Mark 14:1-11
Jesus’s Last Days
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Sermon Summary:
The sermon is based on Mark, Chapter 14, and focuses on a pivotal moment as Jesus approaches the cross and resurrection. Pastor Bryan analyzes various characters in the story:
Simon the Leper: The location of the event is at Simon's house, and there is speculation about whether Simon still had leprosy or if he had been healed by Jesus.
Mary: She is not explicitly named in Mark but is identified as the woman in John 12. Mary breaks an alabaster jar of costly spikenard oil and anoints Jesus. Pastor Bryan explores the significance of her actions and the value of the oil.
Disciples' Criticism: Some disciples criticize Mary for what they perceive as wastefulness, suggesting the oil could have been sold for charity. Pastor Bryan warns against religious people using piety to cloak cruel words.
Judas: Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, criticizes Mary and later betrays Jesus for money. Pastor Bryan emphasizes the danger of being close to Jesus externally but far from Him in heart, citing the warning about deceitfulness of wealth.
Religious Leaders: The chief priests and scribes plan to take Jesus by trickery and put Him to death, showing a willingness to justify cruel means for their ends.
Jesus' Response: Jesus defends Mary, commends her for the good work, and acknowledges the impending burial. He highlights the uniqueness of the moment and how Mary's anointing serves a purpose in preparation for His burial.
Pastor Bryan draws lessons about the cost of redemption, emphasizing that Jesus knew the cost would be His own blood. The gospel is described as not eradicating poverty but bringing the Kingdom of God among men. The sermon concludes with a call to believe in Jesus and live in response to His sacrificial love.
Lead a Bible Study on Mark 14:1-11
Title: "Costly Worship: Anointing Jesus with Surrender"
Introduction: Begin with a brief recap of Mark 14:1-11 and highlight key points from the sermon. Emphasize the significance of Mary's costly worship, the disciples' criticism, and Jesus' response.
Opening Prayer: Invite the participants to pray, thanking God for His Word and asking for insight and understanding as you delve into the study.
Icebreaker: Ask participants to share a time when they made a sacrificial or costly choice to honor God. Discuss how it felt and what they learned from that experience.
Bible Study:
1. Simon the Leper (Mark 14:3):
Explore the significance of Jesus being in the house of Simon the Leper.
Discuss the cultural and religious implications of Jesus entering a leper's house.
Reflect on the idea that Jesus welcomes us, imperfections and all, into His presence.
2. Mary's Costly Act of Worship (Mark 14:3-9):
Examine Mary's actions in anointing Jesus with expensive oil.
Discuss the value and sacrificial nature of her gift.
Consider the cultural norms and potential criticisms surrounding her actions.
Reflect on the concept of giving our best to Jesus, even when it seems unconventional.
3. Disciples' Criticism (Mark 14:4-5):
Explore the disciples' reaction and criticism of Mary's actions.
Discuss the motives behind their criticism and how it relates to our own judgments.
Consider the tension between practical stewardship and extravagant worship.
4. Jesus' Response (Mark 14:6-9):
Analyze Jesus' defense of Mary's actions.
Reflect on Jesus' statement that "she has done a good work for me."
Discuss the balance between caring for the poor and prioritizing worship and love for Jesus.
Consider the eternal impact of Mary's act, as Jesus foretells its memorialization.
5. Jesus’ Response
Consider Jesus’ foreknowledge of this event.
What does Jesus mean that she is anointing him for his burial?
Why was Jesus willing to go forward if he knew what would happen?
Application:
Encourage participants to reflect on their own acts of worship and sacrificial giving.
Discuss how cultural expectations and criticisms can impact our worship.
Challenge participants to identify areas where they can offer costly worship to Jesus in their lives.
Prayer Time:
Spend time in prayer, thanking God for His sacrificial love and asking for the courage to worship Him with abandon.
Pray for a heart that values Jesus above all else, even in the face of potential criticism.
Conclusion: Wrap up the study by emphasizing the importance of giving our best to Jesus, even when it seems unconventional or costly. Encourage participants to carry the lesson of Mary's worship into their daily lives.
