THE FRAGRANT OIL OF WORSHIP

Today I'm going to talk about intimacy with Jesus and how to release the fragrant oil of worship, or the perfume of worship. I want to also speak about 'the kiss' and about washing Jesus' feet. I believe that this message will stir us up so that we become love sick, falling in love with Jesus all over again.

Also before we begin, I want to say that I hope we'll cherish the message that's captured in The Fragrant Oil of Worship. With this in mind I want to invite each one reading this teaching today to pause right now and invite the Holy Spirit to come and hover over you. Let's pray together: "Heavenly Father, I ask today that we would completely surrender ourselves to you as we discover together how to abide in your presence in the place of devotion and intimacy. We want to find that glorious place at your feet."

"To beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will make the place of My feet glorious" (Is. 60:13b).

PASSION, WORSHIP, INTIMACY

The Anointing of Bethany

Passion, worship and intimacy, three words filled with purpose and meaning that must influence the core of our being if we are going to touch the very heart of Jesus Christ. Listen! When we have a church of passionate people filled with fresh first love who pursue the presence of the Lord, then we'll experience God's presence among us. And when the presence of the Lord falls upon us, everything else happens: deliverance, healing, restoration, forgiveness and cleansing. But believers so often wrestle with God, feeling stuck, trying to get Him to take care of their needs rather than just getting a hold of Him and experiencing His presence. Holding onto the hem of Jesus' garment and esteeming Him above all else releases God's purposes to fall into place in our lives.

Today I'm going to challenge the way that we love and relate to our Master, Jesus Christ, and challenge the lover-friendship relationship that we have with Him. I'm going to ask how much of a lover of Jesus are we? But just before we delve into answering these questions I want us to read two passages of scripture about the 'anointing of Bethany' that will lay a foundation beforehand.

"And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor." But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My 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" (Mathew 26: 6-13).

Now I want you to flip over to another perspective concerning the same event in Luke 7:36-48. Although the account in Luke does not mention that Jesus was anointed with fragrant oil to prepare Him for His burial, some Bible scholars believe that the account in Matthew and Luke are one and the same scene. As well, at first glance it appears that Simon the leper and Simon the Pharisee isn't the same person, some Bible scholars feel he was a Pharisee who was healed of leprosy by Jesus. I also believe this and we will examine this week's teaching based on these opinions.

"Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee's house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, 'This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.' And Jesus answered and said to him, 'Simon, I have something to say to you.' So he said, 'Teacher, say it.' 'There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?' Simon answered and said, 'I suppose the one whom he forgave more.' And He said to him, 'You have rightly judged.' Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, 'Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.' Then He said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven'" (Lk. 7:36-48).

I remember as I read about 'the anointing of Bethany' also in the books of Mark and John that each time I always thought, "There has to be a whole lot more to this story!" So I've been chewing and meditating on this whole biblical account for months. The passages in Matthew and Luke describe an unnamed woman who humbly came to Jesus with her alabaster box of perfume and how she anointed His head and His feet. Now, what struck me the most when I read these two passages was when the Holy Spirit revealed that the 'anointing of Bethany' is not just about the anointing of Jesus for His burial and resurrection. Rather, if our hearts are open, this true story can teach us how to be abandoned lovers of Jesus.

The first thing I want us to notice is where it says, "And behold, a woman" (Lk. 7:37). Although the woman is unnamed, some Bible scholars believe she is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazareth. I also believe this. She was filled with so much passion for Jesus that she could confront and challenge all the familiar cultural protocol. She pushed beyond her dignity and any fears concerning what everybody else might think of her. Mary's passion so burned inside of her for Jesus that nothing was going to keep her from the feet of her Master.

Mary's heart was undivided. The bible tells us that when her sister Martha welcomed Jesus into their home that Mary gave Him all of her attention and devotion. On the other hand, her sister Martha was completely distracted about many little things; she pressured Mary to get up and help her with household chores (Luke 10:38-42). But Mary didn't care about all the things that perhaps needed to be done and she resisted the temptation to get busy because she was satisfied with one thing to do for God and that was being close to Him, looking into His face and hearing His voice.

