It's good to be with you again at the beginning of a new week, sharing with you keys to successful living, which God has placed in my hand through many years of personal experience and Christian ministry. The title for my talks this week is Extravagant Love. It will bring you into a new dimension in God, both in appreciating God and in responding to Him. Does that word extravagant surprise you? It may do, but I believe it's appropriate, because I'm speaking first and foremost of the love of God. The very nature of God is love. He's so much bigger and greater than we can imagine, and this is true of His love. Our human love is often so petty and so stingy and so self-centered, but God's love is vast, it's boundless, it's extravagant.

Listen to a prayer that Paul prayed for God's people in Ephesians 3:14-19. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Notice we cannot make room for Christ to dwell in our hearts until we are strengthened with power by the Spirit. And then Paul goes on, And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

You see, the central theme of Paul's prayer there for us as God's people is that we may know God's love, that we may be established in his love, that we may be able to grasp its dimensions, how wide, how long, how high, how deep. And then he concludes by saying, to know this love, that surpasses knowledge. That's a paradox, isn't it? How can we know love that passes knowledge? Well, I believe there's an answer. I believe we don't know it with our intellect, but we know it through the revelation of Scripture and of the Holy Spirit. And it's a revelation that comes to our spirit rather than to our mind.

And that's the purpose of my talks this week, to share with you various passages of Scripture that provide us with standards by which to measure God's love. The first such passage that I'm going to look at today is a parable of Jesus that's found in Matthew chapter 13, verse 44. It's the parable of the treasure hidden in the field.

But before I read it, let me just say a brief word about the purpose of a parable. A parable is a simple story about familiar, material, earthly things, things that were familiar to all the hearers of Jesus. But its purpose is to reveal unseen, eternal and spiritual things, so that the familiar scene and the familiar story becomes a mirror that reflects unseen, unfamiliar spiritual things.

And so Jesus proceeds in the method of a good teacher, which is from the known to the unknown. He starts with what his hearers were familiar with to lead them on to that with which they were not familiar. And so when we read a parable, we need to ask ourselves, what are the spiritual things that correspond to the material things in the parable?

Now I'm going to read the parable and then I'm going to give you my interpretation of it. This is the parable. It's very simple. It's contained in one verse.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again. And then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Let's ask ourselves, what are the spiritual realities that this simple story reveals to us?

I'm giving you my interpretation. I'm not suggesting that there is no other interpretation, but I believe that my interpretation is in line with the principles of Scripture.

The man who found the treasure is Jesus. The field is the world. That's stated in Matthew 13:38 in another parable, and it's a principle that runs all through the seven parables that are found in Matthew 13. The field is the world.

Now, what about the treasure? I believe the treasure is God's people in this world. Let me just give you those three correspondences again. The man is Jesus. The field is the world. The treasure is God's people in this world.

Now when the man discovered that there was a treasure in that field he did something very wise. He didn't immediately tell everybody about the treasure. In fact, it says he hid it because he knew that if people discovered that there was a treasure in the field there'd be a lot of competition. So he hid it and he decided to buy the whole field.

Now bear in mind he really didn't want the field. All he wanted was the treasure in the field. But he was realistic enough to know that in order to get the treasure, he had to pay the price for the field. And the price for that man was very high. It cost him all he had. But he did it with joy because he knew the value of what he was getting in the treasure.

Then I can picture the surprise of the local residents. Whatever did that man want that field for? It's not really good for anything. It doesn't have any real estate value. It's no good for crops. All it produces is thorns and thistles. Why did he pay a sum like that for a field like that?

You see, they didn't know about the treasure. The only person who knew about the treasure was Jesus. And so he paid the price for the whole world in order to obtain for himself the treasure that's in the field.

And the treasure is God's people. Let's look at another very familiar verse of the New Testament, John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that's Jesus, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

So God loved the world, and he gave the life of his Son to redeem the world. But what God receives out of the world is the whoever. Whoever believes in him shall not perish. That total company of whoever's is the treasure in the field that Jesus died to purchase. He redeemed the world for the sake of the whoever.

