Alabanza sin limites — Tu (dios) es demasiado pequeño — Rich Wilkerson Jr

I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. Let's start Marcus 14 from verse 3. It says, In Bethany, while he was sitting at the table, at Simon's house, the one who had had a disease in his skin came a woman with a jar of alabaster full of a perfume, very expensive, made of pure lard, broke the jar and poured the perfume over the head of Jesus. Some of those present commented, outraged, why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for the salary of more than a year of work to give it to the poor. And they reprimanded her severely. Leave her alone, said Jesus. Why do you bother her? She has done a beautiful work with me. The poor will always have them with you and you can help them whenever you want. But they will not always have me. She did what she could. She anointed my body in advance, preparing it for the burial. I assure you that wherever in the world the gospel is preached, it will also be told in memory of this woman what she did. I love these verses. Lately we have in this collection of Que Tu Dios Es Pequeño, and I want to preach today, the message called Alabanza Sin Limites, which I think will be a message that will help us a lot, especially

in this week of revival, of meeting, to wake up. But I want to preach about this message of Alabanza Sin Limites. I believe that we all really, in this auditorium, have something that we have shared. Maybe it's a pain. Maybe it's a secret. Maybe it's a trauma. Maybe it's a pain from the past. But simultaneously, we are also sometimes carrying some kind of praise that we have not released to the world. We carry something inside of us that we have not given back to God. And what I have learned from certain people is that sometimes we have this habit of moving so fast that we don't express the emotions, and we can't handle the emotions. What I know is that when we talk about the body of Christ, it is that sometimes when we suppress a certain faith, we are really blocking certain blessings. For some of the parents here present, we are walking so fast in this world. We have been taught to handle our emotions, to compartmentalize, to repress, to control our emotions, not even to teach our emotions. Sometimes we buy this lie that teaching the emotion is a sign of weakness. But I remind you that God cannot heal what you don't reveal. Really, in the church, it is a safe place that while you are carrying something inside of you,

but while you reveal it, you surrender it, and when you surrender it to God, He can redeem the bad, and use everything that you give to Him. You have to reveal it, and you have to give it back to Him. What is incredible is that in these last few weeks, in this collection, that your God is small, but I have to keep clarifying this. We are not saying that God is small. We are saying that sometimes, usually, your perspective of Him is small. And that is why in the first week, we have a box where we put God. Sometimes we think that we have to take Him to God wherever we go, but no, no. When I repent, it means that I am not taking Him to God. God takes me. Can anyone testify that God has taken you and has carried you along a long path? And then, in week two, we talk about the strength of God. The better we have a glimpse of God, we can really overcome our weaknesses to give space for God to come and He can overcome His strength. And when God shows His strength,

the demons tremble and the earth begins to change because God is so powerful. And last week, on Sunday of Pentecost 3, we talked about God moving within us. This great God who moves mountains is also the God who can move in your life and in your heart. The God who lived in the ark of the covenant, in the tabernacle, in a tent, now that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, He gave you a gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit. The question is, are we really being distant from the Holy Spirit? Because God wants to be so close to you that He wants to live within you. Scripture says that we are from the temple, from the Holy Spirit. But now, when we talk about this God so great, I wonder, what is your answer to this? Because I really believe that a great God demands a great answer. If your praise is still silent, if your worship is casual, if you are still with your hands in your pocket, looking around so that no one sees you acting like a fool, I wonder, maybe your vision of God is still very small. Today I don't want to break the box around God, we already did that.

Today I want to break the box around your worship, I want to free you a little. While we are now on our way to a week of three incredible days full of the presence of God, because you are in the position of praising and worshiping directly with the Holy Spirit in such a powerful way. How many of you know, there are moments that demand an answer? For example, have you ever been in a hotel and suddenly the alarm goes off? You can't think, I don't know if I should answer or not. No, you get up, you put on your shoes and you run. It doesn't matter what's going on, because if the fire alarm goes off, you have to move. Lately I've been watching the NBA games, basketball, and in a way I start to see certain teams. And now, even though I'm a fan of Miami Heat, I'm following the Pacers. There is a player, Halliburton, who is really incredible, but some of you have seen him in a game in which the Pacers were playing against the Bucks, and sometimes the emotion comes in such a way that one responds, in such a way that the Pacers were playing and won them in five games. When the game ended, Halliburton's father went out on the field and got in front of the other team's main player as if he had won the game. I have a father like that. My father is a pastor. Sometimes my father is taken out of the games of the small league. Sometimes I had to come and tell him, pastor, you have to go out. Everyone in my city knew my father because he couldn't control it sometimes. That emotion. But the same thing happened with Halliburton's father. The fire led him to go to the field and be able to face the other players eye to eye. Imagine, it's like a cop stops you and you face the cop. The father said, something filled me up inside. I was there with so much fire that I had to respond to that victory. We know that because sometimes we have such full moments of emotion that we have to respond. I remember in my memory, now with Don Chery, we are in our 19th year of marriage. And we found some pictures of our first date at 17 years old in Coconut Grove, in Coco Walk, in the AMC theater, the Cheesecake Factory.

