In this sermon, the preacher focuses on a story from Luke Chapter 7 where Jesus is dining at the house of a man named Simon. The preacher highlights how Simon, a religious man, fails to truly understand and appreciate Jesus. Jesus tries to get Simon to see something in his own heart, but Simon's estimation of Jesus is shallow. The preacher references a verse from Deuteronomy 32 to emphasize how Simon has forsaken God and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. The main message of the sermon is that true love for Jesus is shown through forgiveness and a willingness to serve others.

This recording is provided by Times Square Church in New York City. You're welcome to make additional copies for free distribution to friends. All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is a violation of copyright and other applicable laws. This recording cannot be posted on any website. However, written permission to link to the Times Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing info at timessquarechurch.org. Other recordings are available by calling 1-800-488-0854 or by writing to Times Square Church Tape Ministry, 1657 Broadway, New York, New York, 10019. Now if you'll turn with me to Luke chapter 7 please. Luke chapter 7, I'm going to speak about when tears come to a religious man's house. When tears come to a religious man's house. Father, thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. God, I thank you with all my heart that you are the one who anoints the word because you have a purpose in mind. I thank you that you make us more than we are who preach the gospel and you make us more than we're able to receive it. Lord, it's all about you, Jesus. It comes from your hand and then you give us the power to ingest it. I pray God for an anointing to be able to speak this in the manner that you've given it to my heart that I may not add or take away from it. I pray that I may speak it under the animation of the Holy Spirit and that nothing of myself may be in this message. Lord, Jesus, it's your voice that we long to hear. It's your truth that we love. God, give us the grace to hear it today and let your kingdom come in incredible measure into every heart who's coming to this house. Give me the power to speak this, Lord. God, I don't want to have to ever strive in the natural to understand what you are thinking. I pray God, take me far beyond my natural ability and any natural borders of my mind and spirit. Take me into the very heart of Jesus. God, help me now in the Holy Ghost to convey this to your church. I thank you for it in Jesus' name. I truly feel like I'm in the harvest field with these flowers here this morning. I hope you don't lose me in the grass as I'm starting to try to preach. We'll get a set of shears out today before the three o'clock service and bring this thing. We'll harvest this. Praise God. Luke chapter 7, verse 36. And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment 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 bidden 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 touches him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he said, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said to him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in has not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore, I say unto her, unto thee rather, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. Now our text begins today with a man who is inclined towards the practice of religion and most likely publicly inviting Jesus to come into his house to eat. He's a religious man. He's familiar with the practice of religion. He likes religion. He likes all that religion has brought into his life. It's given him influence and favor and a measure, of course, of peace. It's brought him into some form of status in the society that he's living in. And now, but he's hearing something that provokes his heart. And I do believe that in public he asked this man Jesus to come to his house. Jesus, will you come to my house as many do who are here today before this day is out or perhaps you've done this in the past. You've had a cry come into your heart. You've heard preached from this or some other pulpit the story of this man called Jesus Christ. You've been touched by his words and then you've invited him to come into your house, which is, of course, a symbol of not only your heart, but where you dwell, the totality as it is of where you live and who you are. You've invited him to come in. I can't help but wonder if he hadn't heard and responded to the cry as many of us have today that was spoken in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 20, where Jesus said, Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and if any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and I'll sup with him. It means I'll sit down at his table and he with me. That wonderful scripture. And some of you have come to Christ hearing these exact words. Jesus is knocking at your door. And if you open the door, he'll come in, he'll come to your house and he'll sit down at your table and he'll have food with you, just as he was