“Are you burning for God?” questioned Josh Munoz. He explained that two Christian singers who had been ministering for twenty years declared that they still are “burning for the Lord.”Then Rose Necoechea shared a word from the Lord warning us to “cut off the head of the sin” in our lives; we are to not let the sin have any power. The Lord was present during the worship and was moving in our midst.
Some of the phrases that we sang were “I want to be tried by fire. Purified;” “I want to burn for you only you;” “So clean my hands and purify my heart;”“You take away whatever you desire.” At first when I heard these words, I stopped. I could not sing them. I do not like pain. However, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and reminded me that I wanted the Lord to increase in my life and for me to decrease. In order for transformation to occur, I needed to have the dross burned away in my life. I wanted to be purified, sanctified, and changed. In an instant I could genuinely sing,”I want to be tried by fire.” The Holy Spirit was moving in our lives individually and corporately so much so that Pastor Josiah began sharing his thoughts on “The Fragrance of Worship.” He was following the Holy Spirit’s leading not the agenda he had planned.
Pastor Josiah brought up a familiar story about an immoral woman and a costly alabaster jar
filled with expensive perfume. Simon a Pharisee had invited Jesus to his home. The woman
went to Simon’s home.
“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 on kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.”
Luke 7:38 (NLT)
The unnamed woman displayed pure, sacrificial worship. She went to the Pharisee’s home
uninvited, walked behind Jesus, and knelt at his feet. Her posture was one of total surrender
and humility. She cried, poured the expensive perfume on his feet, and wiped her tears off with her hair. She even kissed his feet. That is unabashed worship. Her behavior was one of
repentance and respect, and she sacrificed in order to be with Jesus. Worship is all the more
precious when extravagant. Rick Pino, founder of Heart of David Austin, put it this
way.”Worship should be costly not convenient. Cost determines worth. So worship with no cost is worship with no worth.” The woman’s worship was extravagant at so many levels.
The woman gave her best to Him, her first and her best. Do we give our first and best to Jesus in our treasure, our talent, our time, and our testimony? We need to take the time to evaluate whether we offer Him our first and best or our leftovers and least. What do you give someone you treasure? Would you give your hungry child a stone instead of your favorite, freshly baked bread? She lavishly poured out her worship. As a result what did Jesus value, her tears or the expensive perfume?
The moment we make worship about what we get out of it, we’ve made ourselves the
idol. This powerful statement is so thought provoking. Are we at church to worship the Lord for His healing of our maladies? Are we worshiping Him so that He will hear our prayer requests? Will we worship Him even if the Lord does not answer our requests in the time we ask? Instead of expecting something from the Lord, worship Him for who He is. “Offer your all with no strings attached,” advised Pastor Josiah. Honor the King. “Come close to God, and God will come close to you.” James 4:8 (NLT) For He restores and forgives. Come and adore Him! There’s room for everybody at the feet of Jesus. Hallelujah!
Does the Lord give us license to sin or to continue sinning? No! The Lord Jesus took our sins on His back and His body when He was crucified, and “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” Psalm 103:12 (NLT) So why would we let our past sins be our identity? Are we falling for satan’s trick? Turn the devil’s condemnation to praise to the Lord and announce that God has taken our sins.
“Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white
as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them
as white as wool.” Isaiah 1:18 (NLT)
Simon the Pharisee saw Jesus accepting the extravagant worship, and he thought that if Jesus only knew who she was he would not let her touch him. But Jesus knew his inner thoughts and hearts, and He responded to Simon as if Simon had stated his judgment aloud. Jesus told a parable about a man who loaned two men money-one was given 500 pieces of silver; the other 50 pieces of silver. Neither could repay the debt, so the lender forgave the money owed. Jesus asked,
”’Who do you suppose loved him more after that?’
Simon answered,’I suppose the one for whom he
canceled the larger debt.’
‘That’s right,’ Jesus answered.” Luke 7:42b-43 (NLT)
You cannot hide who you really are. It does not matter how you mask it. He sees you. He knows your innermost being. He knows your friends. He knows your deepest secrets you are hiding. Therefore, we do not need to identify with our sin or our past. “You are not your worst mistake,” Pastor Josiah reminded us. “You are His beloved.”
Saul, the persecutor of Christ followers, became one of the greatest advocates for the Lord. He could have clung to his past and wallowed in his sorrow, but he had an authentic conversion and became Paul the Apostle. He stated in Romans 8:38-40,
“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from
God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither our fears today nor our worries about tomorrow-not
even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No
power in the sky above or in the earth below-indeed, nothing
in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of
God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NLT)
These verses reflect the beautiful moment of total transformation. Paul could say,”I am not who I was.” We can also say that when we authentically surrender to the Lord. Transformation changes everything about you. You never know the story behind someone’s tears.
Subsequently, the Lord Jesus admonished Simon for not washing Jesus’ feet, but the immoral woman washed his feet with her tears. Simon did not greet Jesus with a kiss, but she kissed his feet. Simon did not anoint Jesus’ head with olive oil, but she anointed His feet with costly perfume. Luke 7:44-46 Thus Jesus said that “her sins-and they are many-have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love.”Luke 7:47 (NLT) With whom do our actions
identify-Simon’s or the unnamed woman? Do we honor the Lord Jesus Christ with extravagant worship, or do we give Him superficial attention because it is Sunday? Do we acknowledge His sacrifice of life, death and resurrection, or do we treat Him as just as a prophet?
The Paramount Point:
Sin cannot breathe in the room filled with the fragrance of pure worship.
Our relationship with Jesus cannot be reduced to you giving Him your Sunday morning and He giving you a good week. It is not a transactional relationship. It is a complete and total surrender of your heart, soul, mind and spirit. As Pastor Josiah said,”It is being obsessed with Jesus so that you do not want to hurt His heart.” It is being sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading and convicting that you confess your sin to the Lord and to the one you hurt.That means being humble. Thus may we be salt and light in this troubled world.
Submitted by
Larry & Annette Linthicum
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