Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDIy5TUXovo

Link to Video: http://www.youtube.com/v/Hf9qSXu_ysE

Here is a relief carving that Egyptians made of some captive Philistine warriors at Medinet Habu, Egypt, 1185-1152 BC.

Here's a picture of the two rocks

I was driving along on the interstate, and I got off the exit, and I wasn't paying very much attention to how fast I was going, then all of the sudden, I felt like God wanted me to slow down. I didn't hear Him, but it was very strong. (It was really quick: like, "Slow down!" "Ok." Brake.) God doesn't talk to me like that very much, so I jammed on the brakes and drove through the intersection. Then behind me in my rearview mirror, I saw this flash. It was then that I realized that they had installed a red-light camera that takes pictures of people who speed or run the red light. Now, I was just going to let my car slow down on its own instead of hitting the breaks, but if I would have done that, I would have gotten a ticket an had to pay $70. I thought that was so kind of God to warn me to slow down when I was just being clueless, because that camera wasn't there the last time I'd went through that area. God helped me.

Another time, I had a lot to do, and I was just wound up about things, and I asked God to help me, and immediately God's sweet presence came to me, and I just started laughing. It wasn't the kind of laugh where people would think I'm ready for a straightjacket, just the kind of laugh when you realize that none of the problems you have are bigger than God. God helped me.

Other ways we can believe God is by obeying His Word. The Bible says, "Wives obey your husbands." Sometimes we can get into trouble if we don't obey when we should. The other week, we were driving down the road, and we saw a house with fire on the porch. The table on the front porch was on fire, and it hadn't caught the house yet, so we turned around, and my husband went to get the table away from the house so the house would not catch fire. I'd gotten out of the van because I'd called 911 in case we needed the fire department, and I was trying to read the address, and my husband said, "Get back in the van," and I didn't do it right away. I should have listened. What he saw, and what I didn't know was that the table that was on fire had a bunch of aerosol cans sitting under it on its shelf, so by the time I got around to obeying what my husband told me to do, the heat from the fire caused those cans to explode and fly across the lawn, and one of them hit me in the back of the leg, and burnt my skin. Now, if I would have believed God when he said, "Wives, obey your husbands," and if I would have listened right away

Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBu35aeF4LU

Have you ever been invited over to somebody's house and they say, "I'm so glad you could come over today! Take off your shoes and let me wash your feet." Probably not. You'd probably say, "I'm keeping my shoes on because I need them to run away from you! You're scaring me."

This story sounds a little strange to us - somebody pouring perfumed oil on feet - but back then, people would have understood what Mary was doing. Back then, when somebody came over to your house, it was the polite thing to do to wash their feet. In the Bible days, even the best roads weren't paved with blacktop or concrete. If the road was a really important Roman road in a city, they might have been paved with gravel and flat stones, but most road were just dirt. And people didn't have high-top hiking boots, either - they had sandals.

Feet got dirty! Travelers would be sweaty and tired and their feet would hurt, so the custom was to give travelers a kiss of greeting on both cheeks (smooch, smooch), have one of the lowest servants wash the guest's feet, and then provide a nice drop of perfume for their head so they can smell a nice fragrance instead of their stinky selves.
Mary went even beyond the custom. If you would give a guest a kiss of greeting, a foot-wash and a drop of perfume, what would you do for God? A lot more, right? Jesus is God, and God deserves more what everyone else gets, because He gave us everything in the first place! So, Mary wants to worship Jesus. Mary is thankful to Jesus because why? Why do you think? What is Mary's brother's name?

Lazarus! What did Jesus do for Lazarus?

Let's pause right here so we won't be confused. Have any of you heard the song "Alabaster Box?" Mary didn't have the alabaster box. There were (at least) two women in the Bible who anointed Jesus at two different times. One time Jesus was at the house of a pharisee, and the woman was "the bad girl" who wanted to worship Jesus, so she broke her alabaster container of perfumed oil and washed Jesus' feet with her tears, anointed them with oil, then dried them with her hair. We don't know the name of this woman. But our story is a different story at a different time. In our story, we are talking about Mary Magdalene. She was not a bad girl at all, she was one of Jesus' close friends. She was not at a pharisee's house, but probably at her own house, because her and her sister Martha liked to have Jesus come to their house. It could have been that since Jesus did not rebuke any of these women and accepted them, that the other women wanted to do the same thing for Jesus.

Judas was mad at Mary! He wanted to have that money! That was valuable ointment, worth a year's pay, or about $10,000! Let me ask you, is Jesus worth $10,000? Is He worth $100,000? Is he worth a million dollars? This church gave an offering of $15,000 last month to help the other churches in Texas. Jesus is worth everything!

God loves it when we are willing to be His servant. he loves it when we want to give Him everything, and bring Him glory. Jesus is worth our time, our effort, our everything! If we gave Him all the money we earned in a year, that wouldn't be enough to repay what He did for us at the Cross. But He doesn't need our money, He just needs our obedience. He doesn't need our time, but we need to give our time to Him. When we give of ourselves, it changes us, it doesn't change Him. We need to be changed into more loving people. We need to be changed into more giving people. We need to be changed into people who are not selfish. We need to be changed into kids who are kind to each other. We need to be changed into kids who love each other. We need to be like Mary and be willing to give all we have to Jesus.