When you are 17 years old, you don't know that diabetes exists. And I was remembering when I proposed to Don Chery, more than 20 years ago, before there were any photographs of the proposals, and before there were any drones. This was really like in the old days, and I didn't know it was going to be like this. So I took him to a restaurant, and I wanted to propose in a restaurant, but all night I was nervous, because it's what I've seen in the movies. But I was so nervous, nobody told me how nervous I was going to be. So I was eating, and I was going to the bathroom to put water on my face, my mouth was dry, I was sweating. What's wrong with you? I was with my mouth dry, I couldn't even speak well, I was so nervous, with all the other people at the other tables. We finished dinner, we went out, and I said, well, I'm going to propose marriage here in the parking lot. Then I said, no, that's wrong. Then we are driving home, and I still haven't proposed, this is terrible. We passed by the house and the Holy Spirit was maybe filling me in on the other side, but Don Cheri said to me, what's the matter with you? And in such a way, there was a lake by Don Cheri's house and there was a Gazebo next to the lake. And I said to Don Cheri, let's walk, let's go to the Gazebo. And as soon as we got to the Gazebo, I fell on my knees. And I proposed to myself, I don't even know what I said, it wasn't a good speech. All I remember is that when she said, yes, we stopped and we started jumping with emotion. Nobody told us to do this. Nobody was watching. We didn't have the drone, we didn't have friends there taking pictures. We only had a pure emotion, pure happiness. An answer that told us, we have to celebrate, we have to make a little noise, we have to jump because we are going to get married. Some moments demand an answer. Praise and worship are a reasonable answer when we realize everything that God has done for us. And what we see here in Mark 14, there is this dinner, this party where Jesus is at the table

and the Bible says that Jesus is reclined. Jesus spent many dinners and many ministries. It happened in these intimate moments of community. I love our church, I love what God does on Sundays. But I believe that the best parts of our church are the small groups, the meals after the service, living together. It is excellent here to sit in a row and listen to a monologue. But when that row becomes a circle, it is when the true transformation happens, when the change of life really happens. And when they were at this party, at this dinner, Mary came with this bottle of alabaster. She was not announced, she did not have a microphone, she had not planned this. She simply came and broke this bottle of perfume and anointed the feet of Jesus. And she cried and transformed this feast into a feast of worship. It was an answer. I don't know if you have seen on the internet how now the influencers do this on Instagram. They say to unpack certain things. They say, my name is Rich Wilkerson and we are going to unpack the new iPhone. And people simply take things out of their original box. But the point of unpacking is to show what is inside. The point of unpacking is to reveal what is inside, hidden inside. I think it is an excellent image of what our praise and worship is. When we unpack our heart and our spirit and really reveal God. This is what is happening in my life. But here I am raising my voice and my hands to give you praise and worship. Because you are great and I want to give you a great answer. Unlimited worship is the only adequate answer to an unlimited God. And today is a simple teaching. Now, getting ready for VUCon, because this is going to be a space where we are creating to be able to walk a sand with 7,000 other people. And we are going to raise our hands in the house of the Lord.

And we are going to recognize that we did not serve a small God. Maybe you have been right now in the Design District at 2.30. In the Miami Garden at 8.45. Or you have been in Cite at 10.30. But you can see around you and see the same people who have the habit of going to church. And you say, wow, this is our church. This is a group. This is hundreds of people. But what I love about VUCon is that it raises the lid of all this. And you realize that you are of something great. Great. I'm not here just with me. This is a big church praising a great God. And I'm going to give God all my praise and give him all my heart. Today we are breaking the box around our praise. I want to show you something in what the Bible says about unpacking our praise. It comes from a very deep place. Unlimited praise comes from God. It's a moment to be vulnerable with God, to be real with God. If I repress my faith, so God, here I am again with you. I bring the totality of me where I am. I love what Maria does, because Maria not only comes with perfume, she comes with a perspective. It's very important that we see this, because the limitless adoration comes from a story. We all have a story to tell. Sometimes we graduate from our story of Jesus, but I believe that our story of Jesus and our gratitude is the basis of all glory. Notice what the text says. They were in the house of Simon, who was the person who had leprosy.