True Passion Releases True Worship

Do you know why Mary was such a woman of passion? It was because Mary knew she was rescued out of a pit of ungodly spiritual darkness. She knew the mercy and love of God that forgave her great sin; she was forever indebted to the Lord Jesus Christ. She remembered what it was like to live without God in her life. I believe she came to the Pharisee's house to see Jesus because of her great love and devotion to Him. It was like she said to herself, "I have such a passion for Him because I know the love and forgiveness that I've found in Him that I want to go and just give Him thanks." I don't believe she realized the prophetic significance concerning anointing Jesus for His burial. Rather her whole motive flowed from a burning heart for her King; gratitude and adoration for Jesus drew her to His side. God wants us to have this same intense passion in our hearts for Him.

Now how can we stir up our passion? One of the ways is by NEVER forgetting the pit of darkness that Jesus pulled us out of because of His great mercy and the love for us. You know something about Simon? He wasn't a passionate man. In fact, when Jesus gave the parable about the two debtors (Lk. 7:40-42), the reason He spoke this parable to Simon is because He was comparing Simon's passion to Mary's passion. Here's what He meant: "Simon, because you don't know anything about passion, you weren't the one that anointed my head with oil. You weren't the one that anointed my feet. You weren't the one that wiped my feet with your hair. You weren't the one that wept at my feet or the one that kissed me. Yet this woman has not ceased kissing me because she remembers the pit she was rescued from. But because you are a Pharisee and you believe you're so religious and that all the outward things in your life are tidied up, you think that you don't really need my mercy. This just proves that you don't have a revelation of your need for my mercy and love. That's why you don't have the passion. You don't have the revelation that you need to be forgiven."

Simon didn't think that he needed to be forgiven for anything because He was a Pharisee; he was religious. Mary knew her need; he didn't. She knew her debt; he didn't. It's unfortunate that so many in the body of Christ today have forgotten their indebtedness to Jesus. They've forgotten the pit that God brought them out of. That's why they don't have the passion or the fire of Jesus burning in their hearts like they had when they first got saved and He was their first love. And that's what's happening in this passage. Here is an example of a man that doesn't have an understanding of passion, adoration, devotion and gratitude because he's trusting in his religion. He thought he'd been saved for such a long time and he had it all together; the outside of the cup looked really good! With his spiritual pride intact, he asked Jesus, "Do you not know what kind of woman this is?" It's like Simon was saying, "Come on, you're with me now. Don't you know what manner of woman this is?" And Jesus turned around and basically said to him, "Simon, don't you know what manner of a man you are? Don't you know the debt of love, the love-slave debt that you owe unto your Master forever because of the forgiveness found in Me?" Simon didn't have this revelation.

Now let's look at verse 37. It says that she brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil. Now the first thing about the fragrant oil (called spikenard), is that it's very expensive and only used for special occasions. In fact it was so costly that it was worth 300 denarii, which today would be at least one year's full wages. But to Mary, no expense would be spared; her great love for Jesus could only be expressed by pouring out upon Him that which was her most precious and costly possession. Also Mary's act of devotion required breaking her alabaster box open so that the fragrant oil could pour out; an act that symbolized her brokenness before the Lord. As Mary wiped Jesus' feet with her hair, we can sense her emotions; passionate sobs, her tears streaming and mingling with the precious spikenard. How intimate? the smell of fragrant oil lingering in the air, its aroma offending the minds of the men who were present. (I'll speak more about this later.)

