Luke 7: 36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.
 
In this story we have a woman with a sinful past.  It seems that everybody knew her story. What would cause a women so slighted in the community to come to a dinner involving Pharisees?  In verse 37 it says, “she learned that he was reclining at the Pharisee’s house.” She learned that Jesus was near. He had performed all types of miracles by this time: healing the sick, raising the dead, and forgiving people’s sin.  He had also preached, “come to me all that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  This woman was so desperate to see the man that had changed lives she no longer cared what she had to do.  She was no longer concerned about the whispers behind her back.  She no longer cared that people were judging her even though they did not truly know her.  Once her eyes were set on Jesus she left everything else behind.  I can see it now as she moves through the crowd, tears streaming; the whispers, the shocked faces, and the sighs of disbelief.  Not only did she move to the front, she crossed the line.  She entered into a place where now she stands all by herself, and all eyes were on her.  I am sure everyone held their breath as they wondered what would happen.  Scripture says her tears wet His feet, and then she began wiping them with her hair.  Then she pulls out the perfume and anoints His feet. Oil was very expensive during this time and would certainly not be commonly used on someone’s feet.  But for the ridiculed women this was worship because she has been made aware of the presence of God. I think the perfume represents her sin, her faith, and her sacrifice all in one bottle.  She had worked in a sinful profession in order to buy this very expensive perfume, so in essence it contained her sin.  When she comes before the Lord, she is compelled to lay it all at His feet. She literally pours out her sins before Him believing He can change her life.  As she pours out her sin (oil), a wonderful aroma of forgiveness fills the air.  She has been obedient to God by pouring out her sin and giving up her most valuable possession.
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When is the last time our actions have caused confusion or disbelief because it was so different than what the world expects?  Are we willing to cross the line and stand all by ourselves for something we believe?  Are we willing to have people whisper behind our back because our parenting is strict and old fashioned? Are we willing to have people call us radical? Are we willing to sacrifice comfort for  holiness?  This woman was so aware of the presence of God it compelled her to go out of the ordinary to experience the extraordinary.  
 
39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” 40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” 41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
 
Don’t miss verse 39 when it says, “The Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner."  The Pharisee was not talking out loud yet in the next sentence Jesus answered his thought. Outside appearance does not fool the Lord. Once again, Jesus saw the inner man, the heart.  The front of the story is so compelling, exciting, and encouraging.  However, the ending is sad. Who should have recognized God’s presence in this room more than anyone? The Pharisee. He would have spent hours reading the scrolls, purifying himself, and praying to God. He was well versed in all scripture, but failed to see the presence of God sitting right in front of him. He did all the right activities, but with the wrong heart.  In this scripture not only was he not in awe; He did not even offer the common hospitality of water for Jesus’ feet or the customary kiss on the cheek. Simon should have been the most compassionate and understanding, and administered the most love; yet he was the most condemning and judgmental.  Because he failed to recognize God's presence, Simon missed the worship before Him.  I wonder how many times we fail to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life.  The Holy Spirit is God’s power, presence, and strength dwelling in us.  The Holy Spirit allows us to have God with us all the time.  The Holy Spirit allows us to accomplish task, which we never could do on our own.
 
There are two people represented in this story.  Simon a wealthy diplomat who had a vast amount of scripture knowledge, but failed to recognize the presence of God right before him. The other, an unnamed woman who was so overwhelmed by her need for a Savior; she put everything on the line.  Who are we most like today?  Someone who is willing to stand-alone and put it all on the line, or someone who will be satisfied hearing what Jesus has done for others?  It is time to move across the line and take our stand. 
 
Stephen F Olford said, “The greatest sin of the Old Testament was they failed to believe in God.  The greatest sin of the New Testament was they failed to believe in the Son. The greatest sin today is that we fail to believe in the power of Holy Spirit.”

