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Well, happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. You know, I heard someone say recently they put Mother's Day at the beginning of May because we have about 8,000 things to remember every day in May to get our kids finished with school. So enjoy your day today. But we know that Mother's Day can hold a lot of different feelings. There's a lot of different things wrapped up in it sometimes for us. So it's our heart in prayer that as we spend time together today, that you will feel loved in your time here. You will sense God's presence, that He would speak to you, and that we would be able to honor the special women in our lives who've made a deep impact. But before I get started, I'd love to start off with some prayer. So if you'll just bow your head with me. God, we thank you for what you're doing in this place. We ask that your word would go forward, that you would bring healing as your word goes out, that you would bring revelation as your word goes out, that your word would be honored in this place. We lift up the living word, Jesus Christ, and we just ask that in every way we would be yielded and honoring to you. Nobody came to hear me. Everybody came to hear you. So we ask that you would speak to your people in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. I don't know about you guys, but when I was growing up, my mom received a lot of phone calls from the school. And it wasn't because I was sick, it wasn't because I forgot something, it was because I was a little mischievous. You know, one of the things she used to say for me all the to me all the time was, you're gonna pay for your raisin. Well, when my daughter Emmy was two years old, that's when I realized it's it started. It started. And the teacher goes on, she said, Hey, I need to tell you something about Emmy. And I'm thinking, okay, what is it? What is it? And she says, Emmy has a lot of influence in the classroom. And I'm thinking, oh, bless God, she's got the gift of leadership on her life. This is wonderful. And you're laughing because you already know something funky is about to happen. So they told me, they the teacher said, she goes, the problem with her having that influence is today she walked up to a wall and she banged her head on it, and then every little friend in the classroom went and hit their head on the wall. So she was giving her friends concussions essentially. And I'm thinking I'm sitting here thinking as the mom, after I finished laughing, I was like, this is not how this gift is supposed to be used. But there's something inside of her that is able to influence and do something. And so that's just one little thing I noticed about her growing up. Now, I was on the very reputable source of Instagram recently, and I saw that it said that how you are playing on the playground as a child is often indicative of who you are in your adult life. And so this actually does have research behind it. But I threw it, we threw it in the family group chat and everyone's sharing, you know, and it's hilarious because it lines up. You know, you have someone who's, you know, playing house or teacher or someone just playing with rocks and sticks or, you know, very active on there. And I started to think about what was I doing on the playground growing up as a kid? Well, in early elementary, probably first or second grade, I was wanting to make a workout class with our class. And so what did I do? I made preparations, I made a plan, I gathered the people together, I actually made permission slips that they actually went home and signed. And then we all got together one day at recess and we got to do this and that, and you know, go up the slide and down this and run around three times, and I just loved it. Unless you think that the gift I'm about to talk about that God put in me had to do with athletic ability, let me clear this up for you. It is not. I'm very athletically challenged. I've failed at every sport that I tried. And even as an adult, I've been compared to a, as I'm running, a baby giraffe learning how to walk. So, all that to say, the point that I'm making about this is that even as a young elementary child, I there was something in me that wanted to gather people, connect with people, accomplish a common purpose or goal. I wanted to do it the right way, i.e., the permission slips. And what I'm drawing attention here to is not myself or my daughter, it's this idea that when you were formed in your mother's womb, there are gifts and things that God has put inside of you that are undeniable, they are natural for you. Maybe there's skills and um talents that you have that you just are naturally good at. And people have to work hard or study for years, and they don't have the same sense of ease to that skill or gift. And we all, every single person in here, from the person next to you, you have a different set of life circumstances, different set of skills. And what I want to propose to you today is that in our walk with God, in our walk with Jesus, just like it's my job to help cultivate a gift of influence in my daughter, God wants to do something with the good things he has already wired you for. He's put gifts inside of you, those talents. He wants to do something with them. I think sometimes we just uh get so busy and caught up in life, at least for myself, that I don't focus on God, what's the best of what I can bring to you? Can you breathe on this? Can you anoint it? Can you make it the best case scenario? Can you please turn this into be something effective? And it's not just to be the best in every area, it's so that you can accomplish the full plans and purposes that God has set outside for your life. So, my heart for us today is that as we're sitting together, that you just allow the Holy Spirit to move, to speak to you, and to maybe stir up something that he wants to breathe on or give life to for you today. He wants to do a deep and spiritual and meaningful work in your life, and I believe he can stir