Transcript
Well, will you turn in your Bibles
with me now to the book of Mark, chapter 14. Mark, chapter 14. If you're using
your pew Bibles, the New King James ones provided for you,
find that on page 898. And as you turn to Mark chapter
14, we've come to a pivotal moment in the book of Mark, where the
next few chapters, as Mark concludes his gospel, we are now on a unrelenting
march toward the cross and the resurrection. And so from here
on out, it is stories and small bits of that walk toward Golgotha. So let's turn to God's Word now,
Mark chapter 14, and we'll look at the first 11 verses. After
two days it was the Passover, and the feast of unleavened bread. And the chief priests and the
scribes sought how they might take him by trickery and put
him to death. But they said, not during the
feast, lest there be an uproar of the people. and being in Bethany
at the house of Simon the leper, he sat at the table. A woman
came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and
poured it on his head. But there were some who were
indignant among themselves and said, Why was this fragrant oil
wasted? For it might have been sold for
more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. And they criticized
her sharply. But Jesus said, let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has
done a good work for me. For you have the poor with you
always. And whenever you wish, you may
do them good. But me, you do not always have. She has done what she could.
She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever
this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman
has done will also be told as a memorial to her. Then Judas
Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priest to betray
him to them. And when they heard it, they
were glad and promised to give him money. So he sought how he
might conveniently betray Him. Let's end this portion of the
reading of God's Word. Let's pray to God now. Father, we thank
You for Your Word. We thank You, Lord, that there's
not a single word that You have ever said that will die away. And Father, we pray now that
as we get into looking at this passage, Father, we need your spirit to
teach us, to turn our hearts toward you and away from sin,
to warn us of the pitfalls that would lie in front of us with
temptation, and Lord, to stir us toward loving you and loving
others. Please, Lord, use this time for
your glory and for our edification. In Jesus' name, amen. One of the things we often have
to do in our family is there's been a big conflict. When the
children start fighting and something's going wrong, we have to line
up the children, each one. And one of the things that grandma
has instituted, she has this little foam football. And the
only person who's allowed to talk is the child with the foam
football. So you don't have everybody trying to talk over each other,
but you look at one character and you say, okay, now you tell
me what happened. And when they're done, you ask
any qualifying questions, and then you give it to the next
child, and then to the next child. And that's what we're going to
do in this text today, right? There's a lot that's going on here, and
I think it's helpful to stop and look at each character in
this story to see how Jesus is setting up everything here to
show how He is going to fulfill the office of Messiah. How He
is going to become their leader, their King, their Savior, their
Redeemer. And there's parts going on here
that each person's playing and they sometimes don't even recognize
everything they're doing. So as we move towards that idea,
let's first examine Simon the leper. When we come to verse
3, we find that being in Bethany, it's almost like Jerusalem's
the capital city. Bethany is kind of like a town
just off to the east. It's kind of like if you lived
in Burlington and you wanted to go out to morning sun for
the bed and breakfast, right? It had the small houses, it had
less people, more peace than the city, right? So instead of
being in the city during the Passover where it's busy, Jesus
goes to this bed and breakfast area. But notice where He goes
in Bethany. And being in Bethany at the house
of Simon the leper. as he sat down at the table."
Now, we might just want to gloss over this, right? But I think
the Lord gives us all sorts of things like this that should
pique our curiosity. Simon the leper? Does this guy
literally have leprosy? Does he have sores on his body?
Has he been declared unclean by the priests and the Levites?
Because there's something problematic here, right? Is Jesus ignoring
what the prescriptions in Leviticus said? That he's not to enter
into a leper's house. Why? If he did, he would be unclean
and not allowed to eat the Passover. So is Jesus ignoring this? Does he just come into his home
and heal him so he can eat that meal there? We don't have that
information. Or is Simon one that Jesus has already healed?