doing with this man who invited him into his house. Now, the incredible thing about this story is that although this Pharisee most likely endured some scorn from his associates, you see, they they would have viewed this type of closeness with Jesus as risky. How many in the workplace or with your families have had people tell you, go to church if you want. It's fine that you go to Times Square church. I hear they have a great choir and they have wonderful worship. Clap your hands. Get all excited as much as you want. But don't get too close to this, Jesus, because it's risky. It's risky for your career. It's risky for your social standing. It's risky and undesirable and potentially damaging to your reputation. Oh, folks, I know I've heard those very words. Oh, don't get overly fanatical about this, Jesus. Go to church like the rest of us and pay your dues to God as it is. But don't get too close to this man because it's damaging. You realize it's not that popular in this time that we're living in. Still, in spite of this, this man, Simon, a Pharisee, received Jesus into his house. But the problem is he receives him with a cold formality and a deep inner skepticism. He's not quite sure about this man. He wants him in his house, but he doesn't want the fullness of who he is in his house. And he's very cold with him and very formal with him. And he's inwardly, of course, not sure of who he really is. Now, can you imagine having the living God at the table of your home and treating him as lightly as this man does in his text today? Can you imagine doing this to Jesus Christ? And I wonder how many times it has been repeated throughout history. Now, Paul the Apostle warns us that this light treatment of Jesus Christ will become somewhat the norm or be normative religion in the last days. Paul calls it in 2 Timothy 3 perilous times when something begins to take over the hearts of almost all of humanity. Men will cover inward corruption, he says in verses 2-4, with a religion that allows them to do so. There will be the formation of a form of godliness that allows people to continue in corruption, unabated, unchallenged. It will be a religiousness, but it will have no true life of God in it. And ultimately, Paul says it's because they love pleasure in all of its forms more than they love God. Paul goes into the beginning of 2 Timothy 3 and he's talking about all these things that men will become in the last days. And in the bottom of verse 3, or verse 4 rather, he qualifies it or he brings it to a conclusion really. They are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. They love their life. They love the things of this life. They love the ease that this life in great measure can provide. They love the reputation that can be garnered as it is from among men in this life. And they're lovers of pleasure. And the scripture says clearly they will gravitate to a religion that allows them to continue unabated in this pursuit of pleasure, which has its root in the self-life and all that the self-life is apart from God. He says in verse 5, they have a form of godliness, but their own lives are a denial of the true power of God. Actually, his exact words is having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Their lives deny what kind of a person true godliness produces. If you are truly a godly person, you have to be changing. You have to be becoming other than what you are or the word of God would not be true. The scripture says clearly you are a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old things are passing away and all things are becoming new. It is true, as Paul says, as we behold Jesus Christ, as our minds and very heart are focused upon him, we are changing into that very image of Christ. Now, here's the problem this Pharisee faced. He's sitting at the table with the God who created not only the universe, but created him, sitting across from him at this table. But he's not changing into the image of what's before him. He's got a form of religion within him. And before him sits the living Christ. Oh, folks, what an incredible thing. How many people in our generation are in church this morning, going home and they have a form of God as it is in their house. They've invited Jesus Christ in. They sit at the table with him, which is a type really of opening this book in whatever measure they do. But they are only looking for points as it is where they can say, yes, I'm like you and you're like me. They're really not in a position of being abandoned to the God, the living God who is so graciously come into their home. You see, ultimately they disdain the very reason that Christ came into the world. This man is sitting there and he's judging the son of God. And he says in Luke 739, this man, if he were a prophet, he would have known what manner of woman this is that touches him, for she is a sinner. If he were godly, he would know. You see, the problem is the one who is not godly is the one who is sitting across from Christ at the table. And there are illustration after illustration of the life of God being put before him, but he is completely unwilling to embrace