Well, good morning to all of you. We're glad to see you today. Let me reiterate what Mitch said as he began our worship period. It's good to see you. We have guests with us today, and we're especially glad to have you. We hope you feel welcome. We hope you benefit spiritually by what already has been done, and maybe by the things that I'll have to say this morning from the Word of God. And hopefully it will be spiritually uplifting for all of us to be here together this morning. It's been a very busy week for this church family. We enjoyed last week our lectureship. I thought those men did an outstanding job. And all the nine lessons that they that they gave, I thought Todd did a great job, as always, in directing our singing. So it was spiritually uplifting, and I know you felt that same way. And of course, Thursday was a difficult day for all of us, but especially for one among us, Sister Debbie Black, as we all came together in this building and helped honor the memory of her brother, who passed away last Saturday. I want Debbie to know this morning, she's with us. I knew she would be. We love her. We will continue to help her in every possible way. She's loved by many, but I think especially by this group of people. And I think she knows that. I think she's grateful for that. I know she's grateful for that, but we love her, and we will continue to support her in every possible way. We will miss David as well, but we're grateful for his faith and for the hope that he has in Jesus Christ. And today, Blake and Macy are Mr and Mrs Kiel, and that's a good thing. Several of you have have said that you think that's a good marriage. I think it's an outstanding marriage. I will say to you that sometimes when I perform wedding ceremonies, I stand before two people, and I'm not always thinking the absolute best. I'm hoping the absolute best, but I'm not always thinking that that might end up at a good spot. That's rarely, that rarely happens. But as I stood before those two yesterday, I thought this is a good thing. And talking to them over the past several years and thinking about some things that they've said about their own faith and about each other, I think that's a wonderful thing. So we're grateful for them, and we wish them, obviously, the very best. Before I get into my lesson, I want to mention one more thing. This morning, I watched a service at the Valrico church in Valrico, Florida, where Shane Scott is one of the preachers. Shane preached for us and did some studies for our VBS several years ago. Shane's very good friends to several of us, especially I think Kelly Sneed, because he and Kelly grew up in the same town in Kentucky, but he's gotten close to a lot of us, and Shane has Lou Gehrig's disease, and Shane continues to preach. He sits in a wheelchair in the front of the group. And this morning, as difficult as it is, he gave a few opening remarks, and then with his AI voice, he preached his sermon. I thought that was just outstanding. The brethren there want him to continue to help as long as he can. And fortunately, that Shane's, that's what Shane wants to do as well. And so I listened to that sermon, listen to what he had to say, although it was a different voice, but there was semblance of his voice. And so, there are some ways in which AI is good, and that was one of them. And I appreciate Shane, and I say all that to just ask you to pray for Shane, please. As we know, Shane lost his wife few years ago, and that was a great blessing to him for several years. But when Christy passed, it was hard on Shane, and now he's developed this disease, and he continues to fight some things, and he continues to fight against the disease, but it's hard. So I just ask you, if you would in your private prayers to please pray for him.
I hope you have your Bibles turned to Luke 10. We will, we will leave Luke 10 a little bit later in my lesson. But at the outset, I want us to focus on this story that Mike just read for us from Luke the 10th chapter. Luke 10 is about, there's a lot here. The story of the Good Samaritan may be one of the most widely known parables in Scripture. Everybody knows the story of the Good Samaritan, where the Samaritan helped the man who had been beaten and others passed by and didn't. And so it's a very practical story for us. So, at the close of Luke, the 10th chapter, I want to just reread, simply for emphasis sake, the story that Mike read about Mary, Martha and Jesus. "It happened as they went that he entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house, and she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister left me to serve alone, therefore, tell her to help me. Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her."
