FOLLOW | Worshipping

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. Why this waste they asked. This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor. Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothered by this woman? Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me." When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. This is the word of the Lord. Give me seated. Hello. My name is Reagan. If we've not yet met, I am the youth pastor here at Church of the City, and it is such a joy to dive into such a rich passage with you tonight. We're at the end of August. The summer is coming to a close, and this has been a fun summer to live in New York City. We've seen the next championship win. We've seen the World Cup, and with it, we have seen some extravagant displays of worship. We all watched as fights broke out outside Madison Square Garden, people defending the Knicks. We saw radical celebrations when the Knicks would win. We watched people spend upwards of $100,000 for tickets to a Knicks game. The New York Times published an article titled "The Knicks as Religious Experience," and in it, they described the response of one particularly well-known Knicks fan, Timothy Chalamet. It says, "Timothy Chalamet also referred to Brunson as, 'My God,' his voice plaintive as he clasped his hands and looked at the roof of Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. His devotion to the team was physical, the kind of weeping and frustration that is normally the domain of worship." Timothy Chalamet was not alone in this response, feeling such intense love for his team that normal behavior goes out the window, and suddenly, these extravagant displays of love become the new normal. The Washington Post detailed World Cup fans who followed their teams around watching the game, spending thousands upon thousands of dollars in ticket costs alone, not to mention flights, hotels, food. Here, they say, "Before the tournament started, fans said they could pretend to be practical. They could build budgets, pick rounds, book return flights, and decide how much is too much." But when their teams win, the entire spreadsheet becomes emotional. This is worship, thinking, "Here's the line of how much is too much," but then getting caught up in the love of the game, in the love of the team, and suddenly, no amount is too much. When you worship something, the question of how much is too

much, it goes out the window. Suddenly, you are willing to give everything. It's extravagant displays of worship, radical giving of yourself and your resources. These things just seem to flow from us as a response when we deeply love something. But when we say that we worship Jesus, is this the kind of worship that we're talking about? Or when we think of worship to Jesus, do we picture something else different entirely? How much of your life is too much to give to Jesus? Do you ever find yourself asking that maybe even subconsciously? Why is it so normal, as Christians in the West, to give to Jesus our Sunday mornings or Sunday evenings, but then to protect the other six and a half days of the week to offer up to the other things of value in our lives? This is what we call worship to Jesus, and it has become normal for the church in the West. When we look at our finances, how much is too much to give to Jesus? If it starts impacting our retirement accounts, is it too much? When we look at our time, how much is too much to give to Jesus? What if it impacts our weekend plans? What if it affects our performance at work? What if it causes us to get less sleep? Is it too much? We tend to be measured. as to protect the other things of value to us in life. Can we call these measured offerings worship? Or do we get a more accurate depiction of worship in the behavior of sports fans? In today's teaching text, we see a woman, Mary, who is completely unmeasured. She has asked the question, "How much is too much?" And she has decided there is absolutely no amount. She is willing to give everything. She takes a bottle of expensive perfume, which scholars believe was probably worth about a year's wages. And she breaks that bottle pouring every last drop on Jesus. This bottle, it likely would have been her savings. It would have been her source of financial security, her alabaster nest egg, and she breaks it. She pours it all out.

She holds nothing back in an act of extravagant love and worship towards Jesus. We are in a series called "Follow." And we're looking through the book of Matthew, looking at the life of Jesus and asking the question, how can we follow in his ways? As Christians, we don't simply wanna know what Jesus did. We want our lives to look like his. This story is unique because this isn't actually something that Jesus himself did, or even one of his teachings. But it's so important because it's an action that Jesus looked at, and he said this. He said this is beautiful. This is beautiful. I don't know about you, but I want Jesus to look at my life and say her life is beautiful. I want him to look at our church to see all of our lives and say her life, his life, church of the city is beautiful. So if we long for that, we should look at the life of Mary. We should look at this act of worship and ask how we can follow after this act. Here's what it shows us. It shows us that Jesus wants worshipers. He doesn't just want people who are obedient to him. He doesn't just want people who do the things he did. He doesn't just want servants. Jesus wants worshipers. What distinguishes worship is that it's an overflow out of love.