After she poured out her offering onto the Lord Jesus, the first thing that Simon, Judas and the rest of the people did was to criticize her sharply. Their low regard for Jesus was exposed when they said, "What is the point of this waste? You could've taken what you have given to Him and we could have sold it and given it to the poor" (Matt. 26:8). But Mary had an opposite spirit and her high regard for the Lord would have been expressed by a retort something like this: "No! Because if I am going to worship Jesus, worship that does not cost me everything, or worship that does not involve brokenness and sacrifice is not worship at all! Jesus is worth all that I have and all that I am and that's why I gave Him everything."

If we are going to truly touch the heart of God with our worship, we need to worship like Mary did; we need to treasure this kind of worship. What I want us to notice is that Mary's worship so etched an everlasting mark on God's heart that He said, "Wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will be told as a memorial to her" (Mathew 26:13). To paraphrase Jesus' words: "This woman's worship, expressed by her brokenness and sacrifice, devotion and passion, has forever touched my heart. Not only am I going to remember her devotion forever, but wherever this gospel is preached what this woman has done to me in her passion, will be told as a memorial to her."

Now, what I want to ask us is this? Does our worship and devotion for Jesus so touch God's heart that even our worship of two years ago continues to bless the angels and God? Are they are still talking about that moment when we touched Him? Does God even remember the way that we worship? I believe that there is a place of such intimacy and abandonment in worship to God that we can touch Him to the point that it's like we can scar Him. It's like when our true worship touches Him, a seal comes upon His heart which causes Him to forever remember our worship. ["Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave; its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame" (Song of Sons 8:6).] You know, this gospel has been preached for 2000 years and every person who's heard the gospel of Jesus remembers the intimacy of Mary. But our worship won't be remembered by God at all if it doesn't involve sacrifice and brokenness. And if our worship doesn't release all that we are and if it doesn't cost us everything, then it's not true worship at all.

True Worship Must Kill Us

If we're truly going to give God the worship that He deserves, it's going to involve brokenness. True worship must kill us and it must bring a sense of brokenness and humility into our body, soul and spirit. Remember, Mary had to break her alabaster box, symbolizing her brokenness and her 'death to self.' The 'breakings of God' release fragrant worship. If we're going to release the fragrant oil of worship, every time we come into the presence of God we must die. That's what happens when we come into the presence of Jesus: we die. We become humbled under His mighty hand, broken inside, our pride overthrown.

It was only after her alabaster box was broken that the oil could be poured out, releasing its fragrance. Listen! Even after she walked out of the house there was still the lingering aroma; something had happened, someone touched God! Is there a lingering aroma over our lives and our churches? Is there a lingering aroma about our ministries that still fills the throne room of heaven? Is our worship like fragrant oil; even when we aren't worshiping any longer, the aroma of that sacrifice lingers?

Our hearts are just like the alabaster box containing precious treasure soaked in an exquisite fragrance. But we must allow the Holy Spirit to break our hearts His way, by His Spirit. He never damages our hearts; He breaks our hearts with a purpose, so that we can release our true fragrant worship to God. Brokenness helps us die to ourselves and our inhibitions; we can forget about ourselves and worship God with great freedom and abandonment. We can even become like Moses! He didn't even realize His face shone with the brightness of the glory of God when he descended the mountain after 40 days of being in the glory of the Lord. In some Bibles it says that He lost sight of Himself (Ex. 34:29).

But much of the church hasn't been broken and crushed by the Spirit of God. You know, if we surrender to the Lord, there is a breaking and humbling that comes upon us when we're in His presence. There is a death that only His presence can bring that will cause us forget about ourselves; our flesh doesn't rise up and rule us. Remember when the priests went into the Holy of Holies they burned the incense. The place was filled with the cloud of incense whenever they went in before the ark of the Lord. And one reason for the cloud of incense was because no flesh can glory in God's sight. The priests had to create a covering so that God could not see them going about their priestly duties in the Holy Place. I believe that brokenness and death to self not only releases true worship, it also releases the glory of God to cover us.