We don't know. We don't know, but what we do
know is that Jesus enters into Simon's house, and it doesn't
seem to be any problem for him, Jesus enters in unashamedly,
and He goes into a leper's house. Now, I've got to say, just as
I think about this passage, how many people come, and they think
that to come to Jesus Christ, they have to be perfect. They
can't have any type of spot or blemish in their life. It's only
when they're perfect, then Jesus will accept them. Well, it's
clear here that Jesus doesn't wait for that to happen. Jesus
doesn't wait for Simon to cleanse himself or to heal himself or
to be declared clean, but it seems that Jesus knows the circumstances
and still enters into this man's house. God doesn't walk into
perfect situations Jesus walks into believing homes. And Simon's
leprosy may have been healed, and yet it's interesting that
even years and years later, as Peter is preaching his sermons
to the people in Rome, Mark is writing down these sermons, and
as he's hearing it, Simon has a title. Simon the leper. I need to warn you, in your life
there's going to be times that even though you may have past
things that you've done in your life that are sinful, or even
blemishes in your past, they may still stick to you. That's
how people remember you, even though you wish they might not
remember you that way anymore. Simon is remembered as the leper. And yet, we remember him as the
one Jesus ate this meal at his house. Well, the second person
I want you to take notice of in this passage is Mary herself. Now, her name isn't actually
mentioned in the book of Mark. You can read through verses 3
through 9, and you're not going to find her name anywhere. But
if we looked at the parallel passage in John chapter 12, we
would find that her name is listed. It's Mary, and then you have
her sister Martha, and Lazarus. They're also at this meal. And
it's Mary who breaks this alabaster jar. Now, one just interesting
side note I want to bring up with Mary in this whole situation,
right? I don't need to rehearse the story. I read it to you.
You're smart people. But one just basic principle, right?
Mary had every right to do with this jar of Spike Nerd whatever
she wanted to do with it. It was her personal property.
She had full freedom. If she wanted to save that for
her burial, she could. If she wanted to save it for
when Lazarus eventually died again, she could. She could use
this however she wanted to. It was hers. It wasn't sinful
for her to use it this way, and it wasn't sinful for her to use
it in any other way that she wanted. It was her stuff. But
my question is, as I come to this, is how is she able to afford
this? I mean, 300 denarii, guys, we're
talking about 10 months of the average person's wages at the
time. How did she get this? I mean, alabaster is imported
from Egypt. It's crazy fragile. And then
the spikenard is most likely coming from the region of the
Himalayas. So she's getting this imported vessel with imported
oil, sealed in wax. So to use it, it's not like you
can just use a little bit. You have to break the neck off
to be able to actually use it. It's one and done. It's all or
nothing, right? You save it for one special occasion. How does
she afford something like that? 300 denarii? I mean, was it her
dowry? Was it given to her as an inheritance
by her father? Was she married before and her
husband died and he left it to her? We don't know. Or what I'm
inclined to think, and this is just speculation, I think she
was one of these women of her own resources. I think Mary,
Martha, and Lazarus had their own house, and I think Mary was
a woman of resource. The reason why I'm going to say
this is I think Luke chapter 8 gives us an identification
that Luke chapter 8 verses 1 through 4 actually mention that there
are a series of women who support Jesus' ministry. This is one
of the things I was just reading in my Bible on devotions time,
and I'd never read this before. Well, I'm sure I'd read it before,
but it just didn't stick, right? I was shocked. I was reading
through Luke chapter 8, and the first four verses list a series
of women who they decide it's their blessing, it's their mission,
that they're going to support Jesus financially. And so we find there are women
like this who follow Jesus, who are of their own resources. And
so however Mary gets this, it's extremely valuable. Enough so
that it would, you know, this is... It's like buying one of
those essential oil kits with all the oils in it, right? Not
just one of them. This is very costly. But Jesus does the impossible.
If this Mary is rich, Jesus has made her pass through the eye
of the needle. Because she values Jesus and his ministry more than
she values even the most valuable possession she would have with
her. But why? Why would she do this? As the
woman comes with an alabaster jar of very costly oil and spikenard,
she breaks the flask and she pours it on his head. I don't
know about you, but if I was sitting at church meal downstairs,
and all of a sudden somebody came up behind me with a bottle
of oil and started pouring it out of my head, I'd be like,
whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on here? Not so during that time
in Jesus' life. In Jesus' life, would have been
courtesy as somebody walked into the room that they would actually
offer oil for your head and for your hands and for your face.
I remember when I was in the Middle East We were about to
come on to port in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. And
all of a sudden, right before you came on port, they would
have these little boats that came out. It was like merchants.
And the merchants would set up shop near the mess decks, where
we would eat food. And they would have these tables.