Jesus does not just want people who obey him. He wants people who freely and radically love him through lives of worship. When Mary broke this bottle of expensive perfume on Jesus' head, it was an act of radical love. And Jesus said this is beautiful. The follower he wants is a follower who lives a life of worship. But I fear in 2026 in America, we have a bit of a warped view of what worship is. When we think of worship, we think of singing songs to God on a Sunday. And that is a depiction of worship, but it's not a holistic picture. And I fear that we could be on the front row every Sunday, arms raised, singing loudly, while our lives are outpouring of worship towards many other things. So what is this worship? What is the worship that Mary pours out that Jesus calls beautiful? And how can we follow after this act? Here's the definition of worship that I think we get as we look at the life of Mary. Worship is a wholehearted giving of yourself to that which you believe is worthy. It's a wholehearted giving of yourself to what you believe is worthy. So first worship gives all. It's wholehearted.

It holds nothing back. At the time of Jesus, it was normal to put small amounts of oil on the head of an honored guest. But it would have been much less expensive oil and used in very sparing amounts. Mary could have just followed this, done this normal act of honor, but she goes above and beyond in the cost to her and in the amount. And she breaks the bottle of expensive perfume and pours it all out in a total wholehearted act. Holding absolutely nothing back and it was an act that those around her looked at and said, this is reckless. This is wasteful, but this is worship. I would say that Western Christians are extremely comfortable giving some to Jesus in worship. You likely wouldn't be in this room if you weren't willing to give some to Jesus. I'm gonna assume you're not just here because you simply have nothing better to do. You likely wanna give some of your life to Jesus. Many of us give some of our time to reading the scriptures, some of our money and generosity, some of our energy to serving the poor We are comfortable with calculated sacrifices as long as they don't cost us too much. But this act, this act of worship that Jesus calls beautiful, it was not calculated, it was not partial. It was wholehearted.

Mary gave all true worship gives all. It holds nothing back. This question of how much is too much, it goes out the window. And the thing is, is I think we understand this use of the word worship when it comes to a secular context. But then with Jesus Christ himself, we've watered down this word worship. When we say that someone worships something in a non-religious context, this normally implies an extreme act of devotion. When you say someone worships a celebrity, you're likely willing to give unreasonable amount of money to see that person, unreasonable amount of time to researching, listening, or watching that person. If we say someone worships something outside of the church or religion, it usually brings a extreme picture to mind, an extreme giving of oneself. But then when it comes to Jesus Christ, who we believe to be the savior of the world, we use this word worship to describe a one or two-hour gathering where we sing some songs and listen to a teaching. But the reality is, is I believe that whatever we wholeheartedly give ourselves to is what we worship. So regardless of how we use the word worship or the picture that comes to mind, you wholeheartedly give yourself to what you worship.

So you're either going to worship Jesus by wholeheartedly giving yourself to him, or you going to worship whatever else it is that you wholeheartedly give yourself to. Worship, it's the wholehearted giving of yourself. But what causes us to wholeheartedly give ourselves to something? We worship, what we believe is worthy. The word worship, it literally means to ascribe worth. So behind the act of giving yourself to something is the conscious or unconscious judgment of worth. Jesus has great worth in Mary's eyes. And she demonstrates this with her wholehearted act of worship. We see this starkly contrasted with Judas' response to her worship. In John's gospel, we see that Judas is specifically the one who rebukes this act of worship. We read these words, why this waste? To waste on something is to give for it something that it does not deserve. It is a waste of my money to eat at a bad restaurant. I'm not a big football fan, and I might say that it's a waste of my time to spend an afternoon watching football. To say something is a waste is always an indicator of the worth that you place on that thing. When something is of great worth to you, you're not going to say it is a waste. I will never say it is a waste of my time

to spend time with my husband. Because I deeply value him. So what does it mean when Judas says why this waste? He is implying that he does not believe Jesus is worth such a radical act of worship. Judas specifically asks why Mary would not have sold the perfume and given the money to the poor. But it specifies in John that he does not ask this because he cares about the poor. He asks this because he was stealing money and he wanted to profit off of Mary's gift. So what is it that Judas ultimately has the highest place of worth in his eyes? What is it that Judas worships? Money. He worships money. Mary wholeheartedly pours out herself to Jesus and Judas will ultimately wholeheartedly pour out his life for money. You will freely give to that which you ascribe worth. And here is where I wanna caution us and pause here for a moment. I think it's easy for us to see Judas as this evil super villain that we could never be like. We can distance ourselves from him. But what if Judas genuinely wanted to follow Jesus but had unchecked worship in his heart towards other things? He had allowed Jesus' worth in his eyes to just fall short. And because of that, he began to pour out his life at things that he ascribed greater worth to.