Today, Christians are a part of the priesthood, too. We are a chosen generation, a "royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Pt. 2:9). As part of the royal priesthood, we must regard the Lord as holy. Next week in Part 2 we'll see an example of God's judgment against impure worship. We will also examine different ways to release honor and passionate love and devotion to the Lord before praying together.

PART II

Before we begin, I want to say that in Part 2 of The Fragrant Oil of Worship we will examine several serious topics that need to be taken into our hearts with great care. So let's pray together for a moment?"Heavenly Father, I ask for your hand of protection to cover us as we learn about your holiness and what it takes to really please you. Thank you, Father, for your mercy and grace toward us as we come into a fuller understanding of your standard of righteousness concerning worship." "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and truth go before Your face" (Psalm 89:14).

GOD'S HOLINESS MUST BE ESTEEMED

PROFANE FIRE

There are two essential elements that purify and guard our heart against the sin of pride: brokenness and death to self. Remember last week we discussed brokenness and death to self; how the Holy Spirit wants to break our hearts with a purpose so that we're humbled and broken inside. Then our pride is overthrown and our true fragrant worship is released to God. But if we don't allow the Holy Spirit to humble our hearts, then pride can arise within us. Now pride always causes us to do what's right in our own eyes and ruins the fragrance, or we could say, ruins the incense in our worship.

Did you know that incense was very important to God? The Lord gave Moses strict instructions concerning making and using incense. (I'll speak more about this later.) He warned against offering any strange incense on His altar (Ex. 30:9). In addition, if the priests didn't follow God's exact instructions when they made sacrifices to Him, He called their offerings "profane." [Profane means: showing disrespect or contempt for sacred things, to violate, as anything sacred; irreverence, or contempt; to desecrate; to pollute; as, to profane the name of God; to profane the Scriptures, or the ordinance of God?Webster's Dictionary.]

In the book of Leviticus, we discover the serious consequences experienced by Aaron's two sons when they made an offering to the Lord that He did not command. Moses records that they offered "profane fire" before the Lord. So let's take a look at profane fire and then I'll speak in more detail about incense.

"Then Nadab and Abihum, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. And Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke, saying: "By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.'" So Aaron held his peace" (Lev. 10:1-3).

When I read about Aaron's sons I asked, "Father, what was the profane fire? What was the incense that they offered unto you and why did it kill them?" And God began to answer my questions by highlighting verse 3: "By those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy." God showed me that because Aaron's sons came near to Him when He had not commanded them, without true reverence and love, this revealed a severe lack of regard and respect for His holiness. Their lifestyles reflected lip service and not true priestly service to the Lord flowing from obedient hearts. The fear of the Lord wasn't there. Because Nadab and Abihum had heart-attitudes that did not regard the holiness of God, they offered profane fire to the Lord, and that cost them their lives. The fire of God's judgment devoured them!

Some Bible scholars feel that Aaron's sons weren't even supposed to come before the Lord at all; they came on their own initiative instead of Aaron. Apparently they made matters even worse by offering common incense and/or common fire. (I'll speak more about what pure incense is later.) It seems likely that both sons were walking in an arrogant manner because they had just received priestly garments a day earlier and they were beginning to perform more priestly duties than before. You know, they made several deadly blunders: pride; irreverence; misplaced enthusiasm to get in there and offer the sacrifice, and not properly glorifying the Lord in the sight of the people. So they received the righteous judgment of God.

Aaron's sons were priests of the Lord, anointed and trained in the priestly service. [They both knew that if they entered the tent of meeting not having washed their hands and feet, that they would die (Ex. 30:20,21)]. For our instruction today, in the New Testament the Apostle James cautions his brethren about becoming teachers: "My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment" (James 3:1). There is a godly principle here. Leadership positions receive a stricter judgment.