something up in you today. We're gonna talk about a woman from the Bible named Mary. So if you'll turn to Mark chapter 14, if you have your Bibles with you. And this account is also in Matthew 26 and John chapter 12, if you're a note taker and you want to study these maybe later this week. There's also an account of Jesus being anointed in Luke chapter 7, but that is a completely separate account. So the John, Mark, and Matthew accounts are all the same one. They give some different details of the story. And today's message is going to be less like a three-point and a poem sermon. This is very different, even for myself. This is more of what I would call an exhortation, which is we're gonna walk through this story, walk through this passage together, and I believe that God wants to encourage you and to strengthen you and give you something to do when you walk out of here. So let's start in Mark chapter 14, verse 3. Here's what it says. While Jesus was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. Like Baccarat Rouge, anybody? Made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor. And they rebuked her harshly. Jesus said, Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them anytime you want, but you will not always have me. She did what she could, she poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. So this is a story of Mary anointing Jesus at Bethany. Now there's a few different Marys in the Bible. Let me clear up which one this is. There's a Mary who has a sister named Martha. And Martha and Mary were hosting Jesus at their house. And Mary, this person from this passage, was sitting at the feet of Jesus. Which, honestly, in that day, for a woman to sit at the feet of a rabbi like that was a little bold for her. And because he was teaching and he was interacting with her, and I just have the sense that they were very close because it's very likely that she followed Jesus around, that she was just at this place where I know what it is normal to do. I know that I should be helping prepare the food, but instead I recognized that Jesus is right here, and whatever he has, that's what I want. She was spiritually hungry, she was leaned in, she wanted to pull on whatever it was that Jesus had to give and to say, and I find that very um admirable in her. So this is that Mary. This is also the Mary whose brother passed away, his name was Lazarus, and they went and got Jesus, and Jesus kind of delayed for a couple days, and then he raised her brother up from the dead. So this is somebody who has seen God not only work miracles, but she has been at his feet. She has likely traveled with him, she has a very close relationship with him and has really seen him as her Lord. And what I find interesting is that she doesn't want to just keep going status quo. She doesn't want to keep just living her life as normal. There's something in her that really wants to do something significant for Jesus. Do we have any gift givers in the house? Anyone who loves to give gifts? Okay, I love giving gifts and I love receiving gifts. And for a long time I thought that that was selfish, but it's not. But whenever you are giving a gift to somebody, you spend a lot of time and intentionality and care. You're thinking, what would be a blessing to this person? What would they enjoy? What is something that um would mean a lot to them? And you think about the packaging and how it's going to be presented because it's some, it's you want it to mean something for somebody. And I think Mary at this time is thinking, Jesus has done so much for me. What could I give him that would be an expression of worship? What can I give him that would be a gift that is this is my very best gift, this is the best of me. What can I give? And she decides that it's this alabaster jar. But before we get to the moment that we just read about in scripture, we have to realize she had to be prepared for this. She had to go to the market, make the purchase. Have any of you in this room bought a $40,000 bottle of perfume? Maybe some of you, but I have not. There's preparations that need to be made, there's finances that need to be set aside. And what makes this sacrifice that she gave even deeper is that back in these days, that alabaster jar, it wasn't large, it was relatively small for how much it cost, but it was considered her dowry. So this is in essence her financial security for her future. This is whenever she ends up finding the man she's going to marry, she's supposed to give this to him. But instead of leaning on what's comfortable, instead of leading leaning on what she sees in front of him to trust to secure her future, she decides, I'm gonna give this to Jesus. So she's prepared, she's ready, she wants to give him this extravagant gift. Now she comes up to the room, okay? All the bros are hanging out, having dinner. The disciples, maybe some other ones, Jesus is talking, I bet he's teaching, I bet they're laughing, having a good time. But I imagine her at the threshold of the door for a minute. Because in that day and time, a woman was not, it was socially and religiously inappropriate to put yourself forward in the presence of a room of men like that, especially if you were not summoned. So she's like, I'm about to do something that's a little brazen, I'm about to break some rules, I'm about to go against the norm, go against the grain. Am I ready for this? And I don't know about you, but when I've had a gift like that, it feels a little vulnerable because you're like, I'm giving my best. It feels a little risky to do this. And she instead of shrinking back and letting hesitation have the final word, she decided to step forward into that room. And she walks over to Jesus, and she's excited to finally give this offering that she's been thinking about, maybe even praying about. She's been preparing for it, and she reaches the point where it's like the point of no return. Once she breaks this alabaster jar, there's no take backs. You can't put the oil back in, you can't get the broken