Poured Out

I believe this message kind of fits in with the Legacy Breakfast series Leadership Strategies and Tactics as a companion to Shane’s message on humility.  This message is based on Matthew 26:6-13.  We’re going to do a word study on pouring out our lives for the Lord and I want to look at some scriptures around that. This is advice that I would give to myself to avoid problems and mistakes I’ve made.

Matthew 26:6-13 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper, 7a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at the table. 8But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, “Why this waste? 9“For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.” 10But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me. 11“For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me. 12“For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial. 13“Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.”

I can’t teach you anything new about this story.  The preaching point or the sermon from this text is that if we recognize our lives as broken before the Lord, God by His Spirit can bring a sweet aroma of a testimony to Christ’s death and resurrection. Contrast that with Judas who only wanted to take for himself.  So a selfless life of service and devotion to the Lord is a sweet fragrance. There’s a sense where it will cost us something materially to pour out our lives for the Lord, but I don’t think that’s the deepest meaning here.   I think the focus is on the Lord Jesus Himself, and if our devotion is to Him apart from everything else in this world, then our lives can bring a sweet aroma.

I’d like to be able to tell you to follow me as an example; because I pour my life out for the Lord.  I’d like to be able to tell you How my life is a sweet fragrance of the Spirit of the Lord. I’d like to be able to tell you How my life is a testimony of the death and resurrection of my Lord and Savior Jesus.  But to be honest, my life is more stinky than sweet.  So this whole message is really for me.   This is just one area of  my life (among many) where I need to submit to the Lordship of Jesus. I need to yield control of my life to Him.  I’m falling short in this area and I can see it.  Anyways, we know the goal.  We know what our life is supposed to be like.  So let’s together, just commit to pouring out our lives for Jesus.

Luke 10:30-37 Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. 31“And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32“Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33“But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, 34and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35“On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ 36“Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” 37And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

My point here is simple; the samaritan poured out the oil and wine as medicine. When we pour out our lives, is it healing, and restoring?  Again this is the target.  We’re sure not to hit what we don’t at least aim at.  If we’re always tearing down others, always critiquing and never building up and encouraging, we need to find a different approach.

John 13:5-17 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” 7Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” 8Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” 9Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” 10Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” 11For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”

      12So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13“You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14“If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15“For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. 16“Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. 17“If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

As we pour out our life for the Lord, it’s really our aim for others to be brought to the Savior as well.  We desire our loved ones to  be washed by the cleansing power of Jesus.  If you never (or rarely) tell anyone how to know Jesus, my challenge to you is to tell someone/everyone what God has done for you.

2 Timothy 4:6-8 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; 8in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

Being poured out looks ahead to the eternal.   Being poured out doesn’t hold back anything.   Being poured out leaves it all on the field.  Let’s be honest here, as wonderful as having things is, it only means you leave those things behind when you leave (by leave i mean “die”).  In other words the goal isn’t accumulating the most or the best stuff.  Have an eternal perspective, even in your ownership of things.  They say you can’t take it with you when you go.  But you can send it ahead. You can invest in things that reap eternal dividends. Things like righteousness, faith, loving kindness. If you’re mature in the Lord, my challenge to you is that you invest in others.  Anyone with kids or grandkids has a built in opportunity for mentoring.

Here’s the crux, the main thing: Philippians 2:1-11 1Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,6who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, andbeing made in the likeness of men. 8Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.9For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Acts 2:17-18 (KJV) 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

You can’t pour anything out of an empty vessel.  

Ephesians 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

When you pour out, you need to get filled back up.