I want to read something to you that I read that alluded to this story that we just read. And I think it shows a perspective and a comparison and something for us to think about about the story I just read that's really important for us. I'm just going to make a few comments after this that relate to the story that I hopefully will help us. But I want to read this to you. And I'm reading this because I like the way this gentleman said it, so I just want to read it to you. He says, "When we stop to remember that God exists, that he created all that is from nothing, that he sustains in everything we know, moment by moment, with just a word from his mouth, that he governs every government on earth, that he entered into His creation, taking on flesh, enduring weakness and temptation, suffering hostility to the point of death, even death on a cross, all to shower us with mercy, cleanse us of our sin and secure our eternity with Him in paradise. It is stunning, isn't it, that we ignore and neglect him like we do? Isn't it amazing that God simply was before time began, and yet we sometimes struggle to find even 10 minutes for him? Isn't it perplexing, bordering on insanity, that we sometimes prefer distracting ourselves with our phones, over taking advantage of our breathtaking access to his throne of grace in Christ? Isn't it kind of unexplainable how we often live as if we do not have time to sit and enjoy God? It is stunning, amazing and perplexing and yet so painfully familiar. Everyone who has followed Jesus knows what it is like to be distracted from following Jesus. That means we all, every one of us, can sympathize with anxious Martha."
This story that's recorded in Luke 10, is us. It is us. It is not, it's not that it may be us. It's not that it will be us. It's not that it was us. It is us. It is all of us, to some degree or another. Is there any doubt in your mind why this story was included in the inspired record? You know, sometimes we read stories. Well, I wonder why. I wonder why the Holy Spirit wanted that included in the divine record. And I will tell you that there's sometimes I read that I'm going, you know, I don't know how exactly that fits me. I know there's a reason. And if I look closely, I can can typically figure out this is why the Holy Spirit would have included that. But when I read this story, easy to see. I mean, there's one primary point to this story, and the primary point to this story is really all about distraction. Is there any doubt as to the application for us? I think you'd really have to work at misapplying this story to miss the point. I mean, I don't know how anyone could read this story that we just read and say, Well, I don't get that. I don't get how that applies to me.
I think we all understand that there is a sense in which this story cannot be us. After I just said all that, there's a sense in which it can't be us. Here's a couple of ways it can't be us. Jesus is not going to come into our house. Jesus has already lived on earth, and He has ascended into heaven. Now he will return, not to Earth, but he will return to meet his righteous in clouds. And then, as First Thessalonians four says, "then will all, all who are his, will be joined to meet him in the air. And thus will always be Lord." But he's already spent his time on Earth, and part of what we have recorded in Scripture is when He was on earth. And on this occasion, he spent time in Martha's house with Mary and Martha, and yet that really can't happen to us, not literally. He can't speak to us literally. We can't hear him literally. But all that I just said happens. Just not literally, right? It's as if we're here in the story. It's as if we place ourselves in that story. Every time I read that, I see myself sitting there, or I see myself doing something else. I'm not sure if I'm Mary or if I'm Martha, but I see myself in this story because the story is really about time spent with God-things. On this occasion, Jesus was the God-thing. And I don't mean that in any kind of irreverent or shallow kind of way. Jesus, God himself, was in the home of Mary and Martha, and they made a decision. So, let me ask you, how much quality do you spend with God? That's going to be kind of the hinge for the next few minutes. What kind of quality time do you spend with God? Look at the story, if you will, for just a moment, please. Verse 38 Martha welcomes Jesus into her home. We're told in other places that their home was in Bethany. It was on the opposite side of the Mount of Olives, where Jerusalem was on the other side, so just over the hill would have been Bethany. And Jesus comes into her house. And when Jesus comes into her house, Mary sits, according to verse 39 Mary sits and she listens to what Jesus said, and the text tells her, in verse 40 that Martha is distracted not with serving, with much serving. She's distracted with much serving.