And then in Titus 2:14, we find the same truth presented again. It's speaking there about Jesus Christ, and it says, He gave himself. That was his price, himself, all he had, for us, to redeem us, that means to buy us back from all wickedness, and to purify to himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

That's the treasure, a people that are his very own. A people who have been redeemed from the world, redeemed from wickedness, purified and made zealous to do what is good. And the price was himself. All he had, all he wants. He laid down his life, he gave himself to buy that field for the sake of the treasure, his redeemed people.

Now let me bring to you one further thought about this treasure in the field. Jesus has bought the field, but he leaves it to his servants, the ministers of the gospel, to recover the treasure. And there's a lot of work involved in that. You've got to find where the treasure is. You've got to dig it up. You've got to take it out of the earth. And it's laying there a long time. It's rusty. It's dirty. It's mildewed. It needs a lot of cleaning up.

Now, Jesus is not doing the cleaning up himself. He's got his servants in this world who find his treasure, dig it out with hard labor, and believe me, bringing people to the Lord and preaching the gospel to them is real hard work. It's just as hard work as digging a treasure out of a field.

But this is left to the ministers of the gospel. I'm one of many whom God has in this world. The purpose of this radio broadcast of mine is really to get that treasure out of the field to clean it up and to make it fit for the Lord.

This is what Paul says about his own ministry in Colossians 1:28 and 29. We proclaim him, Jesus, and that's what I do. The whole purpose of this broadcast of mine is to proclaim one person, Jesus.

You see, Paul was not content that any of God's people should be below the level of their potential. And so he worked hard. He went on to say to this end, I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

Look at all the words that denote activity there. I labor. Struggling. His energy powerfully works in me. What's the whole purpose and direction of all that activity? To get that treasure out of the field, to get it cleaned up, to make it fit, to present to the Lord who died and bought the field with his own life.

How do we do that? Paul says, we admonish, we teach. Our aim is to present everybody just as good as he or she can be in Christ.

But as we close this message for today, I want to remind you of the price that was paid for the field and for the treasure that's in the field. The price was all he had. He held nothing back. His love was extravagant. He did it with joy because he had such love for the treasure that would be his.

It's good to be with you again as we continue with our theme for this week, Extravagant Love, a theme which will bring you into a new dimension in God. Both in appreciating God and in responding to Him. Everything about God is greater and grander than we can comprehend. But this is particularly true of his love.

The very nature of God is love. The word I've chosen to describe it is extravagant. I deliberately chose a rather unusual and not too religious word because I wanted to get away somehow from religious stereotypes.

So I'm talking about God's love as extravagant. Our human love is often so petty and so stingy and so self-centered, but God's love is not like that. It's vast, it's boundless, it's extravagant.

Let me remind you of the prayer that Paul prayed for all of us in Ephesians 3:14 and 19. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

You see, to comprehend what God has for us, we have to first be strengthened by his Spirit. Something has to be created in us as a receptacle for what he wants to put into us. And then this is what he wants to put into us.

Listen to how Paul goes on. I pray that you... Being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Notice what God wants to put in this vessel that he creates within us by his Holy Spirit is all the fullness of his love. He wants us to know all the dimensions of his love, how wide, how long, how high, how deep. He wants to know a love that passes knowledge.

I suggested yesterday It's a love that cannot be known by the intellect, but it can be apprehended by the Spirit through the revelation of the Scripture and of the Holy Spirit.

In my talk yesterday, I used the parable of the treasure in the field as a standard by which to measure God's love. This is the parable.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

I interpreted the parable this way. The man is Jesus. The field is the world. The treasure is God's people in the world.

Now, when the man discovered that there was a treasure in that field he did something very wise. He didn't immediately tell everybody about the treasure. In fact, it says he hid it because he knew that if people discovered that there was a treasure in the field there'd be a lot of competition.