And they would be selling all their oils and their perfumes,
and he'd walk past and he almost got lightheaded because of how
much it smelt in that area of the ship. But the point was,
in that culture, in a largely desert culture, your skin gets
dry really, really easy. And they didn't have lotions
like we have lotions, and so your skin would crack, and it
would bleed, and it would get nasty. So one of the things that
you would do in those cultures is you would put oil on yourself. So this is one of the things
that's not out of the realm. I still think it's a little bit
odd what she's doing, but it's culturally okay. You can understand
that. Theologically, we've seen this happen before though. And
I think this is where Jesus is pointing us towards. There's
two other times that oil would be poured on someone. One would
be what Saul does, or what Samuel does, when he goes to the house
of Jesse. And there he finds the different
sons. And as he goes from youngest
to oldest, and do you have another son yet? But he's a runt, he
lives out in the fields with the sheep, you know, call him
here. What does Samuel do? He takes the oil and he pours
it on David's head. That's actually the word. The
word anoint, or pouring oil on someone's head, is the word Messiah. To anoint someone to an office
is to essentially messiah them. To anoint them. And so this pouring
on of this oil on Jesus' head I think has theological significance. But there's another aspect of
which Jesus specifically points out. This oil was most often
used, especially the spikenard oil, was most often used in this
culture when somebody died. You would take the body, you
would wrap it in linen, and you would pour fragrant oils over
the cloths to almost preserve the body and help against any
stench. And so you would lavish this
oil on people, especially during funerals. But what does this
tell us about Mary? It tells us about Mary that she
values Jesus More than her most costly possession. More than
the most valuable thing, the most precious thing she has in
her home. When Jesus enters in, he's more
important. He's more valuable to her than
all the riches of this world. I love what Jesus says. I remember
when I first became a Christian and I read this for the first
time. Even though I scratched my head at a lot of it, what
Jesus says is so beautiful. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever
this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman
has done will also be told as a memorial to her. This is a
memorial to what Mary did for Jesus. I want you to think about
this. This happened outside Jerusalem,
thousands of miles away, in a culture very different than ours. And
here you are, 2,000 years later, sitting in rural Iowa and hearing
about the beautiful thing this woman did for Jesus. Everywhere
that this gospel is preached, this is meant to be a memorial,
to remember what she did, anointing Jesus for his death. But it's
more than just the house assignment. It's more than just Mary who
pours this oil on Jesus' head. It's also the disciples. Look
at how the disciples respond to this. In verse 4, But there
were some who were indignant among themselves, and they said,
Why was this fragrant oil wasted? And then at the bottom of verse
5, "...and they criticized her." They, plural. These are multiple
disciples who are criticizing her. And in the Greek, it's the
idea that it's not just like they say it underneath their
breaths one time. They're making enough of this and continuing
on enough that Jesus actually has to intervene. Almost like,
hey boys, shut your mouths. Alright? Something's happening
here and you don't understand. They're criticizing her, the
disciples are criticizing. Now some things to recognize
here and take note of is that some religious people will cloak
their cruel words with pious overtones. Let me say that again. Some people will cloak their
cruel words with pious overtones. What were they really saying
to Mary? You're so wasteful. Don't you
have two brain cells? Why would you do something so
flippant and thoughtless? I mean, you could have sold this
for the poor people. Yes, you could have. But it was
hers. This is one of those examples
of people who are very religious, And they'll cloak their criticisms
of you and of others under a language of piety. Not thinking about
the principles underneath it. Sure, she could have given it
to the poor. She also could have saved it for her own funeral.
And I bet they wouldn't have criticized her if she had done
that. But here, because it's done in front of them, it's not
according to what they want. They're going to critique her. But if we looked over at John
chapter 12 verse 6, I want to warn you about something. John
tells us a little piece of this puzzle that helps us get some
light here. He says, this he said, not that
he, being Judas, cared for the poor, but because he was a thief
and had the money box, and he used to take what was put into
it. I think what's happening here
is that there is probably one disciple who started whispering,
man, why didn't she sell that for the poor? And the other disciple's
like, yeah, yeah, why didn't she sell that to the poor? We
could have done all this. I need to warn you that there
are people even in churches who will essentially act as the rotten
apple in the bunch. And they may be able to influence.