But serving wasn't the problem. The problem was the anxiousness that Martha had about many things. Verse 41, "Jesus said to her, Martha, Martha, you were worried and troubled about many things." Not "re you?" He said, "You are." "You're worried and troubled about many things." She was drowning in her cares, and I don't know specifically, anything that she was anxious about. Let me offer some possibility. Possibly she thought this is the Messiah. What do I serve Him? Hospitality was something obviously that she wanted to do. Something that she needed to do. Something that was was a good thing. Right? What do I serve the Messiah? Will he possibly like that? That may have been something that she thought about. How will this compare to other places, other homes into which he goes? How will that, you know, what's he going to think about my home as as compared to other people's homes? The neighbors noticed that he came into my house. Would that have made her anxious? Or the obvious problem, the initial immediate problem is, why isn't my sister helping? She sitting listening to you. Why isn't she helping? Well, I think one thing that we can deduce, that's a easy deduction, is that anxiousness equals distractions. Anxiousness about good things. See, here's where we are. It's the anxiousness about good things that keep us from the best thing. Don't you agree with that? And that's all of us. It's anxiousness about good things, but it keeps us from the best thing. That is the hardest issue, I think, for us. To put it another way, it's the busyness with good things.
When I stop and think about it, I feel like I know most of you pretty well. There's others I'd like to know better, and hopefully can know better, but I feel like I know most of you pretty well, and I hear you. I hear you talk to me. I hear you talk to each other. Here's what I hear, "man, I'm busy." It's what I hear. And if you listen to me closely, you hear me say that. I'm busy. And I sense in which, and this is a very subjective but I sense when I hear you talk about that there's a little fear in your voice, I'm busy, as though I know I'm sometimes I'm too busy. And I'm trying to figure out if I'm too busy because I know what's most important. We're not talking this morning about something none of us know about. We're talking about something this morning that all of us know about. We're just trying to figure out how to combat what we know about .If you have children, it just, it just amps up, right? You, you can be busy, too busy without children, but when children do come into the picture, that just amps it up. That just exacerbates the problem, that part of it anyway. And so I hear you, and if nothing more, this morning that just just helping you, say, let me go back and reevaluate now. Let me ask myself again, and let me say to myself again, am I too busy? Is my family too busy? Is my family too busy? Is my family too distracted from what are the God-things? Sometimes I think we've gotten too busy and the God-things have taken a back seat. It can be subtle. Most of the time it is. I would say, this is objective again, but I would tend to think that for many and most in this audience, it is subtle. Sneaks up on you. It can paralyze you. It can mesmerize you. It can it can trap you. It can overwhelm you. It can numb you. It can overwhelm you. So, what I think I'll do this morning, before I read about three passages, is just tell you what I think you ought to do about it. You ready?
Don't let it happen.
You should be writing that down. That's brilliant. Took me a long time to come up with that. I don't know what Jesus later on said to Martha. I know what he said the problem was. But just don't let that happen. Now I don't know what that means to you, to any of you particularly. I don't know what, I dont know how you evaluate your lives and your family life. Am I too busy or am I not? I don't I don't know how that happens. I I can evaluate mine, and I need to do that too. You evaluate yours and ask yourself, what does that mean? Am I too busy to give the kind of attention that I need to give to those things that are God-things. But I would suggest that you take action so that you don't let the one thing that is necessary be the one thing that doesn't happen. And I'll say this, if you're not careful, it will be too late. You'll let it go by, and you'll let it go by, and it'll be too late for your children. It'll be too late for you. It'll be too late for those over whom you have some influence. If you wait too long it'll be too late. Don't let that happen. Understand what is the one thing, what is the one necessary thing, and then do what Jesus said, that Mary has done. She has chosen. She has chosen the good part. This was just one moment in time. This was just one time when Jesus is in their home. Martha comes to get him. He comes into their home, and apparently, when he comes, Mary sits and Martha stands and Martha does. Again, all good, but just not a wise choice. And what I would encourage us to do this morning is make a wise choice in terms of this busyness of our lives. I don't know how that plays out, but as a parent, as a father, as a mother, as those who together governing and teaching and instructing and helping their children talk about that. Don't be afraid to talk about that. Don't be afraid to implement some action that says we've got to eliminate some things, so we've gotta change some things, or we've got to do some things differently. We gotta take advantage of some opportunities that maybe we haven't taken advantage of. There's all sorts of of practical ways to apply this, but if you don't talk about it, and if you don't try to come up with a way to say, let's move in a different direction, it may not happen. And if you're not careful, it'll be over before you know it, and it'll be too late to do anything about it.