anything that he's either seeing or hearing. Paul says again in 2 Timothy 3, verse 7, they are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. As Janice and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, and reprobate concerning the faith. They're always learning. But as this Pharisee Simon, theirs is a religion with its own form of power that is highly acceptable to the godless and compromised society around them. Remember when Moses came in and stood before Pharaoh, and he told Aaron to cast down the rod. These two men, Janice and Jambres, were the two sorcerers as it is, the religionists of Egypt who withstood Moses. Moses was there under the burden of God. He was there representing personal sacrifice, a life of self-denial. He was walking in obedience to God, and he was moving towards freeing those who were oppressed. That's what this man represented. He was a Christ type as it is. And these other men were a type of social religionists. Who opposed this. You see, they're not in it for these reasons. They're not in this relationship with God to deny themselves. They're not in it for sacrifice. They're in it for gain. They're not in it to obey God. They're in it to find some points of agreement with God. Where we can say, God, you're like us, and we're like you. In points of agreement. And they will never move towards freeing those that are oppressed. You see, these are men who resist the truth, Paul says. In the last days, there will be an inundation of this type of supposed representation of God. But Paul calls them reprobates concerning the faith. The word reprobation means their minds are completely corrupted. They have no knowledge of who God is. They have a form of godliness, but they don't understand where the power of God brings a man to. And Jesus is in this man's house, and he is attempting to have this man see something that he's never seen in all of the practice of his religion before. Now, theirs is a religion that lightly esteems that which God has truly set before them. This is an incredible thing when you think of it. God has set the living Christ before them. But they lightly esteem him. This is exactly what was happening in this man Simon's house. The living Christ is at his table, speaking to him, trying to get him to see something in his own heart. But he has such a light estimation of Jesus Christ that he can't hear, at least at this point, anything that he's saying. Listen to what the Lord said to Moses in Deuteronomy 32. I'm just going to read it to you. Verse 15. He talks in Deuteronomy 32 about a people, he said, that I brought you out on wings. I made you ride on the high places of the earth. I gave you honey from the rock. I gave you drink that could only come from the hand of God. But Jeshurun, he says in verse 15, waxed fat and kicked. And thou art waxed in fat and grown thick, and you're covered with fatness. And then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. Now, Israel never, ever, ever, ever at any time considered themselves a people who had forsaken God. There's no possibility. If you even suggested it, you'd be in deep trouble. Not only then, but even today. And yet, the living Christ comes into their midst, and he's so lightly esteemed. That's what the Lord said to Moses would happen. So casually as it is dealt with, the whole concept of the reality that God is holy has eluded them. He says in verse 28, for they're a nation void of counsel, and neither is there any understanding in them. Oh, that they were wise, and they understood this, that they would consider their latter end. How that one should chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight. God said, oh, that they would consider what I want to do. That religious people may stop, and their estimation of me might increase, if they understood what it is that I long to do. I long to give strength to those that have no might. I long to make mighty those that are looking to be mighty in themselves. How one should chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except the rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up. In other words, except that they're really not living in the realm of the power that I want to give them. For their rock, he says, is not as our rock, and even our enemies themselves being judges. In another translation, it says, even they've rejected the counsel of God, and even their enemies know that what they profess is powerless. Even their enemies concede the point. Folks, people are not saved knowing where truth is. They know you can go to a hundred churches a week, but they know in the workplace, if you really know the living God, they may not agree. They may scoff and mock, but they know. Even our enemies know the difference of what is real, and what is not real. What is true, and what is just an empty, powerless religious practice. What is just taking a man or a woman to a place where they're looking for the same things that the unsaved are looking for, but they're doing it all in the name of God. And the unsaved know it. They're not fooled by it for one second. Now, Jesus knows this. Jesus knows that Simon's