By Brother Deji Oyawoye

Bible Passage: Mark 14:3-10, John 12

“But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticized her sharply. But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me.” – Mark 14: 4-6

A kingdom is a country or state led by a king or queen. It is usually demarcated by landmark and sometimes by language, but we are not looking at this type of kingdom today. We are examining the spiritual kingdom, simply put the spiritual reign of God. In this kingdom, the king remains king whether we choose to remain or not. It is not confined by territory or land boarders rather it is a spiritual territory and it dwells in the hearts and mind of people. Because of this many times we tend to take it for granted, forgetting sometimes who we are and removing our focus from this kingdom.

What is it to be kingdom minded?

To be kingdom minded is to place an eternal value on relationships that we have. That’s why you can love no matter what because you know you are not doing it for this realm but like Christ who has called you. It also makes it easy to give sacrificial offering to God because we are not looking at what the impact will be on us today but what treasure we are laying up for ourselves in heaven. It also means that in your work and home, there is an eternal force.

This was what Mary did. Many times the alabaster box is spoken of in relation to giving a sacrificial offering to God. But it is beyond that, it is beyond the value of the fragrance that Mary brought. It is beyond whatever offering we think we can give, it runs deeper than that. It runs deep into our heart. A heart has to be sacrificial first of all for it to be able to give sacrificially. When this hasn’t happened and you tell someone that has not given their life to Christ to give millions towards the work of God, it’s a travesty. There’s no injustices greater than that.

It’s very important for us to understand that the alabaster box was very expensive and valuable but what is more valuable to God is our heart and mind towards Him and that’s why we are looking at let’s be kingdom minded. How many of us are focused towards Jesus? How many of us are kingdom minded?

The Character of Judas

He displayed a number of attributes and he had a bad reputation. But do you know we can still find some of the things Judas did in the midst of Christians today because we are not kingdom minded?

1. Judas was a hypocrite (John 12:1-4,5)
2. He misappropriated what God had given him. (John 12:6)
3. He was self-centered
4. He was greedy.

Attributes of Mary

1. Mary had a listening ear for Christ. She had taken to heart what Jesus had predicted that a time was coming when he would die. She has always be more interested in hearing her king speak (Luke 10:39-42). Like Mary, how much of God’s words are we taking to heart? What are we doing about those words that we hear? (Joshua 1:8)
2. Mary acknowledged and was prepared to share in Jesus’ suffering, in His death and His resurrection. (Romans 6:1-5, 11-12)
3. She gave a full and acceptable sacrifice. What is most important to Christ is that we have a relationship with him. Being kingdom minded means you constantly want to do good deeds for Jesus. (Mark 14:6, Romans 12:1, 1 John 5:2; Psalms 40:6)
4. Be lasting fragrance. Is your life a fragrance to Jesus? Can people tell that we have been with Jesus? Mary’s fragrance was also bound to be rare, so don’t be ashamed of Jesus if you stand alone. Don’t be afraid if you are in a place and you are the only one smelling of His fragrance, you are there for a reason. 

Our salvation cost Jesus his life and that’s the ultimate sacrifice. So for us, what we need to do to spread the fragrance of Christ is to spread the love of God (Acts 10:38). We need to announce the good news and the kingdom of God (Luke 8:1). Paul wrote some books, John wrote 5 books likewise Matthew wrote his own, and so did Mark. Jesus wrote his own books, in fact he has written several books; in this room we are the books that Jesus has written. We are the epistle, a letter from Christ himself sent to the world (2 Corinthians 3:3). It’s vital that we keep our focus on the ultimate (Matthew 6:33).

We need to keep our focus on the kingdom of God. Seek Him more deeply, know Him more intimately and search Him more than anything you would ever look for in this world.