Let me read. Take your Bible this morning. I want you to turn to three passages. I want you to turn to the Old Testament, book of Jeremiah. I want you to look at Jeremiah. We're going to go to chapter two, please. One verse. Jeremiah two, verse 13, "for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters and hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." They've done for themselves, what they've wanted to do and what they've done doesn't hold water. They miscalculated. I'm the living water that they really want. But they've made cisterns. I think it's one application that certainly can be made. They've made cisterns that won't hold water. That's what happens, folks, when we busy ourselves with things that ultimately don't hold any value. You see, we all know that. This is not something that you've heard for the first time. This is something that we've all known, really, for most of our lives, at least if we if we've had any spirituality about ourselves and most in this audience have, most in this audience have heard preaching and teaching and studied for yourselves all your life. You know this, but if we're not careful, that's what can happen.
May I may ask you to turn over to Isaiah. This is going to be a very familiar text. Andy Cantrell talked about this in one of his lectures. Isaiah 55. I love the way that he really exegeted That whole context. We're not going to go into a lot of what he talked about that's unnecessary. I hope you were here to hear it. If you weren't here, you need to go back and listen to what he said. But I wanna read the first three verses of chapter 55 please. "Ho, everyone who thirsts come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price." Verse two says, "Why do you spend money for what's not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy. Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance." Isn't that what we just read in the story of Mary and Martha? Why do you spend money for what's not bread? Why do you invest in this when it's not really something that you can eat, not really something that's valuable, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Why do you spend money on things that ultimately won't satisfy? I don't think he's saying don't spend money on anything like that. I think he's saying don't spend money on things that ultimately don't have any value if that's really what you're focused on. All of us have things we need, things we want. And then he says the last part of verse two, "listen carefully to me and eat what's good. Let your soul delight itself in abundance." You really want something valuable? Then choose the Lord. You want something that's valuable then choose what the Lord can give you. Choose that. You can have abundance in that. You can have the abundant life that that Jesus talked about.
And then finally, one passage in the New Testament from Philippians the third chapter, please. Philippians three. This, again, is a familiar passage. Philippians three, verse eight, where Paul says, "Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ, Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ." Well, Paul was accomplished. Paul was seriously accomplished. He'd done so much. And when he met Jesus, when Jesus appeared to him, and when Jesus told him what he wanted him to do. And even though it was hard for Paul, at that time known as Saul, even though it may have been hard for him to do what he needed to do, he did it. And once done, once he understood what was, he thought, was really valuable. Once he understood nothing that, matter of fact, he called it rubbish. I think it's just a contrast. I don't think he's saying everything I did in my past life, and everything I was and everything I accomplished amounts to nothing. I don't think he's saying that. I think he's saying compared to what I have now found, that's rubbish. It's just not what now I know to be the most important thing, the one thing that's necessary. The choosing that I have done now to follow and honor God. You see how, how simple, right? This is simple. It's not hard lesson, it's simple lesson, the application of it's very simple. And that's why I brought it to you this morning. As I read it, I thought, this is just one thing that I think all of us can apply and can say, Okay, how do I choose? What choice have I made? And how does that manifest itself in my life? I hope you'll do that this morning. Think about the choice, the one necessary thing that you and I need to do, and that's be focused upon Jesus. May God help us to do that.
If you're in this audience this morning and you've never obeyed the gospel what a great time for you to choose, for you to choose to honor God, have your sins washed away, as Patrick talked about in some of the remarks he made, as Rob prayed about in the prayer that he offered. What a great opportunity this morning, in front of people who love you, for you to say, I do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and today I repent of my sins. I want to confess before the world that He is the Christ, and I want to be buried with him in baptism for the remission of my sins. If we can help you with that decision, this morning, would you come as we stand and as we sing.