He began to worship other things in that ultimately became what he gave everything to. I don't wanna think that it's impossible for me to have unchecked worship at last. worship for lesser things in our hearts? Is our view of Jesus falling short of what is true in reality? Does Jesus ever ask something of you that feels like a waste? Does giving to the church or to missions feel like a waste of your money? Does waking up an hour earlier to spend time in the scriptures or in prayer feel like a waste of your time? If we find ourselves struggling to give all at the feet of Jesus, it begs the question, do we believe Jesus is worthy of our all? Or are we living lives of calculated, half-hearted devotion because at the end of the day, we're not really sure? I love David's heart in 2 Samuel 24. He says, "I will not sacrifice to the Lord, burnt offerings that cost me nothing." Are you trying to give offerings or worship to the Lord as long as it doesn't cost you too much? What does this say about how worthy you believe Jesus is? And as I think through this question, I actually think of so many people in our church community who have looked to Jesus, have seen how worthy He is and have poured out their lives wholeheartedly in response. I actually think that this is something Jesus has done and is doing in lives of people in our church. I see so many people that are wholeheartedly devoted to Jesus because they know He's worthy. We have people among us who are offering Him unreasonable offerings at work, giving their lunch breaks to lead prayer meetings, offering their relational equity to run alpha courses with their co-workers. We have school teachers who offer their lunch breaks in their after work hours to disciple the students that they're teaching. Teenagers who are showing up to school early to pray over their schools, moms who get up early before their babies to seek God, people who are giving radical amounts of their finances to the mission of God, people who are offering up their sexuality to Jesus in ways that are costing them greatly. And here's what I'm seeing firsthand is we have people among us. These people are not doing this because of religious duty. They are doing it because they have seen Jesus. They have seen that He is worthy and this is what they offer in response. So today, I don't want any one of us to miss this, to miss this inheritance as a believer. I want to call each of us to wrestle with this question. Is Jesus of such great worth to you that you would break any bottle, you'd pour out anything before Him? This is happening among us. Will it happen with you?

What would happen if our whole church looked like this? Is he worthy in your eyes? No matter where you find yourself as you think through that question, I think all of us can grow in the area of worship, can take a step deeper into worship towards Jesus. So I want to look at the life of Mary and I think she shows us three things that are steps to becoming more and more people of worship. The first is that worship begins with beholding. If you take the definition of worship that I gave, a wholehearted giving of yourself towards that which you believe is worthy, the easiest thing to do is to make it to do list of all the ways you could just give more of yourself and to start trying tomorrow. Okay, I'm going to wake up earlier tomorrow. I'm going to give more of my finances. I'm just going to start trying to do things for God, but this is dangerous. And this could lead us to just trying to worship Jesus in our own strength and burning out and ending up off track. And it's actually the opposite of how Mary began. This moment we see of Mary with Jesus extravagantly worshiping Him, it was not the first moment that Mary had with Jesus. We see the first thing she shows us is that worship begins with beholding, which we see in Luke 10, when Jesus first visited the home of Mary and her sister, Martha. Now, Martha's response to Jesus is what a lot of us may try to do. She tried to worship Jesus by serving Him, but doing things for Him, making sure her home was ready. And then we see Mary just sitting at His feet, beholding Him, taking on the posture of a disciple, which would not have been acceptable for a woman at the time. But she had to have been so captivated by who Jesus was that the expectations of a woman. It went out the window. She had to sit and behold Him. And Jesus looks at Mary and her sister, the better thing. She was taking on the posture of a disciple, listening to him, learning from him, beholding him. And I believe that this choice to behold, it was vital in her becoming a person that would extravagantly worship Jesus. You will not extravagantly worship something you have not spent time beholding, giving your attention to. You don't become a swiftie just by listening to tear drops on my guitar once.