Right? Judas is the one who instigates
this criticism against Mary. And we know he's not doing it
from pure motives. He's doing it because he didn't care about
Jesus. He didn't care about the oil
and he didn't care about the poor. What he cared about was the money
he could have gotten if she sold it and put it in the poor people's
box. So sometimes good disciples can
be influenced by the wrong motives of one bad disciple. And so we
need to be careful even about who we listen to, even though
they may call themselves Christians. Or lastly, to bring up the group
here, sometimes people in the moment may ridicule you for your
sacrifices to Jesus. Sometimes people, even today,
religious people, may criticize you because you decide to take
a stand for or make a costly gift for Jesus. You may decide
to go work in a mission field, and people may think that you're
absolutely stupid. People may think that, hold on, you've been
working this hard and you're going to tithe? What is wrong
with you? Don't you know that there are
poor people who could use that money? You may make any type of decision
that is religiously motivated out of a love for your Savior.
And I promise you, if you talk to enough people, you will find
someone who will criticize you for your sacrifice to Jesus.
It's one of the things we have to learn, how to grow thick skin
and love Jesus more than loving the praise of others. Because
it's not about their opinion. It's about your intention in
serving your Lord. So we need to turn our eyes now
to another character in the story to understand things. We need
to look at Judas. We look at verses 10 and 11.
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priest
to betray them. And when they heard it, they
were glad and promised to give him money. So he sought how he
might conveniently betray him. I need to warn you about something
that Judas didn't understand. You may, for a period of time,
be very close to Jesus, and yet be the furthest person away from
Him. You may, for a period of time, ride on the heights of
religious affection, and feel like the spirit of revival has
entered into your soul, and feel like, man, I am just so close
to God, and then quickly forgetting. We need to be careful. I think
one of the blessings that God has given us, even though we
might be Reformed people and we believe in the perseverance
of the saints, I don't believe Judas persevered, because I don't
think he was a saint. I believe Judas got close to
Jesus. He tasted that gift, but he wanted
the world more. This is exactly what Jesus warns
us about when He talks about the seed going on the rocky soil,
or the weedy soil. That as a seed goes in, it sprouts
up, but then the weeds choke it out, and Jesus tells His disciples,
those weeds are deceitfulness of wealth and the cares of this
life. And so be careful about a love
of money that can choke out your heart for Jesus. This is why
Paul warns us in one of his letters that covetousness is idolatry. Take Judas seriously. Also, we need to look at the
leaders. We kind of skipped over them in verses 1 and 2, but now
we need to turn our eyes back to them. After two days, it was
the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief
priests. These are the head honchos. These
are the main families. These are the guys in charge.
And the scribes, these are the guys who knew the book better
than anybody else. They sought how they might take
him by trickery and put him to death. But they said, not during
the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people. Sometimes those
who are the most cruel in life also are very culturally aware.
They can read a crowd, They can perceive what's going on in a
moment, and they're willing even to believe
that the ends justify the means. Sometimes people who are the
most cruel, even the most religiously cruel people, will see an end
and they'll just say, you know what? We can't do it this way
because there will be political damage over here. And we can't
do it this way because we know that we're going to suffer with
our reputation or our office over here. But if we just weave
this narrow, windy road just enough, we're able to get to
the ends. And it doesn't matter that we
had to do it through lying and trickery and unrighteousness,
because we know that the end is better than not getting there. I was talking to a judge, a retired
judge recently, and he was just talking to me, and he said, you
know, Brian, I'm never surprised by how easy it is for people
to justify everything they've ever done. And he was a criminal
judge. I have no doubt the religious
leaders justified in their minds what they were doing with cruelty
and trickery, because the ends justified the means. We need to be on our guard. I think this is one of the reasons
why Jesus even tells us, right? We need to be wise, even as we
walk in this world. Because there are those Christian
in this world who would love nothing more than to see you
put in a silent box somewhere, never allowed to influence anyone. And they'll use whatever means
they can, through trickery and power plays, to get the church
and to get religious people to just be quiet. Because they have
an agenda to push. And they will use political power
and systems to manipulate, reading the crowd, knowing the cultural
moment, to try to stop the Messiah. And to try to stop His kingdom
on this earth. I just need to warn you about
that. But then we come to the part
that I love. Let's look at Jesus. And when we look at Jesus and
He responds to His disciples and their criticism in verse
6, look what He says, Leave or let her alone. Why do you trouble
her? She has done a good work for
me. For you have the poor with you
always, and whenever you wish to do them good, but me you do
not have always. She has done what she could.