Now could it be that God is alerting us today, that when we come into His presence we must regard and esteem His holiness? I believe He is cautioning us, even warning us! Let's remember that we are born-again into the royal priesthood and that if we truly love God, we will obey His commands (1 Pt. 2:9 & Jn. 14:21). God is looking for a true and faithful royal priesthood, filled with godly believers who can offer pure incense in their worship to Him. Remember, the priests had to respect and regard God as holy; their lives depended on this. And we too, need to regard God as holy in all that we say and do. Let's not offer God profane fire! Let's not disregard His holiness!

When we really love the Lord and esteem His holiness, then our character will be good and the way that we live will be a fine example to others; we will be holy, too. The Lord is glorified in the sight of those around us when we honor Him by the way that we live each day. Our worship has to go beyond what we just say or do in a worship service; it must be reflected in our God-honoring lifestyles. We don't want to be like Aaron's two sons who didn't follow the commandments of the Lord.

INCENSE THAT PLEASES A HOLY GOD

As I mentioned earlier, Moses received the commandments of the Lord (for the priests, too) concerning the incense. You see, God set down a complete formula that the perfumers had to follow when they made the incense. Woe unto anyone who would dare tamper with His instructions or try to make incense for their own personal use. Any incense that didn't contain the exact amounts and ingredients that God prescribed, if combined with fire in the censers, would create strange, profane fire to the Lord. Here's the Lord's command concerning the amounts, spices and use concerning the incense:

"And the LORD said to Moses: 'Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each. You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure, and holy. And you shall beat some of it very fine, and put some of it before the Testimony in the tabernacle of meeting where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. But as for the incense which you shall make, you shall not make any for yourselves, according to its composition. It shall be to you holy for the LORD. Whoever makes any like it, to smell it, he shall be cut off from his people'" (Ex. 30:34-37).

The fact is, the only kind of incense God considered pure and holy was the incense made with the ingredients of the sweet spices according to the prescribed formula; this incense was like perfume. Now? isn't the Lord God Almighty worthy of sacred incense used exclusively to honor Him? "YES!" Having said that, I want to ask us another question. Bottom line: could it be that the church is offering up profane, strange fire to the Lord in our worship time?

Here's what I feel. I believe that the church is offering up profane, strange fire to the Lord in much of our worship time because we've taken out some of the 'ingredients' in our worship. We've taken out some of the sweetness and sweet spices such as devotion and first love, and mixed in other ingredients such as carnality and pride. How did this happen?

Well, when we fail to worship God with everything within us (our body soul and spirit) and we only draw close to God with our lips, then we've taken the sweet spices out of our incense. When we've lost our passion and when we don't have a burning heart for our first love, Jesus, then the perfume that has potential to linger in heaven well after we've touched His heart, is missing! Neglecting to have a high regard for the holiness of God alters the purity of the incense in our worship. God wants a sweet aroma to fill His nostrils and He's looking for pure incense in our worship, but if it's not manifesting then how will we catch His eye? (Lev. 2:2)

God doesn't want to see believers being satisfied with only programmed services and singing the same songs all the time. You know, at church we can sing, sip coffee and talk to a friend all at the same time, mixing in carnality. Also, we've taken some of the spices out of our worship because we don't even push in. And if the entertainment of worship isn't there for us to grab a hold of, we mix in laziness and apathy.

On the other hand, we enhance the sweet smell of the perfume in our worship when we give the Lord all of ourselves. (I've been in some of the driest, what some would call religious worship services, but I purposed in my heart to worship God with everything fully engaged concerning my body, mind, soul, strength and emotions.) Also, every time that we take authority over being worried about those who are around us and we allow the creative bubbling passion of love for God to rise up inside of us, then the sweet smell of the incense is heightened in our worship. When we dance before the presence of the Lord, then the aroma in our worship pleases the Lord. Hey! Even if we can't dance before the Lord physically, but we dance in our mind, this also delights the Lord and adds to the sweetness in our worship.