So he hid it and he decided to buy the whole field.

This is what Paul says about his own ministry in Colossians 1:28 and 29. We proclaim him, Jesus, and that's what I do. The whole purpose of this broadcast of mine is to proclaim one person, Jesus.

How do we do that? Paul says, we admonish, we teach. Our aim is to present everybody just as good as he or she can be in Christ.

So I'm talking about God's love as extravagant. Our human love is often so petty and so stingy and so self-centered, but God's love is not like that. It's vast, it's boundless, it's extravagant.

Let me remind you of the prayer that Paul prayed for all of us in Ephesians 3:14 and 19. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

I suggested yesterday It's

Here is the cleaned-up version of the sermon transcription:

Says this, over the mountains, under the fountains, love will find a way. The message is, love always gets to its objectives. It's irresistible. It accepts no barriers. It will go through anything, over anything, under anything, but it will get where it wants. That's like the love of God.

So think about that. God's love is individual, everlasting, it precedes time, it's irresistible. And then picture yourself again as the pearl in the hand of Jesus. Say to yourself, his love for me is individual and everlasting, it precedes time, it is irresistible. Then remember what it cost him, all he had, and stop to say thank you.

We've been speaking about the love of God demonstrated in the redemption of the world through Jesus Christ. The word I've chosen to describe this love is extravagant. I've deliberately chosen a word that religious people don't often use because I want to get away from clichés and religious phrases and I want to awaken you somehow to the real extent of the love of God.

So far we've looked at two parables that give us a standard by which to measure what it cost Jesus to redeem us. The parable of the treasure in the field and the parable of the pearl of great price. In each case, the purchaser had to sell all he had to make the purchase. It cost him everything. This was true of Jesus. To redeem us cost him everything.

In my talk today, I'll be analyzing more exactly just what it meant for Jesus to give his life on our behalf. First, we need to see that the price of redemption was the blood of Jesus. This is stated so clearly in 1 Peter 1:18 and 19. Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

So it was only by the blood of Christ that we could be redeemed from our sins and our foolishness and our darkness. Now why did it have to be the blood? The Old Testament gives a clear answer to this. The answer is that the life or the soul of all flesh is in the blood. Every living creature that has a soul and has blood, the life, the soul of that creature is in its blood.

This is stated in Leviticus 17:11, where Moses is giving laws for how to live according to the principles of God. And he says this, and it's very prophetic. It means much more than it seems at first. For the life of the flesh or the soul of the flesh is in the blood. And God speaking, I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.

That was true, of course, in the old covenant in the types and shadows, but it was really prophetic looking forward to the blood of Jesus given on the altar of the cross to make full and final atonement for our souls. Then it goes on, for it is the blood by reason of the life or the soul that makes atonement.

You have to bear in mind that the Hebrew word that's translated "life" is actually the Hebrew word for soul. The soul of all flesh is in the blood of that creature. Now that Jesus would give his life blood and thus give his soul for us as an atonement on the altar of the cross was prophetically predicted by the prophet Isaiah.

In that great preview of the atonement, Isaiah chapter 53, in the last verse, verse 12, speaking prophetically about Jesus, he says, "He hath poured out his soul unto death." He was numbered with the transgressors. He bare the sin of many, made intercession for the transgressors.

Notice four statements about what Jesus did. He poured out his soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors. He was crucified between the thieves. He bore the sin of many, the sin of the whole world, and he made intercession for the transgressors.

Before he died on the cross, he prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." Every one of those statements was exactly fulfilled in Jesus. But the one that we want to focus on is that first statement in verse 12. He hath poured out his soul unto death. He hath poured out his life.

Now, we need to look at another passage in the Old Testament, in the book of Leviticus, to get a more clear prediction of exactly what was to take place. The most important day in the religious year of the Jewish people was the Day of Atonement, known today as Yom Kippur.

And on that day alone, the high priest went into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the sacrifices that covered the sins of Israel for one more year. And this is how Moses describes it. Moreover, he, that's the high priest, shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side.