Someone who is willing to pay so much money to see Taylor Swift in concert, they know every word to every album. They have spent a lot of time giving their attention to Taylor Swift. Yet, so many of us give a fraction of our attention to Jesus and then wonder why our hearts feel far. Wonder why we're not willing to give more over to him in worship. Pastor John often says it this way. He says attention leads to adoration. He argues that what we offer our attention to, we will end up worshiping. Perhaps if you struggle to believe God is worthy of your whole hearted devotion, the first thing I would ask you is what are you primarily giving your attention to? Here's the good news. I believe if we can catch this, if we can see this in the life of Mary and become people that turn our attention to Jesus and begin to behold him, we will become people of worship. Because as we behold him, we will see how absolutely worthy he is. Jesus is the most strikingly beautiful being in the universe. He is the most worthy of worship. He is the fountain of true life. As you behold him, you will see a perfect holy

and righteous God. You will see a God who pours out love on you. You will see a God who poured out his life unto death on a cross to give us new and true life. Jesus is a limitless well of beauty to draw from. Ephesians three tells us that Jesus, that his love, it surpasses knowledge, that his power is beyond our imaginations. Do you know what this means? This means that we can spend every day for the rest of our lives beholding him and never reach the end of his goodness. Every day we can see new parts of how great he is, of how worthy he is. We can be elderly people still just beholding Jesus, let deeper and deeper and deeper into worship. I truly believe that worship will be the unstoppable overflow of lives spent just sitting at his feet looking at him, beholding him because he is that good. Maybe we don't live lives of wholehearted worship because we have stopped beholding the extravagant goodness of our God. What Christ has done for us, it's gotten lost on us. The beauty of Jesus has grown dim in our hearts. We need to get back to beholding. I think often we can be conditional worshipers who are waiting for God to answer our latest prayer so that we can worship him for that. But we do not need Jesus to do anything

to prove his worth to us. He already is worthy. He already has died on the cross for our sins. He has already made us his children. He has already created all things. He already is holy. He already is righteous. So even on our hardest days, in our seasons of waiting, we can sit, we can behold him, and we can be led to a place of worship. Nicholas of Cusa describes this experience of beholding like this. I think this is so beautiful. This language is a little bit old, but I think if we can wrap our minds around it, it will inflame our hearts as he says. He says with thee, to behold is to give life. To his unceasingly, to impart sweetest love of thee, to his to inflame me to love of thee by loves imparting, and to feed me by inflaming, and by feeding to kindle my yearning, and by kindling to make me drink of the dew of gladness, and by drinking to infuse in me a fountain of life, and by infusing to make it increase and endure. With Jesus, to behold is to give life. As we behold him, he imparts love to us, and that love inflames us with love back towards him. So how do we take a step into this? How do we start beholding Him? You can behold Him by reading His word every single day,

asking Him to reveal Himself to you through it, by praying it back to Him. You can behold Him as you sing worship songs truly meditating on the truths that you are singing about God. You can behold Him as you walk around and see His creation and genuinely take time to take in the reality of all He's created. You can behold Him as you see His hands on your life and take a moment to thank Him and to tell those around you the testimonies of His goodness. There are so many opportunities day after day to behold Jesus, but often I think we're just running too fast from thing to thing. We do not slow down long enough to truly look at Him. We so rush to doing things for Him and do not take the time to look at Him. And I truly believe as we behold Him if we do this, you will see that He is the being of the absolute greatest worth and you will be led to a wholehearted response of worship. Worship begins with beholding. And then worship is fueled by desperation. As we behold Jesus, we will see how far we are from His perfection. I think what we see in Mary's life is that those who know their need for Jesus live in the greatest awe of Him. Pride forms these calluses over our hearts that cause us to miss the radical love of Jesus. I don't think it's coincidental that this moment

of extravagant worship comes from a woman. Whereas Jesus' male disciples are sitting on looking in judgment. I believe that Mary worshipped extravagantly because she was aware of how extravagant Jesus' love was for her. In first century Israel, women were not welcomed into many parts of religious life. They were not invited to study under a rabbi or to learn the scriptures. They were not welcomed into all parts of the temple. They were kept in separate sections. They were also not respected outside of religious life at the time, but were retreated as lesser citizens. So when Mary, in awe of the person of Jesus, chose to sit at His feet in the posture of a disciple, she was taking a huge risk. And this was a risk that would have been rejected by most religious leaders, but Jesus, not only a rabbi, but the long-awaited Messiah, comes to her defense. He creates space for her that no one else would have created a woman. In many ways, defenseless, excluded, belittled, is defended, protected, and radically included by the Messiah. She had to have been overwhelmed by the radical love of Jesus in a way that His male disciples likely would have missed.