If you remember, at that time in culture, leprosy was a skin disease, and you couldn't be around that person, because you had to be 40 feet away from anyone who had leprosy. And people had to say, I'm an impure person. That was the story of Simon, before they found Jesus. But after they found Jesus, Jesus healed Simon of his leprosy, and now the person who was never allowed to be at the table, now was the host of the table. It's an excellent image of discipleship, because there are many people in this church that you thought were on the outside, and now in a certain way, when Jesus saved you, now you're serving other people, loving other people. There were many times when you weren't at the table, and now you're the host of the table. God changes the scripture of our life. So, we're at Simon's house in Leproso. We know that Lazarus is there. Lazarus was there, Mary was there, Martha's sister, Lazarus' sister. I imagine how it would have been at that table. You've been to a dinner, and people tell their stories. It's like someone said, Oh yeah, in 2020 I had COVID, I was playing basketball, and I broke my bone. Oh, I have these migraines. Imagine how Lazarus' story would have been. Ah, well, I have a death certificate here. What? What did you say? Yes, I was dead for four days.

Ah, what? Forgive me. Lazarus is that person who really has a story way above yours. It's like you have a will. Yes, it's nice, but I was really buried. The stone was on top. When Jesus calls my name, and I really got up from the grave, simply because he called my name, Lazarus takes it to another level, his story. And sometimes we have to be careful and say, Ah, I don't have a story like Lazarus. I would be very careful with that. Because maybe you're not Lazarus, but you have a story of Lazarus. You understand what Jesus saved you from what saved you. Jesus didn't just say that you were bad. Your sin doesn't make you bad. Your sins make you dead. I was really dead. I was buried in my guilt, in my shame, in my sin. And once Jesus came, and he called my name, and I got up from that grave. Each one of you who got up from a grave has a story to tell. Everything you need is a memory. Everything you need to have is to go to where God saved you. I was in Buchleitz at the correctional on Wednesday,

and it's so shocking when these people come and tell me their stories, and testify. They are imprisoned, but in a certain way they are led by the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit has set them free. They are free in Jesus Christ. And there is nothing more shocking than a story of Jesus. If you have a story of Jesus, and you remember where God saved you, from the hole in which he saved you, and pulled you out, you have an unlimited adoration. We have this so often. Do you remember the missionaries? In chapter 5, there was a person who had a legion of demons. And Jesus said, I want to follow you. And Jesus said, no, I want you to go to your house and tell everyone about me. So before you go to Grotrack, you have a story to tell. Some of us are repressing our story. We are blocking our story. My question is, are you seeing a great God? Because if you see a great God, we are going to unpack your adoration. I'm going to tell that story wherever you go, not only that it will come from deep down,

but it will also cost you something. An unlimited worship will cost you something. The word of God says that Mary comes with the bottle of alabaster, alabaster is a type of stone, it is very precious, not only that she spilled this perfume so expensive, but simply the bottle itself, the bottle itself was quite expensive, the bottle itself was an indication of how she saw Jesus. This is the type of bottle that you would really show. But I love Mary because she says, because if he really is a king, this bottle does not belong to an apparatus, it belongs to his feet, so she broke it and out of that bottle flows the alabaster, which is a very, very expensive perfume that came from the Himalayas for thousands of miles from India and in a certain way came to Jerusalem. What many theologians really say is that this perfume was part of his gift. This was really going to be a gift that he was going to have to give to his future husband, because the alabaster would have been put on the woman before getting married. And what Mary is indicating and what she is saying, Mary is saying, God, I don't know if I'm ever going to get married, I don't know if a man is going to choose me, but today on this night the Messiah has chosen me, so Jesus, I am giving everything I have because I love you. So, what did it cost her? It was very expensive. Now I think about it, there are people who come from all over the world, so they have to buy a flight ticket, they have to pay for a hotel, they have to buy the assistance ticket. Look, you don't really have to pay for the presence of God. We have access to God's presence at all times. You don't have to pay for the presence of God. But if you want to see a revival, it is always going to require a spirit of generosity, it is going to require, there are people who really give up their preferences and join in something bigger. And really, to be able to have 7,000 people praising Jesus, we really have to have a