Also in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Notice that it was the blood alone that could propitiate the sins of God's people and that the blood had to be brought in right in the presence of Almighty God in the Holy of Holies.

And I particularly want you to notice that it was sprinkled seven times. This was no accident. Seven is the number that indicates the work of the Holy Spirit. It's the number of completeness or perfection. It indicates a perfect work that has been done.

And what I'm going to point out to you in the remainder of this talk is this: was exactly fulfilled in the way that Jesus shed his blood, his blood was sprinkled precisely seven times before the sacrifice was complete in exact fulfillment of those prophecies and types of the Old Testament.

That the blood of Jesus was sprinkled seven times in seven different ways. And I'm going to take you briefly through the sevenfold sprinkling of the blood of Jesus.

The first sprinkling or shedding of his blood took place in the Garden of Gethsemane as he wrestled in agony and made himself available to God for this last great sacrifice. In Luke 22:44, this is what it says. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

So his blood began to come out of his body in the sweat, which was the expression of his agony and his wrestling. That was the first shedding.

Then the second shedding of his blood took place when he was in the house of the high priest, and he was being questioned and insulted and mistreated. It says there in Matthew 26:67, Then they spat in his face, and beat him with their fists, and others slapped him.

Now the word that's translated "beat him with their fists" can also mean to beat with rods. And I believe that's probably what it was, because this was prophesied too in the Old Testament. In Micah chapter 5:1, it says, "They will strike Israel's ruler on the cheek with a rod."

But however it happened, he was beaten with fists, with rods. The blood came out of his face, probably out of his nose amongst other places.

Then we move on to the third shedding of blood, which is recorded in Matthew 27:26. Then Pilate released Barabbas to them, but he had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified. This too was predicted in the Old Testament in the prophet Isaiah, chapter 50:6.

where the Lord is speaking in person and he says, "I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting."

It's important to notice that the Lord offered his back. He was not compelled, but he gave himself as a sacrifice.

And he was flogged with the Roman scourge, which was with many thongs, each one studied with bone or metal. And when it fell across a man's back, it literally plowed his back and ripped up the flesh and exposed the sinews and even the bones.

So that was the third shedding of blood. And then we have in that prophetic picture from Isaiah chapter 50, the fourth shedding of blood, which is not actually stated in so many words in the New Covenant, but we go back to the Old for the full revelation.

I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. So they also took the beard of Jesus and pulled it out in tufts and handfuls, thus also shedding his blood.

Then the fifth shedding of blood was the crown of thorns and it says about the Roman soldiers in Matthew 27:28-29, "They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him then wove a crown of thorns and set it on his head."

They did not just set it on his head those brutal soldiers having woven those sharp thorns which you can still see everywhere in the land of Israel today they pressed it down on his head and they beat him on his head thus pressing those sharp thorns into his scalp.

The fifth shedding of blood, the sixth shedding of blood was the actual crucifixion in Matthew 27:35. It says when they crucified him they divided up his clothes by casting lots so his hands and his feet were pierced with nails.

This too predicted in the Old Testament in Psalm 22:15 it says, "They pierced my hands and my feet verse 18 they divide my garments among them cast lots for my clothing"

There remains the seventh and final shedding of blood which took place after Jesus had actually died. A Roman soldier was sent to make sure that the three persons on the crosses were dead.

He finished off the first two, the thieves, but when he came to Jesus he saw that he was already dead and this is what it says. One of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.

Thus, in that sevenfold shedding, his body was emptied of blood. He literally poured out his soul to death.

Let me just recapitulate that sevenfold shedding. First, his sweat became blood. Second, they struck him in the face with fists and rods. Third, he was flogged with a Roman scourge. Fourth, his beard was pulled out. Fifth, thorns were pressed into his scalp. Sixth, his hands and feet were pierced with nails. Seventh, his side was pierced with a spear.

