The Fragrance of Worship

 I estimate that I have preached over 5,000 sermons. That means I've been in over 5,000 worship services as a preacher. I sat in many before I ever started preaching. If I were honest, I cannot say that really did worship in all of them. Some of them I prayed for direction for a message. Others I thought about the flow of worship and if it seemed the congregation was tracking. There were times when my mouth sang the words to songs, but my heart was somewhere else. There were occasions where my broken heart held me back from worship. 

There have been special worship encounters over the past three and a half decades. Times when I sang with such intensity and longing that I thought my heart would burst out of my chest. There have also been numerous private prayer encounters with the Lord when no one could see me get lost in the art of adoration. Some of my favorite worship encounters occurred in the prayer closet and not in a crowded sanctuary. 

I read about a worship encounter that was more intense than anything I have ever experienced. You can read about that encounter yourself in John 12:3. Jesus was invited to supper at Martha's and Mary's house. Lazarus was also in attendance fresh of his resurrection from the dead encounter with the Lord. Mary stole the show though. 

She took 16 ounces of very costly perfume. Instead squirting a few shots on herself to smell good for the dinner guests she anointed the feet of Jesus with it. She even went a step further. She bent over his feet and used her hair as a towel. What a sight that must have been. She had no regard for herself. She lavished love onto the feet of Jesus in a beautiful act of worship. Let your mind take in that scene. See her act of worship. Listen to the sounds of the others in the room. Don't forget to smell the fragrance of worship in the room. That aroma must have permeated the area letting others get in on the worship experience as well. 

Not everyone was pleased with the extravagant act of worship. That hypocrite Judas commented that the perfume could have been sold to help the poor. His real intentions were to embezzle the money as he done with other money entrusted to him as the treasurer. Some people are put off by sincere worship. David's wife Michael certainly was when David danced before the Lord bringing the ark of the covenant back to the capitol city. 

We are challenged to give God more worship. No matter what it costs us or how extravagant others might think it is. The only audience that matters in worship is God and Jesus. They are the audience. What people think is irrelevant. They should not be watching anyway, and wouldn't be if they were absorbed in adoring God themselves. We may not break expensive perfume out in worship, but the fragrance of our love should fill the room. The fragrance of worship is a sweet aroma to our Savior who deserves it. Let the fragrance saturate our prayer rooms and fill our places of worship. Because we have been forgiven much let us love and worship much.