She was coming from a place of need, of desperation, and the radical, boundary-breaking love of Jesus would not have been lost on her for a second. It is no wonder that this is the person that's led to such extravagant worship. Here's what worries me. New Yorkers love to not need anything or anyone. We love to be independent and strong. And honestly, by living in such a wealthy and safe country, we can often get by day to day without feeling the tangible need towards God. But we live under a delusion. We begin to think that we don't actually need God all that much, but the reality is that no one of us needs God more or less than the other. We are all utterly hopeless and helpless without God. We are all tumbling towards a eternal destiny of death and separation towards God, with zero chance of saving ourselves. Some people just recognize their need more than others. Mary knew that she needed Jesus. Judas needed Jesus just as much, but he lived under the delusion that money and power could save him. As we behold Jesus, we begin to see how far we are from his righteousness and perfection. We begin to see how desperately we need him, and that desperation becomes the fuel of our worship. Entering into this year, I felt the Lord give me a word. have prayed for my year and heard the word breakthrough or victory or beloved, but I got the word

weakness. And honestly, this word has been incredibly true of my year. It's been a year of a lot of grief, which has made me weak in many ways. I'm also pregnant, which has made me physically weak in a lot of ways for many reasons, my strength. Thank you. For many reasons, my strength, my ability to lean on my own strength, it's been stripped from me this year. But here's what I can say. This weakness, it has made me into more of a worshipper. The reality is that I am no more desperate for Jesus in 2026 than I was in any previous year of my life. But because of relatively comfortable circumstances, I was living under a delusion that I could get by in my own strength, that I could even serve God in my own strength. And as this caused me to turn inward, to focus on myself, to even worship my own ability to move through life in my own strength. And as this strength has been depleted from me, it has caused me to have to stop and behold, to look upward. In so many moments where there's no shot I'm getting by by myself, I've looked to God and I have seen his strength, his grace, his mercy in ways that I was just missing before blinded by my own self-sufficiency. The stripping of my strength that has become fuel to my worship. We are all weak. We are all desperate, but we love to pretend that we are not. And it is killing our worship. If you want to become a worshipper, start by beholding Jesus. And as you do, let go of the pretense that you do not need him and get desperate for the person that you are beholding. Worship begins with beholding, and then it is fueled by desperation. And then this kind of worship, it leads to action. As we behold him, as we see how worthy he is, the natural next response is to pour out our lives to him. Worship leads to action. But it's so important that we do not jump to this, that we start with beholding and with desperation. Because you can pour out your life to Jesus in service to him, but not actually love him. The disciples asked, couldn't the perfume have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor? And Jesus rebuked them. Why? Did Jesus not care about the poor? No, absolutely not. Actually, a chapter before this, Jesus was saying that his true disciples are those who care for the poor. Jesus cared deeply for the poor. But he could see into his disciples' hearts and he could see that this question was not coming from a place of love or worship towards Jesus. For Judas, it was coming from a place of greed, for the other disciples likely was coming from a place of religious duty. God does call us to work for his kingdom, to share the gospel, to serve the poor. But he calls these actions to overflow out of a place of love and valuing of him. Love and valuing of the things that he cares about, not from a place of religious duty. We must get this right and allow worship to flow

from love for Jesus. But then we also must see that true worship, it will lead to action. Because as we worship him, our hearts will be set ablaze for what he cares about. We so often in the church pit the prayer and worship focused people against the mission focused people as if these two things are somehow at odds, but they absolutely should not be. Our worship, our prayer, our time spent beholding Jesus, it ought to fuel our mission. A.W. Tozer says it this way. He says, "I mean it when I say I would rather worship God than do anything else. You may reply that if you worship God you do nothing else. But that just reveals that you have not done your homework. The beautiful part of worship is that it prepares you and enables you to zero in on the important things that must be done for God. Listen to me, practically every great deed in the Church of Christ all the way back to the Apostle Paul was done by people blazing with the radiant worship of their God. We ought to get so filled with Christ's love as we behold him that we see and behold his love for the world that sends us out into a to giving our lives to the mission of God. If that's not happening in your life, I might caution you that you might not be beholding the fullness of who Jesus is. Sometimes it's easy for us to just behold the parts of Jesus that feel comfortable to us, that we enjoy meditating on, and we should sit in the radical love that Jesus has for us. We should sit in the identity he gives for us, but we should also behold his defense for the marginalized, his care for the needy, his zeal for the church, his passion for the gospel going forth and his rebuke of the rich. When we allow the fullness of who Jesus is to sink into our hearts, it's going to pull us out of our comfort zones and into lives of radical service to his kingdom.