And as you listen to that list, that is the measure of his love. That is the price that he paid. It literally cost him all he had. He did not simply give up his glory, his throne, his majesty as God. He did not simply give up his few earthly possessions as a man on earth, but he gave up himself.

It was his own life. He poured it out in his blood as the redemptive price. Think about that and realize that's the measure of God's love. To say the least, it's extravagant.

I've been sharing with you that the love of God for humanity is to be measured by the price He paid for our redemption. To illustrate this, we looked at the two parables in Matthew 13 of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great value.

In each case, the purchaser gave all he had. And the purchaser is a picture of Jesus, the treasure, God's people collectively. The pearl, each individual soul.

Then, in my talk yesterday, I showed how the picture presented in these two parables was literally fulfilled in Jesus. Not only did he give up his heavenly throne and glory and prerogatives and privileges, not only did he leave behind him all that he had owned on this earth, but finally, to redeem our souls, he poured out his soul unto death.

For our life, He gave His life. And He did this in the way that had been predicted in the Old Testament. He did it by pouring out His blood.

For the Old Testament reveals that the life or the soul of each living creature is in the blood. In fulfillment of the types of the Old Testament, The blood of Jesus was shed in seven successive stages, just as the high priest had sprinkled the blood seven times in the Holy of Holies before the Ark of the Covenant on the Day of Atonement.

This is the sevenfold shedding of the blood of Jesus as portrayed in Scripture. First, in the Garden of Gethsemane, his sweat became blood. Second, in the house of the high priest, they struck him in the face with fists and rods. Third, after being before Pontius Pilate, he was flogged with a Roman scourge. His beard was pulled out.

Fourth, fifth, thorns were pressed into his scalp by the soldiers. Sixth, his hands and feet were pierced with nails. Seventh, his side was pierced with a spear and there came out water and blood.

He literally gave himself. He poured out his life, all he had for our redemption.

Today I'm going to speak about what we receive in Christ through redemption, our limitless inheritance.

I want to affirm that not only was God extravagant in the price He paid to redeem us, but He is equally extravagant in all that He gives us in Christ. We'll look first of all at a passage in Romans chapter 8, verses 15 through 17.

Paul is writing to Christians about what is available to us through our faith in Christ. He says, For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship.

And by him, that's by the Spirit, we cry Abba, Father. Abba is Aramaic or Hebrew, corresponding to the English word Daddy.

So we've come into that relationship of intimacy with God the Father, whereby we address him as Abba, as Daddy, the Spirit of God himself, giving us this assurance and this confidence.

And then Paul goes on about what the Spirit reveals to us of our position in Christ. Verse 16, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

The Bible tells us that, but the Spirit of God reinforces personally to each one of our hearts the truth of Scripture. We are God's children.

And then Paul goes on in the next verse to explain what is involved in being God's children. Now, if we are children, then we are heirs.

Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings, in order that we may also share in his glory.

So when we become God's children, then, in line with the normal procedure in the human race, being children, we are heirs. We're heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

Now, of course, there's one condition stated if we're willing to share his sufferings. That's one of the conditions of being a co-heir with him. We share the inheritance. We also share the sufferings.

Remember, I spoke about the pearl, how it was the product of suffering. It's important to understand what it means to be co-heirs.

It doesn't mean that each of us get a little fraction of the total inheritance. But it means that Jesus, as the first son, has the whole inheritance, and we share the whole inheritance with him.

Each one of us has a right to the entire inheritance, which is the inheritance of Jesus. You see, the law of God's kingdom is sharing. We don't each grab our portion, but we all share together all that God the Father has and all that Christ the Son has.

Let's look at what Jesus says about this inheritance and how we can know about it. In John 16:13 through 15, speaking about the coming of the Holy Spirit.

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. We couldn't grasp this without the Holy Spirit. He will bring glory to me, Jesus goes on, by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

All that belongs to the Father is mine. So all that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son.