stone perfectly back together. Once she does this, it's fully, it's full committal. You know, there's some things in life that have to be full committal, like marriage, okay? Or um if you're trying to do a cartwheel in front of your kids, okay? You gotta go for it. If you just willy-nilly that thing, you're gonna hurt yourself. Okay? You have to be full committal. So that's where she's at. She's like, this is not gonna go back together. But she decides that her love and her heart for Jesus, for what he has done for her, just like Joey, uh Zoe was singing about, her heart for Jesus in the depth of how she's experienced him, is so worth it. She breaks the jar. And it says the oil flows down his head. Interesting. The head is a symbol of authority, and it was also very brazen for a woman to do that at that time. So she does, she's like breaks all these societal norms, but it's all because of her heart's desire and affection to worship Jesus in an extravagant way, and it flows down his head. The other accounts also say she did it at his feet, but um, I believe it's the John account. It talks about the fragrance of the oil that fills the room. The disciples that were in there may not have known that it was Spike nard in that bottle, which is the expensive, luxurious oil. They could have thought it was something different. And as this aroma begins to fill the room, they become offended by her worship. They become disgusted by all these rules that she's breaking, which is funny because these are the disciples. These are the people supposed to be closest to Jesus, with the most intimate relationship with him. Yet they're the ones pushing against this woman's true and genuine act of worship. So here's what's happening. They start talking amongst themselves, they're being unkind towards her, they're being harsh to her, they're telling her that her methods aren't correct, the way she's doing this isn't right. And then it says that they started to rebuke her harshly, which means they were coming against her in a very strong way. They were, in essence, yelling at her. So can you imagine in the vulnerability of bringing your very best to God, there's people speaking against what you're doing, but it didn't stop her. And do you know what it actually did? It inspired Jesus to say something, which I think tells us about Jesus and who he is. Instead of saying, you know what, Mary, let's let's do this another time. He says, Leave her alone. I could say that ten times over and over. Leave her alone for what she's done is beautiful to me. She did what she could, she prepared my body for burial. You will always have the poor with you. You can give to them later, but right now, in this moment, she did the right thing. He defended her, he protected her, he added value and support to what she was doing, what she was giving. This moment is very important because this is in the final days before Jesus goes to the cross. And Jesus Himself said, She anointed me. Do you know what it means to be anointed? To be anointed means to be smeared with oil. To be anointed means to be set apart for a holy purpose. Jesus is about to go to the cross and she says, He that she anointed me. The name Christ, the name Messiah, they both mean anointed one. So, yes, she came with her offering, she came with what was in her hands, her alabaster jar, but it's as if she sang prophetically over him, you are the anointed one, you are the Christ, you are the Messiah, you are the long-awaited for king. And what I find also fascinating is that Jesus in this moment knew that there were three kinds of people who were anointed and set apart for a special task from God in the Old Testament. Prophets, priests, and kings. A prophet was anointed in the Old Testament so that they could speak the words from God to his people. And Jesus, as he's being anointed, I wonder if he's thinking, not only am I speaking the words of God to God's people, I am the word to God's people. I am the living word. I am the word that was from the beginning of time, and I am the word that will always be, just as John says. He's thinking about he is the anointed prophet. Priests were also anointed. A priest is someone who's the go-between, between God and man. Our relationship with God was broken because of sin, and in the Old Testament, the priest would be the in between. They would offer up sacrifices to repair that relationship. So as Jesus is anointed, just like the priests in the Old Testament, I wonder if he's thinking, not only am I a priest, I am the high priest. Not only do I offer sacrifices, I am the sacrifice that bridges the gap between God and man. I am the great high priest. And the third person that was anointed in the Old Testament were kings. Kings were set apart to lead, to govern, to execute, to um exact righteousness on behalf of God, to lead God's people. And Jesus is anointed in this moment, days before his crucifixion. I wonder if he's thinking, man, I've lived my life, I've almost completed the work here, and now in this moment I'm being anointed as king. The king of all kings, the one who the Bible says his of his government will be no end. The Bible also goes on to say that Jesus has been set above rule and authority and powers and dominion and above every name that has ever been named in this age or the age to come, that God has set all things under his feet, and of his kingdom there will be no end. He is the king of kings. He was anointed, he was set apart. But all that was happening was Mary just brought what was in her hands. She just brought what she had. She brought what she had access to. She wasn't trying to do all that, she wasn't trying to prophetically speak all those things over Jesus. She wasn't responsible for the outcome. She was responsible for the obedience. And God took what was in her hands and did so much more. So my question for you today is what is in your hands? What is it that you can bring to Jesus? What is it that you can give to him that he can anoint, that he could turn into so much more than