 
 
 

​So many times we ask the question, “What is the right decision?”  It seems that we are constantly choosing between what is good and what is the best.  Imagine if you had two dessert choices.  You could have a cheesecake from the infamous Cheesecake Factory, or one from Kroger.  Obviously, if you were a cheesecake lover you would choose the Cheesecake Factory. However, if the Cheesecake Factory were not available you would settle for Kroger cheesecake.  In our case, as Christians, God always offers the best! We never have to settle for the next best thing. How do we know we are always choosing what is best?  Listening to God’s voice is imperative to knowing what is the best for our life.
 
In Matthew, James, Peter, and John, were taken to a mountaintop with Jesus.
Mathew 17, “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
 
Don’t miss that the overshadowing is God appearing to Peter, James, and John.  God does not just randomly appear and speak in the Bible.  When He speaks it is something to be obeyed and, to be taken straight to the heart.  He didn’t say follow, study more, he said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”  We do studies and gain so much knowledge but skip over the part where we have to listen! I use to give a special test once a year in my biology class.  I would say, “make sure you read all the directions before you begin this test.”  In their eagerness to share all they had learned, they failed the test because they didn’t listen. The directions simply stated, “please put your name on your test and turn in for an A.”  In the years I taught I only had a handful of kids receive a 100 for simply listening.  We can go to hundreds of conferences, be in Bible study every week, but if we are not listening it will all be in vain.
 
This leads us to the next point of being able to recognize His voice.
In John 10:1-5 Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
Back in Jesus’ day the shepherds at night would sometimes take their sheep to a sheepfold.  This was an area that had a stone wall all the way around with only one opening.  All the flocks would come in and one shepherd would stand guard at the gate through the night, while the others slept.  When the shepherds returned, the sheep would be all mingled together.  In some of these sheepfolds there might be a thousand sheep. The shepherds would come to the gate and call their sheep at the entrance.  The herd one by one, would come to him. The only reason they began to move toward him was because it was a voice they recognized and knew intimately.  It was a voice they knew would protect them and care for them. It was a voice they knew would take them to greener pastures and cleaner water. They stepped out of the gate with the shepherd not only because they knew him, but because they also trusted him to provide the best!
Do you know who stands at your gate calling?  Have you spent enough time with the Lord to recognize His voice? When you hear it do you trust it?  Satan is eager to stand at the gate and call.  The Bible says he is the father of lies and the master deceiver.  Sometimes Satan stands at the gate of our heart and tries to mimic our Heavenly Father. In 2 Corinthians 11:14 we read, “for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”  So we must make sure we know who is calling us out?  Is it our flesh being tempted by Satan, or is it our spirit being led by the Lord. The Lord will never go against His Word.  Therefore, when we are making choices and listening for God’s voice it will always match up with scripture.
 
Another good point to this scripture is that there were lots of sheep in the sheepfold but not all were His sheep.  The shepherd would have watched the sheep come out one by one knowing if one was an imposter.  Have you ever known identical twins?  Sometimes they are able to play tricks on teachers, friends, and family members, but there is one that they cannot fool, their mother.  You see she is not just anyone.  She has spent an absorbent amount of time knowing every detail of her children.  One day we will stand before the Lord and He will call us out as His sheep, but not all will come.  Some will have been in the fold their whole life, but did not have a personal relationship. Church was just something they participated in on Sunday’s.
 
I was listening to someone recently talk about how herding sheep had changed drastically.  Quadcopters could replace dogs as herders, as farmers in England are already turning to drones to monitor their livestock. These drones aid farmers with big farms in finding sick, distressed, injured or escaped animals. Their use could be expanded to large farms in Australia, some as large as Israel, where cattle number in the hundreds of thousands.  Electric fences along with tags help keep the sheep from wandering off reducing the load of the shepherd.  The art of the shepherd knowing their sheep is a lost art to most.  Technology, trying to produce more, and overall business has made it unprofitable for shepherds to take the time to know their sheep.  I heard Priscilla Shirer say one time, “Aren’t you glad God hasn’t allowed business to keep Him from seeking to know you?”
 