sand, to rent a place that has a cost. But if you ask a person who goes to Bucon, after those three days, they say, every dollar that I spent was worth it, every moment in the presence of God, I experienced something that I had never experienced before in my life. Because limitless worship costs you something, it's going to cost you something. Where did we get this idea in our mind that it shouldn't cost? No, it's going to cost you pride, it's going to cost you comfort. You know, Pastor Rich, I have spoken with some people, they tell me, yes, I love going to Buchurch, but I'm not ready for the singing part, for example. No, it's not a concert, it's not like it's your favorite band, it's a spiritual practice of me opening my heart, unpacking something, taking it out of the limits so that I can praise Jesus. There is nothing that I can give him, so I give him the whole part of my heart and unpack my worship. The King David said, I'm not going to offer you anything that doesn't cost me anything. I'm not going to make a sacrifice that doesn't cost me anything. Some of us, while we mature in the church, I empower you, come early to the church. Why? Because you can really have a first row of God who redeemed you, who gave you life, so that you can respond to him. I don't care if someone sees me, I don't care if they read the lyrics, I don't care if I sing badly, but I raise my hands and I raise my voice and I'm going to give God an adoration that costs me something. Sometimes we don't like to break things, let's be honest. Imagine you have a new iPhone and some of you don't even use it until you have a protector. Don't touch my iPhone. I have to wait two weeks for the protector to come. Sometimes we can be more careful with our technology than with our adoration to God. Let's look at what the text says.

There was a group of people, but when you look at your phone, it doesn't say anything. Some references in Matthew, in John, you will see that there were not only other people, but that it was Judas. Judas not only betrayed Jesus, but he also criticized Mary. And Judas says, what are you doing? Look at what Judas says. We could have taken this perfume, we could have sold it and given it to the poor. This really is worth a year's salary. Be very careful when you criticize, like other people praise, like the generosity of other people. Be very careful when you think you are superior to other people and their praise is out of bounds. Judas sold Jesus for 40 pieces of silver, which was like four months' salary. So Judas is willing to betray Jesus for four months' salary. But Mary was so convinced of who Jesus was that she took a whole year's salary and gave it to Jesus' feet. This man is criticizing Mary, but he was going to sell Jesus for 40 pieces of silver. I love Mary because Mary represents us, that we do not find ourselves in a position where Judas steals our moment of Mary. I want people to have a moment of Mary this week. I want you to walk in that sand and I want you to go without a filter and to respond to God in a raw, direct and genuine way. I don't know what's going on in your life right now, but on this Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we're going to get together and we're going to break the jar and we're going to give it all to him. Recently I went to a friend's house. We sat down for dinner and we were really a small group. It was not a special occasion, not an epic night. It was a Thursday and we got home and he took out a bottle of wine, the best he had. It was a bottle of wine that he had been saving. I'm not even going to tell you the cost of this bottle. He said, I want to open this bottle tonight. Have you ever been to these dinners where you say, wow, wow, wait, it's Thursday. What are we doing? Are you sure? I don't know if this is the right time. And at this moment he said, no, this is the right time and he opened this bottle.

That's an image of praise. I'm not waiting for the perfect moment. At this moment I'm going to give the best I have. Jesus is here right now. He's walking through this auditorium, so I'm going to offer him something that cost me. Let's go. Let's go. Let's give God today's limitless praise, limitless worship. And Mary comes to put the perfume on his feet. It cost her a lot. But she also leaves a fragrance that remains. When I was growing up, a great memory that I had of my father. I remember that my father had a process to get ready for church. And sometimes we were in a hotel and he was going to minister on Sundays. And really, as a son, you are so impacted by what your father does. My father is still my hero. But my father didn't just get ready, he had a process. And he put on the cologne in a different way. He had a process. It was like he had three steps. My father had multiple colognes. And he put on a spray of his base, put the cologne on his clothes, but he also put it in the air and he had to walk through that. And I would say, wow! And my father had this different aroma. And in the church, sometimes they would say, the pastor is not here. And someone would smell it and say, no, no, yes, he is here, I can smell him. And he used this strong cologne, that if you got together with him, you would start to smell like him. I remember once I got home, and he said to me, who were you with? And I said, no, my love, it wasn't me, it was my father.