religion is empty. He knows that there's no power in it. And he says to him, Simon, in verse 40, I have something to say to you. Simon, I want to speak to you. And Simon says, as perhaps we're doing this morning, Master, say on. Master, speak to me. I'm an enlightened man. I'm open to truth. I'm open to whatever it is that you have to say. Now, Jesus is about to say something to him. And pray to God, I don't know the end result of Simon's life, but I do pray to God that he had the courage to hear what Christ himself was about to speak into his heart. And then he goes on, and he talks to Simon. And he said in Revelation 319, he says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten and be zealous, therefore, and repent. Now, remember in Revelation, he's talking to a church that was increased in goods and was very satisfied with its religion and thought it had need of nothing. But Jesus said to the church, let us see in Revelation. He said, I'm coming to you to speak to you, not to condemn you, but to try to draw you out of something that has no power and that has no life, and it leaves you spiritually blind and without the resources that I long to give you. And I'm coming to call you into something of my life. And Simon says, Master, speak to me. He said, Simon, you've shown me the kind of love that comes from a person who has had very little of the wrong in his heart forgiven. That was really the whole lesson. Simon, remember he said to Peter, do you love me? That was really the issue. If you love me, you'll feed my sheep. He's not talking just about the church. He's talking about all humanity, saved and lost. If you love me, you'll feed my lambs, Peter. If you love me, you'll stretch out your hands and let me lead you into places that you can't go without my power and you wouldn't go without my burden. Peter, you'll stretch out your hands and you'll follow me if you truly love me. And you see, Jesus is saying to this man, Simon, at the end of his discussion, he says, whoever is forgiven little, the same loves little. You see, this man didn't understand that he needed forgiveness. He didn't understand that what he had embraced was far, far short of the glory of God. He says to him in verse 44, now here's the illustration. How do I know, you might ask me this morning, if I'm dealing lightly with the Son of God? How do I know if I'm lightly esteeming the rock of my salvation? Folks, it's not so much the exuberance that you display here. This man, Simon, I'm sure in the temple, I'm sure his hands were raised. I'm sure he might have had the biggest lamb of the crowd putting it on the altar. I'm sure that in public and in a religious setting, that people would stand back almost in awe. Oh, look at the devotion and dedication of this man. Perhaps it made him feel confident that he could actually ask the Son of God to come to his house to eat. Perhaps feeling that there would be some kind of an assurance given him of the depth of his dedication. And, you know, we can lift our hands, we can sing our songs, we can clap and dance in the house of God. But, beloved, Jesus knows what it's like when you get home. That's the issue. He knows what it's like when you sit down at the table and whether or not your Bible is ever opened. Or you really do embrace Him. Or you really do love Him. Or you really do want Him. You know, folks, it's hard for those who have made a profession to be saved to ever get to the point of saying, God, the salvation that I have professed might be far short of what is really required according to the Scriptures. In the Scriptures, it requires a change of heart. A yielding of one's life to the rightful kingship and ownership of the One who bought us with His blood. It's not just an easy believism. And not just exuberance in the house of God. It's at home, folks. It's at home. This is really what Jesus is talking about. And this is what I'm talking about today. There's some of you here who might get offended at this message and say, Well, Pastor, didn't you see me jumping during that last song and clapping my hands? How dare you even suggest that I don't love God? But it's not about the house. It's about the home. There's a huge difference. It's about the home. You see, when you leave here today, Jesus is going with you into your home. He's going to sit down in your living room. He's going to sit across from the kitchen table. He's going to be there with you. And this is where we find out if we really do love God. That's where the rubber meets the road, for lack of a better expression. Now, here's how we know that we do or don't really love our Savior. In verse 44, He says, And He said to Simon, Do you see this woman? Now, listen to this for a moment. Here's what I believe Jesus is saying. Here's what He spoke to my heart as I was preparing this. You see, to receive Christ into His house, He had to get down with a basin. And the dirt of the world was on the feet of Jesus. But this man, you see, is not into meeting human need. He's not into touching the unclean. He's not into going where the Son of God had been sent to the Father to go. And this whole thing was an