Like the man in the parable, who discovered the treasure in a field, we will gladly surrender whatever it costs to get that treasure. True worship will ask us to surrender things that we hold dear, to pour out our lives, to the point of discomfort. True worship will lead to action. When we see how much Jesus is worth, we will begin to break bottles in our lives. The bottle of our finances will get broken before him and we will begin to give in ways that make us uncomfortable. The bottle of our relationships, our careers, our time, our margin, our futures, our reputations, our weekends, they will begin to get broken at his feet in offering to him. As you behold Jesus, is he leading you to a greater life of sacrifice for what he cares about? Worship, it begins with beholding. It is fueled by desperation and it results in action. And God is looking for worshipers, people who are willing to see how worthy he is and wholeheartedly pour out themselves in response. We see in the way Jesus closes this passage, the thing he says at the end of this passage, we see so clearly that this is what he is after in his followers. He says, "Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will be told in memory of her." Not only does Jesus call Mary's sacrifice beautiful,

he says that everywhere the gospel gets told, I want this story to be told as well. What does this tell us? It tells us that Jesus' desire is that the response to the gospel is a life of worship. The gospel is not only meant to save us, it is meant to make us into people of radical worship. This is what Jesus desires as his gospel goes forth. Jesus' heart is that every single one of us who has received the gospel receives a heart of extravagant worship to him. This isn't just meant for the charismatic people who raise their hands easily and worship. This isn't just meant for the women, this isn't just meant for the young, this isn't just meant for the feelers or the people who cry easily. This is meant for every believer, for the person working in finance and for the artist, for the teenager and for their parent. Every person that receives the gospel is invited as their inheritance to become an extravagant worshipper of their God. And it won't look the same on all of us, nor is it meant to, but all believers can be people who behold Jesus daily, who live in total recognition of their desperation for him, and then who radically give all of themselves in response to his worthiness. Is your life a life of whole-hearted worship?

If you wanna grow in this, ask God to reveal in you if you truly believe he is worthy of your uncalculated, whole-hearted worship? Or do you find yourself asking why this waste? If so, spend time beholding him daily. Dedicate time to this every single day, remind yourself of how much you need him and allow him to birth in you a vision of his worth. And then ask him to lead you into a whole-hearted response. Where in your life do you need to break the bottle? Is there anything you've been holding on to? Saying, "I'll give some to God in worship." Look to him, see his worthiness, This is our inheritance. If we've received the gospel, this is what we're invited into. I'm gonna pray for us, and then we're gonna enter into a time of response. And as we begin to pray, I just wanna read a couple of passages that just describe Jesus. And I just wanna create a moment before we enter into song, just to allow us to meditate on the person of Jesus, on who he is. So I just invite you to get into a position of response. However that feels for you, you can open your hands in front of you, you could close your eyes, you could look up, you can read the words on the screen,

whatever will allow you just to sit at the feet of Jesus for a moment and behold him. God, we thank you that you're in the room with us, that we're two or more gathered, you are there with us. So God, I thank you that you are here. Lord, I pray that you would help us slow down and behold you. I pray that as I read these words, these holy words of your scriptures that describe who you are, God, I pray that you would begin to impart into our hearts an understanding of your worthiness. Pray that you would help us behold you in this moment by your power and not ours alone. (gentle music) First Philippians two says Jesus. Being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth in every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ, his Lord.

Jesus, we behold you. You who are God yet chose to lay down your life for us. Psalm 103 says, "Praise the Lord, my soul, "forget not all his benefits, "who forgives all of your sins "and heals all your diseases, "who redeems your life from the pit "and crowns you with love and compassion, "who satisfies your desires with good things "so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles. "The Lord works righteousness and justice "for all who are oppressed. "The Lord is gracious and compassionate, "slow to anger and abounding in love." Jesus, we behold you. You come, just give a revelation of yourself to us tonight. (soft piano music) Jesus, we lay down at your feet the pretense that we are strong, that we don't need you. Help us be desperate. Help us recognize our desperation. I pray that the veil of our own self-reliance would just get lifted tonight. That as we behold you, we would recognize our desperation. And then Jesus, we just invite you to come, show us any bottles in our lives that just need to get broken tonight. What have we been holding onto that just needs to get broken at your feet?

It's better in your hands than in ours to begin with. To God, I just pray, I pray for a revelation of who you are in this room and a revelation of our desperation. We welcome you here. (gentle music)