And the Holy Spirit will reveal to us all that that is. And we are co-heirs. So all that belongs to the Father and belongs to the Son also belongs to us.

But remember that it's the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that's the administrator of the inheritance. If we aren't in good relationship with the Holy Spirit, if we don't receive the revelation of the Holy Spirit, if we don't walk in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, we can be, in theory, children of a king, but we can live like paupers and beggars because we're not entering into the inheritance.

But the inheritance is all that God the Father has and all that God the Son has. They share together and we share with them. That's the fullness of what God has bestowed upon us in Christ. He's not stingy. He's not petty. He's not legalistic. He's extravagant.

We look now at another scripture which also speaks about the extent of our inheritance. Just a little further on in the same chapter of Romans. Romans chapter 8 verse 32. He who did not spare his own son. That's God of course. God who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all.

That's the price that God paid. How will he not also with him freely give us all things?

Let's pause and consider the implication of those words. They're all so powerful. When we receive Christ, then with him, apart from him, we receive nothing. But with him, God freely gives us all things.

What a tremendous emphasis there is on the scope of the inheritance and on its absolute freedom. We can't earn it. We receive it as a free gift, and it includes all things, all that God the Father has, all that God the Son has.

We are heirs of that total inheritance when we receive Christ.

And then Paul again in 1 Corinthians speaks to the Christians there and he tries to show them how rich they are. And he kind of rebukes them because they've been acting as though they were poor, they've been mean and petty and jealous to one another.

He says, you people don't realize what you've got. So this is what he says,

1 Corinthians 3:21-23. So then let no one boast in men, for all things belong to you. All things belong to you.

That's a breathtaking statement, isn't it?

Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, don't get hung up with preachers, he's saying. Or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All things belong to you.

And you belong to Christ. And Christ belongs to God. That's a tremendous thought, isn't it? All things belong to you. Stop acting in a petty little way. Stop being so small-minded, he says. Remember, everything is yours. Remember, it's freely given to us. We cannot earn it.

But it's important that we ask the Holy Spirit to enlarge our faith and our understanding. Remember, he's the administrator. And unless the Holy Spirit speaks to us and guides us in

Here is the cleaned-up sermon transcription with proper punctuation, capitalization, and natural paragraphs:

To the truth, these words will just be empty promises. They'll not be reality. It's the Holy Spirit that makes the promises a reality. Then I want to close with a passage from the first epistle of John, chapter 4, verse 16. And I'm going to read it in two different versions.

The first version we have is: "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him." The second version, and so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him.

Notice the opening phrase: "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us." The alternative translation, "so we know and rely on the love God has for us," I want to point out that there are two aspects. One is knowing the love that God has for you. The other is believing the love that God has for you. Or the alternative translation, relying on the love that God has for you.

I want to suggest that many, many Christians hear in church scriptures about the love of God. They may even believe them. They may entertain them. But it doesn't become real until we rely on them. Until we really take it seriously that God loves us, that he gave the highest price the universe has to offer to redeem us, and that having redeemed us, he's made the whole inheritance ours.

We've got to begin to act like that. We've got to rely on that. We've got to stop being mean and petty and stingy with other people and with ourselves. We've got to learn to be like God, extravagant. I've chosen that word extravagant to describe God's love for humanity. I deliberately chose a word that religious people don't often use.

In fact, some religious people would almost be offended by the word. But I want to get away from religious cliches and church talk and try to show you face to face the reality and the depth of the love of God. I've suggested that the love of God for humanity can be measured by certain objective standards. First of all, by the price that God paid and that Jesus paid.

And the price is stated in those two parables, the treasure in the field and the pearl of great value. It was all he had. Jesus literally gave all he had. Finally, he gave his life blood. He poured out his soul, his life unto death in a sevenfold shedding of his blood.

Second, God's love for us can be measured by the inheritance that he gives us in Christ. We are co-heirs with Christ, heirs of God, co-heirs with Jesus. That is, the entire inheritance of God the Father and God the Son becomes ours together with Jesus Christ. Think of the tremendous scope of God's love, the price he paid, the inheritance he offers.