I want to leave you with these questions.  With all our grand technology, our busy life styles, our pursuit of gaining more, do we think it is unprofitable to seek the Shepherd’s voice? Do we have too many things distracting us, which leaves us unable to identify who is calling us at our gate?  Is it our Heavenly Father who wants what is best for us, or Satan disguised to tempt us with mediocrity. Do you know when the Great Shepherd calls if you will be His sheep? 
 
“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart man believes resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. “For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:9-10, 13.)
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in rebellion…. (Hebrews 3:7)
Partial Obedience = complete disobedience to God – Joil Marbut
 
 

​So many times we ask the question, “What is the right decision?”  It seems that we are constantly choosing between what is good and what is the best.  Imagine if you had two dessert choices.  You could have a cheesecake from the infamous Cheesecake Factory, or one from Kroger.  Obviously, if you were a cheesecake lover you would choose the Cheesecake Factory. However, if the Cheesecake Factory were not available you would settle for Kroger cheesecake.  In our case, as Christians, God always offers the best! We never have to settle for the next best thing. How do we know we are always choosing what is best?  Listening to God’s voice is imperative to knowing what is the best for our life.
 
In Matthew, James, Peter, and John, were taken to a mountaintop with Jesus.
Mathew 17, “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
 
Don’t miss that the overshadowing is God appearing to Peter, James, and John.  God does not just randomly appear and speak in the Bible.  When He speaks it is something to be obeyed and, to be taken straight to the heart.  He didn’t say follow, study more, he said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”  We do studies and gain so much knowledge but skip over the part where we have to listen! I use to give a special test once a year in my biology class.  I would say, “make sure you read all the directions before you begin this test.”  In their eagerness to share all they had learned, they failed the test because they didn’t listen. The directions simply stated, “please put your name on your test and turn in for an A.”  In the years I taught I only had a handful of kids receive a 100 for simply listening.  We can go to hundreds of conferences, be in Bible study every week, but if we are not listening it will all be in vain.
 
This leads us to the next point of being able to recognize His voice.
In John 10:1-5 Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
Back in Jesus’ day the shepherds at night would sometimes take their sheep to a sheepfold.  This was an area that had a stone wall all the way around with only one opening.  All the flocks would come in and one shepherd would stand guard at the gate through the night, while the others slept.  When the shepherds returned, the sheep would be all mingled together.  In some of these sheepfolds there might be a thousand sheep. The shepherds would come to the gate and call their sheep at the entrance.  The herd one by one, would come to him. The only reason they began to move toward him was because it was a voice they recognized and knew intimately.  It was a voice they knew would protect them and care for them. It was a voice they knew would take them to greener pastures and cleaner water. They stepped out of the gate with the shepherd not only because they knew him, but because they also trusted him to provide the best!
Do you know who stands at your gate calling?  Have you spent enough time with the Lord to recognize His voice? When you hear it do you trust it?  Satan is eager to stand at the gate and call.  The Bible says he is the father of lies and the master deceiver.  Sometimes Satan stands at the gate of our heart and tries to mimic our Heavenly Father. In 2 Corinthians 11:14 we read, “for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”  So we must make sure we know who is calling us out?  Is it our flesh being tempted by Satan, or is it our spirit being led by the Lord. The Lord will never go against His Word.  Therefore, when we are making choices and listening for God’s voice it will always match up with scripture.
 
Another good point to this scripture is that there were lots of sheep in the sheepfold but not all were His sheep.  The shepherd would have watched the sheep come out one by one knowing if one was an imposter.  Have you ever known identical twins?  Sometimes they are able to play tricks on teachers, friends, and family members, but there is one that they cannot fool, their mother.  You see she is not just anyone.  She has spent an absorbent amount of time knowing every detail of her children.  One day we will stand before the Lord and He will call us out as His sheep, but not all will come.  Some will have been in the fold their whole life, but did not have a personal relationship. Church was just something they participated in on Sunday’s.
 