affront to His religion. And Jesus says, No, you gave Me no water from My feet because you don't want to touch where I've been with your hands. It offends your religion. The fruit of what you have is cold formality and skepticism. Some people, folks, I want to tell you, they never get their questions answered. They just live their whole life asking questions. Foolish questions sometimes like, Who is my neighbor? God, if I ever figure this out, count me in to Your work. But right now I'm at a Bible study and I'm studying on who is my neighbor. Now, folks, you'd expect that from a five-year-old coming home from daycare. But you don't expect that kind of a question from somebody who's been living for God. And in the case of the man who asked this question, he's been teaching the people about the ways of God. But, you see, he doesn't really want the ways of God, so he has to justify himself by constantly studying, constantly asking questions, ever learning, but never coming to the knowledge of the truth, the simple truth that God became a man and walked through the dirty pathways of this world, calling sinners to repentance, touching those that were cast out of society, opening prison doors, going to places that nobody else would go to, displaying this very passionate heart and love of God for every man, woman, and child ever born into the world. Now, here's Jesus coming into a religious man's home, but the religious man will not touch his feet because the dirt of this world is on them. He doesn't want the dirt of this world on his hands. He defends his religion. Jesus says, The fruit of what you have. You see, it leaves him at the table asking all kinds of odd questions. This man, if he were a prophet, would know what kind of a woman this is. He finds himself actually in opposition to God because of the pride that's in his heart. Jesus says, You have a cold formality and a skepticism. That's the fruit of what you do. But the fruit of what I do has followed me in through the door. Talk about a lesson that God was trying to teach this man. Here is his fruit sitting there. He's confused. He doesn't really know who God is, and God is sitting at the table, and he doesn't know who God is. Amazing! And that's the fruit of religiousness that does not have the heart of God in it. It's an endless barrage of doubt and unbelief and questions. Jesus says, That's the fruit of a religion that does not want to touch the dirt of this world with its hands. But the fruit of what I am has run in the door after me. A woman who was a sinner, who has now become a worshipper, who perhaps was a hoarder of this little box of perfume, but now is willing to break it and put it on the feet of Christ. She's not afraid to touch his feet, folks. He says to him again in verse 45, You gave me no kiss. In verse 46, My head with oil you did not anoint. In other words, You have not embraced me with gratitude for coming into your house. Oh, folks, when is the last time? When is the last time that you just walked around your house and lifted your hands and cried to God for His goodness? And just thanked Him that He's come into your house, that He saved your miserable soul from hell, that His faithfulness is going to touch your family, that He's taken your confused mind and you're beginning to think clearly, and He's taken your corrupted path and even promised healing for all the wounding and bruising, not only that was done to you, but that you did to others. Because He says, I'm the restorer of everything. When is the last time you raised your hands in your house and cried? Just cried with thanksgiving. I'm not talking crying some sniveling little prayer for something that you don't have for tomorrow. I'm talking about tears of gratitude. I'm talking about raising your hands and just beginning to worship and say, Oh, God, thank You. I'm not the man or woman I used to be. Thank You, God. Thank You, God, for what You're doing in my life. Thank You that hell is not my destiny, but heaven is my home. Thank You, God, that one day I'm going to rule and reign with You for all of eternity. Thank You, God, that You reached down to me in my darkened ignorance. Oh, God, and You spoke my name and gave me the ears to hear so I could hear Your voice. Thank You, God. Thank You, God, that You've healed my mind, that You've delivered me from evil. Thank You, God, that You've opened prison doors and set me free. Thank You that You've touched and healed my marriage. Thank You, God, that You speak into my heart the things You're going to do for my children and grandchildren. I don't have to see it with my eyes. I have the promises from Your Word. Oh, God, thank You for the privilege of representing You in this world. Thank You, God, for changing my heart. I was such a selfish man, so focused on my own needs, but You've enlarged my heart and taken me out of the borders of all this selfishness and given me a heart that cares about other people. Oh, God, thank You. He said, You've given me no kiss. You've given me no kiss. You didn't get up in the morning. You've not given me a kiss at night. You've not embraced me as it is with the words of