This sermon focuses on the act of worship displayed by Mary in John 12, where she poured out a pound of costly perfume on Jesus' feet as an expression of gratitude. It contrasts true worship, which is sacrificial and costly, with self-centered worship that seeks personal satisfaction. The message emphasizes the importance of becoming true worshippers who offer their lives, time, and resources to God without seeking personal gain, echoing Mary's sacrificial act of worship.

John chapter 12, you read here Mary verse 3, took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus. There she's again at the feet of Jesus. Three times we see her at the feet of Jesus and this time she has come out of gratitude for what the Lord has done for her. And this is one of the most beautiful pictures of worship in the Bible, in the Gospels. Mary took this pound of very costly perfume. You know what the value of it was? Judas Iscariot, who was pretty good at finances, evaluated it immediately. He knows the price of everything. He says, Oh, 300 denarii. In the story of the laborers, Matthew 20, you read that a laborer worked one day for one denarii. It's the wages of one day. So if you exclude that 365 days in a year, you exclude all the holidays. 300 denarii is the wages of one year. One year's salary. Shall I tell you how to find out your year's salary? Tell me your month's salary. Don't tell me, but think in your mind and multiply it by 12. Very simple. What is your monthly salary? Multiply it by 12. That is the value of this. To be poured out at Jesus' feet. People say, What? You could have done a lot of other good things with that money. Pouring out for God's work. Are you crazy? You could have done a lot of things for yourself and your family with that money. The voice of Judas is still there. What a waste to give all one. Imagine. Have you heard of anything more stupid than this? Giving one year's salary to the Lord? It's the voice of Judas. And Jesus said, Leave her alone. Judas, you'll never understand this. You don't understand consecration. You don't understand worship. You may despise her as a woman and you think you're an apostle, but she knows more about worship than you do. You see, worship is that which is costly, sacrificial. If we give something to the Lord that costs us nothing, it's not really worship. You know, we teach our children and they get a little gift from somebody. Say thank you to uncle, say thank you to auntie. Yeah, they say thank you. It costs them nothing, but it's a good habit. But worship is more than saying thank you. Let me give you a little test. We say we worship the Lord when we come here Sunday morning from 9.30 to 10.15. And what do you say to yourself at the end of it? Boy, that was a good time of worship. For whom? For me. You see how even your worship is centered in yourself? Brother, wasn't that a good time today? Wasn't that singing great? Didn't we have a wonderful time of worship? Didn't we, capital W-E, have a good time of worship today? How many of us think, hey, did God receive something? Are we worshiping God? I tell you, a lot of praise and worship is worshiping ourselves. The guy goes to the drinking saloon, the bar, he drinks for 45 minutes, he says, boy, we had a good time today, didn't we? He says, yeah, we had a good time. He comes to the praising bar, the praising saloon and prays and says, didn't we have a good time? Yeah, we had a good time. You like to come back? Yeah, we come back next Sunday to have another good time. I like to go to a church where we have a good time of worship. I don't like these other churches where we can't have a good time of singing. It's a Christianity that is man-centered, self-centered, and we think it is spiritual, just because the words are spiritual. It's one of the greatest deceptions floating around Christendom in the last 20, 30 years. When Mary poured out this ointment, which is a one-year salary, what did she think? Oh, did I have a good time? She didn't have anything. Her old bank account was empty. How did she have a good time there? Do you have a good time if you empty out your bank account and give it all for worshiping God and serving Him? We have missed it. And that's why our lives are so shallow. We must learn to become worshippers. For many years I've said to the Lord, Father, if you're seeking for worshippers like Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4, I want to be one of those. I want to be a worshipper. Many of you think that I serve the Lord. I travel here, travel there, serve the Lord. I'll tell you honestly before God, I'm a worshipper, not a servant. Because the Father has got many servants. Angels do His bidding. But He's seeking among those who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus for those who will worship Him. Will you satisfy His heart? I want to. I want to be a worshipper. I want to give Him that which costs me something. I want to say, Lord, here's my life, here's my time, here's my money, here's my energy. I'm not trying to think whether I have a good time. I want to see whether you're going to have a good time with my life. I don't want to think of what I can get out of God. I want to think of what God can get out of me. We have a Christendom today that's thinking of what can I get out of God. Have faith to get this from God. I want to be a worshipper to learn what God can get out of me. I want to learn from Mary. I want to tell you something, what Jesus said. This thing that Mary did, remember what Jesus said? Leave her alone because she has done it for my burial. You know, in those days when they buried somebody who had died, they would anoint the body with perfume and all that. That is a practice among the Jews. You know what happened on Sunday morning when they brought all the perfume to anoint Jesus? Could they do it? Yes or no? No. Nobody could do it. But one woman did it. That was Mary. She did it when she had the opportunity. Others said, no, no, no, we'll wait. He's going to die. After the burial, they didn't get the opportunity because they waited. If you're going to wait and say, I'll do it tomorrow, you'll miss it. Now is the accepted time. Today is the day to worship the Lord and to say, Lord, here's my life. You postpone it like those other women, you'll miss it altogether. Don't let anybody say that it's a waste. I've served the Lord full time for 40 years. It's not been a waste. The whole house, my whole house, my whole heart has been filled with the odor of the ointment like it says here. My family life has been filled with the odor of the ointment. My life is a very exciting life, filled with the odor of the ointment of the glory of Jesus. You can have that in your life. You can walk on earth like you're walking in heaven. Pour out your life at Jesus' feet. Let's pray. Are you listening to God? Are you telling him your sorrows and your burdens? Are you worshiping? Ask yourself these three questions and change your way of life today. God loves you. He wants you to change. Heavenly Father, help us to have our priorities right, to seek first things first. In Jesus' name, Amen.