Breaking the Box of Religion

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   The words we speak from your word to make them powerful when we share our testimony that it would be powerful. Lord, we need that anointing, Lord God, of the Holy Spirit to bring healing, emotional, spiritual, physical healing, to see deliverance from demons. Lord, to see the truth, to break out of religion and to move in the Holy Spirit, Lord. I just pray God that you stir us, Lord, as a people to to make a priority, Lord, to be led by the Holy Spirit, to be filled with the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, to be, Lord God, an extension of the kingdom of God, to be one that you can work through and flow through and live through. Lord, that we would decrease and you would increase through us. Father, I pray that this morning in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Well, this morning the Lord kind of just dropped something in me and I wasn't sure if this was going to be the way he would want me to go with this or not, but I believe so. And now, this is something that I have This is a, you know, when you preach for almost 27 years, you've pretty well preached on most things in the Bible and I've preached on this particular passage and some of the things within this, but never have I preached this message ever. Not in this way. Okay? But this morning, I want you to turn to um first of all, John, the Gospel of John, chapter 12. And then we're going to go to Matthew 26. And somehow in the midst of this crazy morning, my Bible went missing, but someone was kind enough to loan me one. Hallelujah. Can somebody say hallelujah? What we're going to call this this morning is breaking the box of religion. Breaking the box of religion. Believe it or not, we all at one time or another have been in a box of religion. It can be a Baptist box. It can be a Methodist box. It can be a Catholic box. It can be a Buddhist box. It can be a Muslim box. Oh, guess what? It could be an Assembly of God Pentecostal box. A charismatic box. But I'm going to read a story that we sometimes mistake as the same story, but there's two different stories. But many of you know about the story about the woman who broke the alabaster box of oil to anoint Jesus, right?

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   Before the Passover and before he uh went to the cross and paid for us. I actually believe that this was the anointing that Daniel spoke about and he prophesied when the Messiah would come that he would be anointed and then he would be cut off. Um but let's read the passage from John first because there's two different passages and actually there's two different incidents. We we mistake it for the same, but man I mean John 12 and verse one. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. And there they made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. And then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, "Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence, and given to the poor?" This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bear what was put there in. Isn't it amazing Jesus had a thief for a treasurer? Right? Somebody'd say that's a bad leadership move. No, maybe it was just a test. Oh. Anyway, just a thought. Verse 7, then said Jesus, "Let her alone, against the day of my burying has she kept this. For the poor always you have with me, but you have but me you have not always." So, we have this incident. Notice it says this was 6 days before the Passover, right? And this was the Passover where Jesus would have the Last Supper with his disciples. Uh so, 6 days before he's at the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. And Mary takes out this oil that she kept. Now, this account doesn't say that it was oil that was stored myrrh that was stored in an alabaster box. Now, an alabaster box is kind of made of what they say gypsum and and sulfur something, and it's a white almost ceramic type box, and basically, you know, almost like the you know, bottles that we have or ceramic vases that we have today and they were sealed and basically what this stuff was is back then this was basically the best smelling stuff you could get the best kind of perfume the best kind of oil and it was very expensive and it was very precious difficult to get

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   and of course we have here that you know to get this out the seal had to be broken or the the box had to be broken now we we're going to turn to now remember this was six days in the town of Bethany six days before the Passover now go to Matthew 26 I'll never forget when the Lord showed me this and he made it leap out at me so six days before the Passover Jesus in the house of Mary Martha and Lazarus Mary takes the oil and of course Judas Iscariot speaks up and has a problem with that all right can I just say this as we get into it folks who are bound by religion and their own agenda will always get mad at you if you break out of the box okay because they're comfortable in their box they like their box they think their box is right they think their box is good but the anointing remember this is oil and the oil in this box represents to us this morning and I believe represents a picture of the Holy Spirit and all the things that the Holy Spirit is about now I'm going to cover these things but let's just hit the high points what is the Holy Spirit about first of all Jesus revealed himself as the Holy Spirit of Truth truth truth is revealed as the word of God when Jesus prayed the prayer in John "Lord, sanctify them through thy word, thy word is truth." Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." The Bible, the written word of God, is truth, and Jesus, the living word of God, is truth, and they are one. Right? So, the truth So, the truth is represented by this oil, the Holy Spirit of truth. Can I say this? Truth will always cause you to break out of the box. Okay? Truth. And not just one truth, or two, or three, but the whole truth of the Bible, the whole truth of scripture. The whole counsel of God, everything God taught, not parts you like, and leave out the parts you don't. Matter of fact, leaving out part of a story is a means of deception. Leaving out a part of the truth, leaving out something, any part of what God gave us, is really you're building a religious box. Look, all religious boxes are built to exclude something, to shut something off. To keep the oil the Holy Spirit of truth, to keep that from reaching and filling the whole room, filling the whole world, or filling a whole church, right? The Holy Spirit is not only the spirit of truth but Jesus, you know, John, I'm I'm just

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   going to go through these scriptures, but the supernatural side of the Lord. Uh Acts 10:38, everybody ought to know that scripture by heart. I happen to. And Acts 10:38 says this, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power, who went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him." So, the anointing is for healing. All right? Spiritual healing, emotional healing, and physical healing for miracles. How many of you know we need the supernatural power of God in the church? Amen. If you think everybody's okay in the church, then you are deceived. There's a lot of hurt people, a lot of broken people, a lot of wounded people, a lot of oppressed and demon infiltrated and demon contaminated people. And it's only the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the Holy Spirit that can help them. There's not You can't counsel out a demon. Right? And that's what I'm saying. That's why Here's Here's a perfect picture of I mean, we've we've got churches all over the country and people like John MacArthur who they've got their religious box. They've got their Calvinist uh religious box that shuts off and says, "Jesus doesn't heal anymore." That the church doesn't cast out demons anymore. The demons may not even be active in North America. Right? They teach that in seminaries. Right? But see, what I'm saying is that's a religious box to keep the Holy Spirit quenched, grieved, resisted, hidden. Right? But see, the people who love Jesus, and let me just tell you, Mary and Martha and Lazarus, they were not just disciples of Jesus. He called them friends and he loved them. They had a relationship. People who love Jesus and who love the truth will always break the box of religion. Always. They'll always break out. That's why Mary went and got this oil and broke it. First of all, she was being led by the Holy Spirit to do something that would be a symbol to the rest of us for all ages to come. She did something to show us, "Don't keep the truth. Don't keep the anointing. Don't keep what God wants you to to show to the world. Don't keep it to yourself. Amen. Well, didn't Jesus talk about hiding your light under a bushel? Well, any of us that went to Sunday school when we were little years ago, we sang that song, right? No, you don't put your You don't put your light under a bushel. But see, this is Listen, I say this because I've watched for years Pentecostals and charismatics who believe in divine healing, that Jesus

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