give him your best praise and now don't wait until 2021 give him your best praise now if the woman would have waited she would have never been able to anoint him for his burial but she said i'm gonna give him my best i don't believe you quite push through quite as much as you need to come on jesus is in the house i said jesus is in the house break open break open your worship oh come on receive me the holy ghost i believe the last sunday night there can be an outpouring of healing there can be an outpouring of power and our point of salvation i believe the last sunday night you can receive exactly what jesus wants to give you because he knew you would be here he knew you would be in the house he knew you would come and worship him he already knew who was going to be here before we even decided to show up oh come on somebody pour it out don't wish don't waste your worse give him some crazy praise we're living in a crazy year why don't we give him some crazy praise come on somebody waste is defined as having worship in a box that you're saving for another time that is wasted worship but i give you my heart i give you my life jesus let the aroma of your voice fill this place the oil of price this is your opportunity in 2020 to praise please the holy ghost is letting your praise out letting your praise out before you prepare to start to praise them and say i love you i worship you i worship your poor like holy anointing oil i love you jesus come on throw your hands up and just say this it's something you're always doing you're always breaking it you're always pouring it out you're always breaking it you're always pouring it out it's a lifestyle every day always oh it today father receive it 20 times is oh tonight god we're all sinners god saved by your grace god to the best of my ability help me lord to be the man god in the name of jesus in the name of jesus tonight the name of jesus i want to lead us come on just another moment or two come on let's just don't let a waste go hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thank you jesus oh hallelujah thank you jesus oh god hallelujah i worship you god you are worth it you are worthy oh lord i worship you lord with my praise god i don't understand how valuable it is but god you breathed into man the breath of life god and i give you that praise i'm now in my creator's side i love you tonight god i love you tonight god hallelujah glory to your name jesus the last sunday of 2020 open your alabaster box right now the last sunday night of 2020 oh yes hallelujah father is a pastor of this church jesus christ i thank you for being with us when we met here lord i thank you god that you've been with us i find no fault in you i question not god your power i question nothing about your will god i thank you that you've kept your hands upon us during this year and i give you praise and i give you worship and as long as i have breath in my body i want to worship you lord jesus name amen amen