what you could have ever imagined? That he could breathe on, breathe life on. And it doesn't just have to be the gifts in your life, the things that are easy or you feel like are the best parts of you. He wants to take the messy parts of you and you give them to him. He wants to take the frustrating and the things that feel stuck in sin and the things that you feel like you can't break free from. He wants you to bring it to him so that he can bring healing and strength and maturity and completeness to you, that you will walk for the rest of your life fulfilling the plans and purposes that he asked for you. He wants you to bring it. What's in your hands? When I was praying about this message, I had a completely different message I wanted to give. And in the Last two weeks, the Lord flipped it on me. Well, I just didn't hear right in the first place, I think. But he asked me to minister on alabaster, and my response was, yes, sir, but I will teach on any other part of the Bible. Why this one? Because this is deeply personal for me. I had an encounter with God with this passage that was a very vulnerable place for me. So this is fitting because it's Mother's Day, but this applies to any area of your life that you want to give to the Lord. Anything in your hands you want to give to Him. I'm going to share this story so that you can kind of see a model of how I did it. Not because I did it perfectly, but because I just recently did it. So before I became a mom, I thought I was going to be a really good one. I thought, you know, I love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I'm a loving person. I like to take care of people. I have a strong sense of conviction and right and wrong. And I just became a mom and then realized I was very mistaken. And there's a lot of gaps that need filled. And a lot of ways that I don't measure up or feel like I have what it takes. So a lot of ways I feel like my family's not getting what they need. But instead of taking it to the Lord, I spend a lot of time ignoring it, kind of like the check engine light on your car. Anyone else, or is it just me? Like, oh, that's nice. Okay, keep going. And then when a couple of them pop up, then I'm like, hey, babe, my car needs looked at. Right? Okay. But the area of my motherhood needed some strengthening. It needed the breath of God on it. And I we were breaking, um, I was breaking the fast in January. I did the first seven days, I did more of a strict fast, and then um, so I was kind of coming out of that. I had a time with God in my living room. I was taking communion and I was just thanking him, saying, Thank you, God, for bringing me to this point. Thank you for what you're speaking to me. Thank you for what you're working, thank you for your body that was broken for me and your blood that was shed, going through those things. And as soon as I finished communion, a song came on the TV, and it was a song about alabaster, and I opened up my Bible and I opened up to a passage on alabaster, and so I began to walk through the scripture with him, and I felt like he told me, Hey Courtney, I need you to give me your motherhood. Your motherhood feels risky and vulnerable, it feels like it's on autopilot, you don't feel like you are operating fully firing. I need you to give it to me. And I just broke down and got to the point, you know, Mary, when she had the alabaster, there's a point where it was like no takebacks. And I felt such a strong impression that I was supposed to give this up to him and stop trying to control it. Control how my kids act, control how things are, control the outcome, control what happens to them, and just give it to him. You know, a lot of times we take our alabaster thing that we want to give to the Lord, and we pray on that thing, it's in our hands, and we say, Thank you, God, that you've blessed this and it's gonna be good. And we have all these scriptures that we spit at it and we pray over it, but we never give it into his hands. What does it mean to give it into his hands? It means, God, you have the final say, you are the final authority, you are the final word. Whatever you say, I'm gonna do, I'm not gonna stop short, I'm gonna believe you. And when you speak to me, I'll do it, and I will not delay. That's what giving it into his hands is it's obedience, it's surrender, and so I gave it to him. But you know what I love is that oftentimes on the other side of our obedience, God does something wonderful and miraculous, and I broke that alabaster, and just like Mary, when Mary's when the alabaster broke in Mary's hands, what flowed out of it? Oil. The oil flowed when she broke her perceptions, her expectations, her hopes of her future, and surrendered it, the oil flows. Well, the oil is a type of the Holy Spirit. And what I'm telling you today is that whatever you bring to the Lord, whatever you surrender in fully and trust in His care, I'm not picking it back up. I'm not, it's not abdicating responsibility, it's saying, no, you lead and then I'll act. You decide and then I'll do what I need to do. When you do that, it provides an opportunity for the oil of heaven to flow down into your family, to flow into your motherhood, to flow into your job, to flow into your relationships. It brings strength and counsel and wisdom from God and everything that you need for life and godliness, just like the scriptures say. The question is, are you willing to give what's in your hands today? I've been praying for you, and I trust that the Lord will continue to unfold these things, and we just pray you're a blessing over you. And I ask that Clayton will come up right now. We want to pray, coming out of this time, talking about my motherhood. We want to pray for all the mamas in the room. So if you are a mom, I want to ask you to stand. We also want to pray for anyone in the room who's believing to have a baby. We've seen babies come from prayers, and we're standing in faith with you as your church family. And so, Pastor Clayton, if you'll lead us in a prayer for that.