Your lips. You've not kissed me for the good things that I've done and my willingness to come to Your house. Simon, He says, You've given me no water from my feet. You've given me no kiss. And He said, My head with oil Thou didst not anoint. You see, the anointing was a refreshing. First of all, He says, You've not refreshed me. Your fellowship with You, Simon, is not refreshing. I've not been refreshed in Your house. There's a need, you know, that God has that only you can satisfy. He wants your heart. He wants your fellowship. He wants you as His bride for all of eternity. And He says, You've not refreshed me, Simon, since I've come into your house. You've doubted me and you've asked questions all the time. And even when you see the goodness of what I do all around, you question it. And you question the integrity and the goodness of your God. You've not refreshed me, Simon. And He says, Have you anointed me? You see, the anointing is a refreshing, but it's also the recognition that I am your King. Kings were always anointed upon the head. Think of when Samuel walked into Jesse's house and took the horn of oil and poured it all over the head of David. He says, You've not anointed me, your King. You've got me as a lesser or equal, but I'm not your King. I'm not refreshed here, Simon. You see, I don't know if Simon could hear this because he was a very religious man. And there were no tears in his house. Until the day Jesus came in and the tears followed him. But they were not Simon's tears. They were the tears that come from the genuine work of God. From a heart, from a life that's been touched by the power of God. And it was such a vivid illustration of the work of God being set before this man. And now he's given the choice. And Jesus is saying, Simon, consider this woman now. In verse 44, He says, He turned to Simon and said, Do you see this woman? I entered into your house, you gave me no water from my feet. But she has washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Simon, consider this woman. You see, this woman is a type of the true church of Jesus Christ. I believe it with all my heart. He says, She's embraced the dirt on my feet. Not just with her hands, Simon, but with her entire being. From her head to her feet. She has embraced my ways and my ways have become hers. She's not ashamed of me, Simon. Verse 45, it says, You gave me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. She's not ashamed of where I've walked, Simon, or where we will walk together in the future. She's embraced me. The dirt on my feet has not offended her. She's not ashamed of the places that I've been or where I go. Hers is not a religion, it's a relationship. She's duty-bound to walk with me and desires with all of her heart to walk where I will walk in the future. And I don't have time, but the Scripture bears witness that this woman followed Him most likely all the days of her life. In verse 46, he says, My head thou with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment. And here's what Christ is saying. Simon, she worships me for the mercy of having walked through the midst of her broken situation. Had I not come, she knows today that she would be without hope. And she has anointed me. She refreshes me, Simon. Because she's never forgotten where I brought her from. Have you forgotten today, Church of Jesus Christ, have you forgotten where God found you? And where He brought you from? And what He's done for you? You see, we are always in danger in every generation of forgetting and doing the very thing that God spoke through Moses. When we are brought out, when we are given good things to eat and to drink, and when our leanness has gone away and we become well-favored only because of the grace of God, that we begin to glory in the provision as it is and start to lightly esteem our God. And that was the greatest sin, I believe, that Israel had ever committed. They lightly esteemed Him. And this is exactly what this Pharisee Simon was doing in his house. But he points to this woman. Folks, I want to tell you something. There's always somebody that comes into the church of Jesus Christ, no matter how long we've been here, that is freshly and newly saved and is not ashamed of tears. She knows exactly where she's come from. She knows exactly what God has done for her. She couldn't care less about all our religion. She's found Jesus and she loves Him with all her heart. She doesn't care about the formality. She doesn't know how things are supposed to work in the Pharisee's house. But she comes and falls at the feet of Jesus. And it's not a religious display. Now, some people do that and it's just an empty religious display. The evidence is the tears. The evidence is crowning Him Lord. She worships Him because He has walked through her despair. He's gone to the places of darkness that she once lived in. And she knows that He is the source of her hope. Folks, don't forget where Jesus brought you from. Don't forget what you were before Christ. Don't lose sight of the mercy of God. Or you do and your tears will be gone. There'll be no more tears in your house. There'll be a lot of