I was listening to someone recently talk about how herding sheep had changed drastically.  Quadcopters could replace dogs as herders, as farmers in England are already turning to drones to monitor their livestock. These drones aid farmers with big farms in finding sick, distressed, injured or escaped animals. Their use could be expanded to large farms in Australia, some as large as Israel, where cattle number in the hundreds of thousands.  Electric fences along with tags help keep the sheep from wandering off reducing the load of the shepherd.  The art of the shepherd knowing their sheep is a lost art to most.  Technology, trying to produce more, and overall business has made it unprofitable for shepherds to take the time to know their sheep.  I heard Priscilla Shirer say one time, “Aren’t you glad God hasn’t allowed business to keep Him from seeking to know you?”
 
I want to leave you with these questions.  With all our grand technology, our busy life styles, our pursuit of gaining more, do we think it is unprofitable to seek the Shepherd’s voice? Do we have too many things distracting us, which leaves us unable to identify who is calling us at our gate?  Is it our Heavenly Father who wants what is best for us, or Satan disguised to tempt us with mediocrity. Do you know when the Great Shepherd calls if you will be His sheep? 
 
“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart man believes resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. “For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:9-10, 13.)
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in rebellion…. (Hebrews 3:7)
Partial Obedience = complete disobedience to God – Joil Marbut
 
 

What if the Sunday morning service was OK, but the Monday through Saturday service was life-changing? What if the center of the church was Christ, and on the edges was the worship band and the order of events on Sundays? What if instead of worshipping our worship experience, we worshipped God?  If my heart longs to serve, I am probably in true worship. If my heart longs to feel emotion from a song, I may need to ask what I’m worshipping. -Andrea Lucado

I recently read this article and it expressed what has been on my mind.  Millions of people gather on Sunday mornings to worship God.  In sanctuaries people stand, sing songs, maybe raise their hands, might even shed a tear, and then nod amen.  They look at their watch to make sure the pastor is on time, listen to the benediction (maybe sneak out early), and quietly leave to go to their favorite restaurant.  Some lives are radically changed on Sunday mornings, but more than not people leave unchanged and untouched.  People have simply experienced an emotion for a moment, but not a transformation.  The question is why?  In order for us to really worship, not just experience an emotion; we have to be broken so the Holy Spirit can fill us up.  "The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully and reveal Himself through us until the proud self within us is broken.  This means that the hard underlying self,which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands up for its rights, and seeks its own glory, at last bows its head to God's will, admits its wrong, gives up its own way to Jesus, surrenders it rights and discards its own glory"-Roy Hession.

In seminary my evangelism professor had some strong words for halfway doing God's work.  He said, "Do not invite people to church."  My eyes were wide and I was confused.  However, he quickly gave the reasoning.  He said, "when you as a Christian invite someone to church you are simply making yourself feel better, like you have accomplished something for God. In reality you have done nothing for God or that person because you did not tell them who Jesus was on the spot, and then invite them to church.  Therefore, you did enough to make yourself feel like an adequate Christian, but not enough to make a difference for the Kingdom. So you have successfully put a check mark in Satan's corner."  I just wonder if our worship is the same.  Do we come to be recharged so we can pour our life out as a drink offering, or do we simply want to feel good about our self?  Do we come because that is what we have always done, or because we want to be empowered?  It is not good enough for you to merely enter through the door on Sunday morning.  You have to be ready to commune with God. I tell my kids in kids worship "You can come to church every Sunday of your life and remain the same.  Not because the Spirit is not present, but because your heart is not prepared." 
Why do you come to worship? What are you like after worship?  Are you more empowered to serve, to spread the Gospel, and meet people's needs? Do you walk out the door saying that was a great sermon, but sadly unchanged by the truth of God's Word.

Mathew 9:37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

Please read the article DO You Worship Your Worship Experience?  Click on the picture below.