The Alabaster Box by Rev. Christie Bature: Sermon Notes

What Possesses You, Not What You Possess

The alabaster box is not really about what you own — it's about what owns you. Alabaster was a soft, pale stone the ancient world carved into vessels specifically to hold precious perfumes and ointments. You have been specifically designed to worship God. Your design is not random or accidental — it is particular. When the woman broke her alabaster box of ointment over Jesus, the perfume itself was costly, but the greater offering was the woman herself. He is the perfume of our lives — the alabaster box was never really about the fragrance; it was about total surrender.

Naomi's Alabaster Box: Old Age Is Not Disqualification

Naomi had lost her husband and both her sons, and told people, "Call me not Naomi [pleasant], call me Mara [bitter]: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me." Yet when her daughter-in-law Ruth's newborn son needed comforting, it was Naomi — long past her own childbearing years, dried up by grief and age — who took the child to her breast, and her breast produced milk. Whoever tells you that time has passed for you, remember Naomi: if her body could still produce what it hadn't produced in years, time has not passed for you either.

Nobody Pays Like God

A television pastor, down to his last resources and one episode away from ending his broadcast entirely due to lack of funds, received a call mid-broadcast from a stranger who had been saved through his program on its very first day years earlier — the stranger insisted on covering the cost so the program could continue. That single caller turned out to be the owner of the station itself, and offered the program free airtime for as long as it continued — eventually broadcasting to fifty-three nations, for eleven years, entirely free of charge, all traced back to a single act of costly obedience. Nobody pays like God. When He tells you to do something, do it — the return is never proportional to what was given.

A Personal Testimony: Giving Toward a Piece of Land

After a season of giving sacrificially toward a specific need for land, an unexpected honorarium after a ministry engagement, followed by book and product sales, brought in far more than what had originally been given — three times the amount, arriving within days. A fellow pastor, hearing of the ongoing confession of faith over that land, encouraged pressing forward rather than assuming the moment of provision had already passed.

What Is Jesus Worth to You?

Everyone has a price, the saying goes — name it high enough, and most people will eventually give something up. Is there anything that could be offered you, in exchange for Jesus, heavy enough that you would actually let Him go? Scripture calls believers to examine themselves, to see whether they remain in the faith — because it is entirely possible to attend church consistently and still not genuinely be in it. Courage isn't always the absence of fear; sometimes courage is simply becoming more conscious of Jesus than you are of whoever is watching you in the room, the way one might quietly acknowledge faith even to a stranger seated beside them on a flight, regardless of how that stranger might react.