She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. This is the
beautiful thing that Jesus says. He knows what's coming. He is
not surprised that the cross is just ahead. He is not surprised
that he is going to be put on trial. He is not surprised that
he is going to be betrayed by the Jewish religious leaders.
Jesus knows that He is the Messiah, but He also has sang Psalm 2
enough times in His life to know that He would also be the one
that they would try to stop the Messiah's sway. He knew Psalm
22 was about Him. He knew that He would suffer,
that they would divide His clothes by lot. but that He would raise
victoriously. Jesus knew what was coming, Jesus
knew who He was, and Jesus knew the uniqueness of this moment.
And even though He Himself was going to walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, He knew He was walking it toward a goal. And one of the beautiful things
here that Jesus does in this moment is He defends against
attacks He honors Mary, and He doesn't turn away her costly
gift. Jesus is anointed for His burial,
which will lead to His resurrection, which earns Him the crown of
the kingdom forever. And in this moment, He tells
them, leave her alone. See, they don't understand what's
going on. I'm not sure Mary fully understands what's going on,
but Jesus says, she's anointing me for my burial because Jesus
knows that that burial needs to happen for him to inherit
the kingdoms of the earth. So what does this teach us about
the gospel? Well, there's a cost that Jesus
was going to have to pay too. And it was going to be far more
valuable than the 300 denarii of this alabaster jar with spikenard
in it. Because Jesus knew the price
of redemption wasn't going to be with the silver, the 30 pieces
that Judas would get from the high priest, but Jesus knew that
He was going to redeem us, His people, with something far more
valuable than silver or gold, but with His very own blood. Jesus knew the cost. And wherever
this gospel is preached, this good news is preached, we would
remember Mary, and we would remember the price that was paid just
to anoint the King. I do need to warn you though. Jesus
said something very helpful that I wish some people would pay
attention to. And Jesus gives us a very practical truth here
in verse 7. The gospel is not eradicating
poverty. The good news of Jesus Christ
is not that nobody will ever be poor again. No, Jesus actually
says the exact opposite of that, doesn't He? For you have the
poor with you always, and whenever you wish to do them good, Whenever
you want, guess what? You're always going to have poor
people around you. It's always going to happen. But what's not
going to be with you always, I'm not going to always be with
you. Because the good news isn't about Jesus eradicating poverty,
or alleviating everybody of their sickness. That's not the good
news. The good news is that the Kingdom of God is amongst men. That He sent His one and only
Son, that even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
sinners. Jesus was a willing servant and
a king. And he didn't have to do this. I want you to think about that
just for a moment. Jesus chose to be in this house. Jesus chose to surround himself
with these people. And Jesus is choosing in Mark
chapter 14, even though He knows His death and burial is coming.
Every moment of Jesus' life is highlighted in chapter 14 and
following. That He is willing to go to the
cross as the unspotted Lamb of God. Willing to take away the
sins of the world. He accepts this anointing for
His burial because Jesus sacrificially gave Himself to those who would
believe in Him. So I have to ask you this morning,
do you believe in Him? Is this just a story that Mary
did some silly stuff with oil and she wasted a bunch of valuable
things Do you take away from it that
Judas did the right thing? You know, he just had to stop
Jesus in His tracks. Because He was fooling people.
Or... Or did Jesus know that His burial
was coming? And that that was good news for
the entire world? For all ages? Let's pray. Father, we thank You. That you
have preserved this moment in time for memory for all ages. That you are anointed for your
burial. Lord, we pray that we would follow
after you. That you would give us hearts
to believe. Lord, we pray that you would make us wise to the
ways of our adversaries. Lord, but that we would be those. who would see that you paid the
ultimate price for our hearts and for our eternities. And Lord,
we pray that we would live our lives in thankfulness in response
to that. Lord, please do this work. We
pray in Jesus's name.