True worship to Jesus happens when we're so caught up entertaining the presence of the Lord that we forget about everything around us. We push in past any barriers that would try to keep us out of the Holy of Holies. We literally forget about everything, just like David did, and we give all that we are in worship to the Lord (2 Sam. 6:14). Listen! Worshipping God in spirit and in truth will catch His eye (Jn. 4:24).

Also we don't want to grieve God by neglecting to change the areas in our lives that He's asking us to deal with. Worship and secret sin stinks. I'm not saying that we don't stumble. But it's only because of His grace and mercy that we can be right with God. We must deal with things like forgiving others and the areas that we know God is touching. Pushing our sin under the carpet will result in deception and we sure don't want to mix that into our worship to God.

We want to be obedient worshippers. Walking in disobedience and trying to worship God never works! Our disobedience robs God from the pleasure He would have received if we'd been obedient to Him. Think of it this way. You're a parent telling your children to clean their bedrooms. Instead they all disobey and just play together, and in a few minutes they all come to you with a structure they made together from some Lego. It's a gift for you! But all the pleasure in receiving the gift is robbed because your children disobeyed by not doing what you told them to do first. God delights in obedience over sacrifice (1 Sam. 15:22). Obeying the Lord makes us feel clean and releases a beautiful scent in our worship that's pleasing to Him. Listen! If we're willing to allow God to break our hearts with a purpose; if we're willing to learn how to die to ourselves, we will offer worship to the Lord that's filled with pure incense?a fragrant, pleasing aroma.

JESUS IS WORTH OF HONOR

Many believers want to honor Jesus by worshipping Him in a way that will etch a mark or scar on His heart so that He'll remember forever the day that they touched His heart with their worship. My desire is to have a fragrance, a perfume, and to carry an aroma that lingers in the air even after I've finished worshipping. We honor Jesus when we worship Him in spirit and in truth. He is worthy of honor! May Jesus say every time that I worship Him, "Todd, every time that you come to Me there is brokenness and true sacrifice. Each time that you have come to Me, you've laid down all that you are and you've died to yourself. You have purposed in your heart to want all of Me by putting all that you were and are, all of your mind and strength into each worship service. Thank you for coming to Me because you want Me and not just to try and get what you need. I can smell the sweetness and the spices in the incense of your worship and it is a delight to Me."

There is another intimate way to worship Jesus that I call "worship without words." There is a place in the spirit where we can bask in the glory of the Lord, where we just behold the face of Jesus and gaze into his eyes absolutely love sick, not even a whisper coming out of our mouth. Worship doesn't always have to involve words. We can sit or lye down in the Lord's presence for an hour and honor Him without even saying anything because of the attitude inside our heart. Not trying to bring His presence down upon us, we can be in the presence of the Lord, filled up with His love and His presence.

Someone was talking to me recently and they asked how it was possible for me to worship the Lord so easily when everybody else worships as if they're trying to get there. "It's like you're already there and everyone else is trying to get God to come down." There is a place of abiding in the presence of the Lord that I've come to that when I think about Jesus, I'm in His presence. I've learned that there is a place of worship where I honor Jesus and where I just come and look at His face. (In my emotions there is a whisper, "Jesus..." It's like the fragrant oil of Mary.) When I look at Jesus, He sees my love for Him. He can see my eyes. (I can look at my wife in a certain way and when my wife looks at me in a certain way I know what she's saying without words.) There is something powerful about the worship of silence; "be still and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10).

The revelation of knowing who God is and a revelation of the face of God are released into our hearts when we come before Him in stillness and quietness. Without one word, with just one glance of our eyes, we can let Him know that we are love sick and in desperate need of His touch. We can kiss Him! Remember Jesus spoke to Simon because he didn't even offer Him the common courtesies that their culture freely gave to family and friends (Luke 7:44-45). Jesus said, "Simon. You didn't even give me a kiss." A kiss is intimate. The apostle Paul talks about greeting the brethren with a holy kiss four times (in the New Testament). Their culture welcomed a holy kiss! It was important to Jesus to be kissed; he noticed Simon's neglect.