religion, but there'll be no more tears in your house. He says, this is my church, Simon. This is a forgiven people who walk with me and they embrace the work which I've been sent to do. It's as simple as that, folks. This is the church of Jesus Christ. A people who love God with all their heart, their soul, their mind, and their strength. And they love their neighbor as themselves. They love the wounded. They love the oppressed. They love the marginalized. They love the downtrodden. They love the black. They love the white. They love the brown. They love the red. They love the yellow. They love every person ever born into this world. They see every man and every woman in the way that God sees them. Every soul is precious to them. They're not ashamed to walk where Jesus walked. They're not too proud to be associated with the poorest, most dysfunctional person in New York City. They're willing to let their name be intertwined with these people around them. They're worshipers of God. They refresh the feet of Jesus. Hallelujah. They bring joy to the heart of God. You might not be known in this church. You might not have a ministry in this church. You may not and never be any kind of a high-profile person. Your name may never appear in a bulletin. But I want to tell you something. If you love God, and if you love people in this city, when you go home, God goes with you. He sits at your table. You refresh His heart. You refresh His heart. You clean His feet. You are the bride that He has ever longed for. And nobody knows it. But you have this inner whisper in your heart. Jesus says, I'm leaving now. Just for a short time. But I'm going to build a place for you. Because in my Father's house are many mansions. And I'm going to prepare a place for you. Because you are where I am. And where I am, you are going to be for all of eternity. Hallelujah. I don't know what happened to Simon that day, folks. But I do know that he had the same choice to make that some here also today have to make. Simon had a choice. He's sitting at a table with Jesus. All of this that I've shared with you passes before him. Now he has a choice. He bends his knee. Takes out the water. And begins to wash the feet. Embraces Him with a kiss. And anoints his head with oil. Or he sits in his seat and hardens himself in his self-serving religion. That's the choice that he has to make. I don't know what this man did. But God clearly set the distinction before him that day. Religion is a very blinding sin. It can give an evil man a sense of righteousness. It can give an evil person who has no intent on ever living for God a sense of well-being. Just though until you get to the throne of God. Will I bend my knee and touch his feet? Or will I stay in my seat hardened by a religion that I have adopted to serve me? See, that's what religion is. Religion is a servant to serve man. Christianity are people who are duty bound by love to serve God. And to serve their fellow man. There is a huge difference. Do you want tears back in your home? Would you like a bit of tears? I have them in mine. Thank God. Would you like some tears in your home again? You've got to get out of your seat. You've got to get back to those feet. And to say, Lord, you count me in. I'm not ashamed to be associated with the deepest, darkest places of this world. If you lead me there, I will go there. Where you walk, I want to walk. And I know that the way people speak about you, they will speak about me. And I don't care. I don't care. I don't live for the praise of this world that's going to pass away. It's pointless. If you'd like to get out of your seat today. Now, I know the whole church could come for this. So, I'd rather it just be the people who the Holy Spirit is speaking to. You've just become entrenched in something that you know today from this word. You're hearing something of God. You say, Lord, you're speaking to me. This is me. I'm so dry and skeptical and formal. I don't even have the passion to touch a sinner in your name. Today, I hear something, Lord, and I'm getting out of my seat. And I'm coming to your feet. And I'm going to let the dirt that's on there touch my hands and my hair. And I'm going to crown you my Lord. I'm going to walk with you, Jesus, all the days of my life. And I promise you, if this is in your heart today, you'll have tears back in your house by tonight. You'll have tears back in your house tomorrow morning. It just flows. You can't do anything about it. It's just there. Because you're in right relationship with God. The gratitude will just absolutely overflow in your heart. Father, thank you, Lord, that you've given me the ability to speak this word. I pray, God, with all my heart that we would be a people who truly worship you in spirit and in truth. People, Lord, who do fall at your feet, who call you Lord. And the people who refresh you, not just here in the sanctuary, but at home. When we go home, oh, God. I pray for this church that when we open our Bibles, that you'd be refreshed, Lord. That you can truly speak to us in the morning and at night. God, thank you for this. This is the conclusion of the message.