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The woman that broke an alabaster jar of expensive perfume at the feet of Jesus Christ illustrates a very important truth: genuine worship involves your substance. By ‘your substance’ I mean your wealth, resources, finances, money, and so on – the things that you own. Genuine worship involves all of those and even more.

She came to Jesus with a perfume that was very expensive; that perfume was worth a man’s wages for a year. She didn’t say a word; she just broke it at the feet of Jesus, and action speaks louder than words. When Jesus saw saw what the women did, when He perceived the sweet fragrance of that perfume, Jesus immediately knew she valued Him highly; that she loved Him; that He mattered to her; that He was important to her.

Through the act of worship, we are essentially making a statement to God: You are special to me. You are valuable to me. You matter to me. You are precious to me. You don’t make this statement with your lips; you make it with your substance.

The wise man tells us in Proverbs 3:9:

Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops.

In order words, honor, serve, worship God with your substance: your gold, silver, money, car, houses – in short, with all the material resources that you own.Genuine worship must always be expressed through substance.

What the wise man is telling us here is that we should not just verbalize our praise, worship, honor, and love for God; we must go on to substantiate it through sacrifice; through costly, expensive, and sometimes painful expressions.