I think that it is something so important when we are in the presence of God, that when I am in his presence, I start to smell like him, I start to see like him, I start to become like him. And here is Mary. She is a woman, and she is a woman. She is a woman. She is a woman. And he's putting the perfume on Jesus' feet and he's crying. She is a woman. She is a woman. She is a woman. She is a woman. And it's prophetic because, in a way, he says, I'm giving you my future. She is a woman. Maybe I was saving this for my husband, but I'm giving it to you right now. In this, in this scene, I'm turning it into a moment of adoration. But he's not only praising, but also prophesying his future. Because the pure dard, which was so expensive, was also used for burial. This was put on the bodies of the dead, because it could really cover the bad smell of death. He's certainly prophesying, because he's a week from the death of Christ. And something happens in the atmosphere when we start to raise our hands. Maybe you're going through all kinds of pain, all kinds of hell in your life, and pain. But in a way, when we start to praise God, it's like we're putting a pure dard in the air. We're walking in a room that smells bad and suddenly we light a candle, but the smell of the candle begins to permeate the room completely. The aroma of praise begins to change all the other bad smells that are in your life. We are prophesying that what smells like death, God can transform it and there is life on the other side. It's called a limitless praise, a limitless adoration. But it wasn't just that she was preparing her life for burial.

It's what Jesus tells us. Jesus says, he's doing something beautiful. He's preparing my body for burial, but something else is also happening. Because dard is not only used for marriages or for the dead. Dard is also used when a priest or a king goes through an anointing. Or when he is anointed. So in this feast, in this dinner, Mary is breaking the alabaster bowl. This is the moment, like when Samuel anointed David. Mary is anointing Jesus. And literally, she's just putting an image in his name. Do you know what it means? Christ means anointed. Mary is just naming him. You are Christ, and now with this anointing, you are king. Why is this so important? Because a couple of days after he's going to Jerusalem, and without a word, people start raising their palms, saying, Hosanna, Hosanna. He didn't say he was a king, but he really smelled like a king. And when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, a few days later, and he's expressing his spirit to the God of the Father. He's not hiding it, he's a true man. He says, Father, not my will, but your will. My flesh is weak, but my spirit is strong. That's what we say when we come to church. It's not that we're perfect men and we don't make mistakes, but there's a spirit in this house, the spirit of Jesus. And when we're real with God, his grace finds us. And he returns to his friends who had fallen asleep, and Judas, who sold him for 40 pieces of silver, comes to the scene, and when he arrives,

the guards begin to capture him and chain him, and begin to take him to the day of judgment. But maybe there was something about him that they said, this is different, you don't smell like a criminal. He smells like a king. Because Mary had crowned him a few days earlier. What are you saying, Rich? That my worship, my praise, is maintained, leaves a legacy. In 2 Corinthians it says, because for God we are the aroma of Christ among those who are saved and among those who are lost. I want to encourage someone today. When you worship God and praise God, leave an aroma. Your children will remember your worship. This is very important. What does Jesus say? This is what Jesus says. Judas, this was not a waste. What she did is beautiful. He says something beautiful, and then he says something that is so profound. He says, what this woman has done is not what Peter said, not what John wrote. No. He says in Mark 14 and 16, Leave her alone, said Jesus. Why are you bothering her?

She has done a beautiful work with me. And in Mark 14 and 9 he says, I assure you that in any part of the world where the gospel is preached, it will also be told in memory of this woman what she did. She gave everything she had. She is going to offer it to God. And we should not offer anything to God that is not difficult for us. So today we want to remember that God is not small. God is great. And I believe that the reasonable answer to an adoration without limits is to give everything we have to God. I am going to reveal everything that is happening inside of me. Your alamance is going to cost you something. Do you know what it is going to cost you? When you are in the valley, in the depths of the valley. When you are looking death in the eyes. When you are walking through pain. When your flesh is weak and in the same way you submit your plans, your power, your preference to God. This is the moment. This is an adoration that continues and continues and continues. Our heavenly Father is in the room. Your devotion to God is not only going to change your life, it is going to change the trajectory of your life, of your heart. What you are starting today, being a real man. He says, I serve a great God. What does that mean? It means that no one in your house that has to convince you to go to church, you say to everyone in your house, let's go to the house of God. In your home you are going to say, let's go to the house of God. There is no debate if you are giving offerings, adoration. No, you are the priest of your house and you say, I am not perfect, but I have been redeemed, I have been set free. I have a story to tell. Jesus said, those who give little, those who believe they have been forgiven, little. But those who give a lot, are those who believe they have been forgiven a lot. And I believe that the true men of this house, when they know everything that God has forgiven and set free, they are going to say, this is who we are. Because I and everyone in my house, we are going to serve the Lord.

We are going to break our jar and we are going to give everything to the Lord. So let's give a shout of joy to the Lord today.