There is a longing inside many Christians to be free to express their devotion to God, but instead they feel, "Lord, I want to kiss you. I want to give you a most intimate kiss, but my friends are here now. This isn't the proper time. I'll kiss you when nobody's watching." Sometimes believers are so inhibited because they're worried about what everyone else will think if they really let go and get passionate, expressing all the emotion that is really inside them for God. So they do this: offer God their cheek because all their friends are watching. You know, I often see different men feel the brokenness and the weeping of the Lord, but they hold back the tears.

Listen! When we love people and all the other things (that may even be permissible, but not necessarily beneficial because they take us out of the presence of the Lord), and we kiss those things and spend more time with others than we do with Him, then we've not kissed God. And that's why Jesus rebuked Simon. He said, "You are kissing everybody else, but not me. Anyone else you would have greeted with a kiss and so because you didn't kiss me, this woman has kissed me. In fact, not only did she kiss me, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the moment she came."

The second thing Jesus said to Simon was, "You haven't even washed my feet. You didn't appreciate my coming. You didn't appreciate my visitation. You didn't respect or honor me. You didn't have a revelation of who was in your home." One of the common courtesies in Israel especially among the Pharisees and the religious people was to honor their guest by washing and anointing their feet with oil. As well as cleaning the dust from their feet, this was a sign of appreciation and respect because their guest accepted an invitation to come over to their home. So Simon was a "respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34). And we become a 'respecter of persons' like Simon, if we wash everyone else's feet and yet we don't wash God's feet and honor Him in front of our friends when He visits us. Sometimes when Jesus comes to our house, when there are other people around we treat Him differently than if we were alone with Him. Simon showed respect for everybody else, but Jesus.

You might be asking how we actually neglect to wash Jesus' feet. Did you know that when God moves in renewal and we don't want Him to touch us with manifestations because of who might be around us, and might see us, that it's like we didn't wash God's feet? ["God, I can't worship you the way that I worship you when nobody is looking." "God can I have my healing, but can I get healed in a conservative way?" "God, can I have revival, but do I have to roll on the floor like that?" "God, I appreciate that you have come, but I am not washing your feet today."] Sometimes we say, "God, I want revival, but I don't want it to be messy." Revival is messy! People get offended. Hey! I'd rather have a messy revival rather than a clean trough, thank you! I'd rather have all the headaches of revival, than the hype that something is happening when it really isn't.

The Lord is pleased with us when even an 'empty trough' doesn't stop our love for Him! When we worship Jesus with our kisses and when we anoint Him with costly fragrant oil, He loves it. He deserves it! He is worthy! Let's fall in love with Him all over again! But maybe some of you are wondering how to kiss Jesus and how to anoint Him. After all, He's at the right hand of the Father in heaven! Well, here's how to begin being intimate with Jesus: just spend some time soaking in His presence sitting at His feet and gazing into His face. So find a position that's comfortable; maybe some will want to lye down in His presence. It's our love and devotion for the Lord, like incense poured out in true worship that releases the fragrant oil of anointing on Jesus' head and His feet. Let's spend some time kissing His face and kissing His feet; honoring the One who is worthy. I'd like to invite you to join with me in prayer:

PRAYER

Heavenly Father,

When we remember the pit of darkness that Jesus pulled us out of, passion for Him is awakened in our hearts. We want to fall in love with Jesus all over again, filled with extravagant love and gratitude to Him, the One who is worthy of everything that is within us. Father, we want to so honor and adore your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, that the fragrance or our worship would so enrapture His heart, that the heavenly annals of history would record our worship time as a sacred memorial, never to be forgotten. God, please break our alabaster box, our heart, so that the treasure inside, soaked in the exquisite fragrance of the sweet smelling spices would come pouring out to delight the Godhead. We want to be like Mary of Bethany, who was your love-slave. Amen.

-used by permission