In my talk today, I'm going to deal with the other side of the coin. How should we respond to God's extravagant love? Quite simply, I want to suggest to you, we should be extravagant also.

To illustrate what I mean, I'm going to turn to the account of what one woman did for Jesus just about a week before he went to his death. The account is found in Mark chapter 14, verses 3 through 9.

While Jesus was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor, and they rebuked her harshly."

"Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me." I'm so grateful for that particular translation, "a beautiful thing." Jesus saw in that act something that struck him as beautiful. Extravagant love is beautiful.

Then in Mark 14, 8, Jesus said of the woman, "She did what she could." That's so simple, but so important. God never asks us to do more than we can. I've often heard people say, "I wish I could do more." And something in me always causes me to ask myself, "I wonder whether they're really doing what they can."

God will never require of you more than you can do. But if you do what you can, the attitude of Jesus will be just the same as it was to that woman.

And then he said in Mark 14, 8, "She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial." That's an amazing statement. None of the disciples really believed that Jesus was going to die and be buried at that time. And yet this woman apparently of all the people had the intuition, the revelation that he was to die and be buried.

When he actually did die on the cross they never had time to anoint his body. They just had to wrap him in sheets and put some perfume on the body but they couldn't do the real anointing. So they missed the opportunity.

You see, I think she was open to the Holy Spirit. That's my understanding. The Holy Spirit could tell her something because he could speak to her heart, not necessarily her head.

There's a saying they have in the French language, "the heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing." I think the heart of that woman had some reasons that all the people that sat and reasoned just didn't understand.

And finally, the tremendous reward of that woman. Mark 14:9, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world what she has done will also be told in memory of her." And this broadcast is fulfilling that because this broadcast is going to go ultimately right around the world so this is a fulfillment of that just one fulfillment out of many.

Finally, I want to look for a moment at how the critics reacted. I would say three things about them: First, they were stingy, as religious people often are. You know the phrase, "if you ever heard that phrase," poor as a church mouse? There's an awful giveaway in that phrase because the world views church mice as poorer than even other mice.

In other words, the world thinks of the church as a pretty poor, stingy group of people. And a lot of Christians give them good reason to think that way. But it was the critics who were stingy, not Jesus and not Mary.

Second, those critics were hypocrites. They suddenly got very concerned about the poor when they saw the ointment being poured out. But I questioned whether they'd been doing much for the poor up to that moment or whether they'd done much for the poor from that moment onwards.

Further, third, and this is typical of critics, they were miserable. They didn't even enjoy the perfume. The whole house was filled with this fragrant, beautiful perfume and they were so busy getting angry and critical they couldn't even enjoy it.

As I close this series of messages and this particular message today on how should we respond to the extravagant love of God, I just want to ask you a rather personal question. Don't be offended. Has the Holy Spirit ever touched your heart to be extravagant in your devotion to Jesus? You can't do anything directly for Jesus himself. He's in heaven.

But like Mary, you can do something for his body. His people on earth. This message you're listening to is being broadcast, or will be broadcast, to many remote areas of the earth. To China, India, parts of Africa, Central and South America, the islands of the sea.

Many of those, perhaps most of those who will hear it, are, by our standards, extremely poor. Most of them probably have no sheets on their bed. In fact, many of them probably don't even have a bed. They probably sleep on a mat in a hut.

Many of them have no shoes on their feet. Most of them probably have no choice of food to eat. We're so used to thinking whether we eat this or that, we don't realize the world is filled with people who never have that choice.

Some of them don't have any food at all.

Now, this is what I want to say to you. If you help me to reach these people, you're doing something for Christ's body on earth. And so I want to ask you this question: If the Holy Spirit touches your heart, will you be like Mary? Will you dare to be extravagant? Will you dare to do something out of the ordinary?

The religious people may criticize, but remember, Jesus will praise you.