Service Vs. Sitting at the Feet of Jesus

Introduction

Several churches were having problems with squirrels damaging their buildings.

The Presbyterian church called a meeting to decide what to do about their squirrel infestation. After much prayer and consideration, they concluded that the squirrels were predestined to be there, and they should not interfere with God’s divine will. At the Baptist church, the deacons met and decided to put a water-slide on the baptistry and let the squirrels drown themselves. The squirrels liked the slide and, unfortunately, knew instinctively how to swim, so twice as many squirrels showed up the following week, and soon ended up destroying the church. But the Catholic church came up with a more creative strategy! They baptized all the squirrels and made them members of the church. Now the squirrels are only seen at Christmas and Easter. Not much was heard from the Jewish synagogue. They took the first squirrel and circumcised him. They haven’t seen a squirrel since.

I do not know what this has to do with our time together this morning but i thought it was hilarious since we have had critter infestations at times.

-Thanks for our trip last night to Blake Shelton Concert-Red Necks and God’s Country

Luke 10:38-42

Luke 10:38–42 NKJV

38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” 41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Prayer

Message

We left off in Luke Chapter 10 before I shifted to preach from Exodus three weeks. You may remember that in our journey in Luke we saw a shift from the miracles of Jesus to an emphasis on Jesus preparing the disciples to carry the torch of ministry and the gospel message. In other words, we read of stories and scenes with Jesus that began to reveal what a disciple of Jesus really looks like.

In today’s text we see one of the many scenes of life as it relates to interacting with Jesus. The Holy Spirit through the hand of the physician Luke chooses the words carefully to make every moment with Jesus a teaching moment. Aren’t you glad that God wrote this Bible that we can know of the blessing of spending time with Jesus?

Jesus enjoyed close relationships recorded in the word of God. Jesus loves everyone, amen? Our story this morning is about Jesus spending time at Martha and Mary’s house. This story reveals what Jesus values most in our time with Him.

Jesus was close to His disciples, but outside of the disciples and family, there would have not been another relationship that I can think of that would have been closer than Jesus’ relationship with Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

John 11:5 “5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”

He loved this family and He enjoyed time with them. Oh listen dear church, He enjoys time with you if you will give Him that time.

Unfortunately, this side of the cross we do not have the blessedness of being in the bodily presence of Jesus. But thank the Lord we are this side of the cross that we can enjoy life eternal with Him. Amen. The way we enjoy intimacy today with Jesus is through prayer, His word, and the fellowship of the saints. But where I want us to place our focus this morning is on our prayer lives.

Our aim, our focus this morning is to deepened our understanding of God and His will for our lives through prayer.

Firstly, we learn this morning that we must have a proper perspective on prayer if we are to enjoy real intimacy with the Lord.

1. Our Perspective about Prayer

Luke 10:38 “38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.”

As one focuses on the first part of Chapter 10, our very Savior was busy. Life was changing scene by the moment. Our Lord and Savior had a need for prayer. What does that say to us today?

We see a scene shift in the life of Jesus. In Chapter 10, Jesus taught the seventy and then sent them out to the mission field. After they went out, Jesus encouraged them once they report back. Immediately following that scene is a scene we will touch base on as we watch the Master in a season of prayer. Then Jesus encountered a lawyer who asked the question, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And we see Jesus share the parable of the Good Samaritan as a teaching moment. All of this happened in a span of 37 verses before we get to verse 38 this morning where Jesus was invited to Martha, Mary and Lazarus’ house.

When Jesus initially makes a relationship with you, through the Holy Spirit, the Lord is the instigator. The Holy Spirit pursues a love relationship with you. He loves you and He desires to enjoy an intimate fellowship and union with you. Jesus died on our behalf that we can have a relationship with our Heavenly Father. The Triune God of the universe orchestrated the entire event. the Holy Spirit birthed the relationship, sought you and sealed that relationship with the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ to bring you into a right relationship with our Heavenly Father. And all the people said “Amen.”

For those here this morning that have come to a time as this in your life and you asked Jesus to come into your heart, you asked Him to forgive you of your sins and that you desired a relationship with Him and at that very point your future was sealed in Jesus Christ. You future is secure. Amen.

And after that point as in any relationship that is conceived, we then share in a dual responsibility in kindling, growing and deepening the relationship with the Lord. And we know to accomplish that with the Lord it happens through prayer and hearing a word from Him.

As it relates to our prayer life, if we are not careful we can fall into certain syndromes that are spelled out in the life of Martha in this story.

Let’s recap this great story. Jesus and His disciples are traveling and they come upon a village called Bethany. We learn that the township was Bethany from deeper background in John 11. John the Beloved shed light about this family in John 11:1-2 “1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.”

So that we do not confuse the many Mary’s we read of in the Bible, Mary-the mother of Jesus, Mary-the mother of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

Let me say that this preacher can not prove that Mary, the sister of Martha and Mary Magdalene are one in the same. The name Mary Magdalene means that she was from Magdala while we know the Mary we study this morning is from Bethany. So understand there are four Mary’s we read about in the gospel accounts.

Let’s continue.

Martha welcomed Jesus as the Scripture states into her house. Martha played hostess. Martha had a servant’s heart. One of her gifts that the Lord gave her was the gift of service. Oh what shape the church and the ministry would be in if we did not have the gift of service and hospitality and times when great hostesses are called for.

Before we dive in deeper looking at the gift of service I want us to consider the words used that reflects upon our prayer life in verse 38:

“Martha welcomed Him into her house.” Because Jesus’ entered Martha’s home, Martha took the driver’s seat as to what would happen at her home. She determined before hand how she was going to entertain Jesus, what she would prepare for Him to eat, which china would be on the table, where in the home they would sit to eat, what time they would eat and how the food would flow out as they leisured over a great meal. In Martha’s mind, everything had to be just so.

Have you ever met anyone like that? They place more emphasis on the details than enjoying the time spent with those they love. The exactness to the details overshadows the fellowship with loved ones and the next thing you know, the evening is spent.

Think about something this morning. How many of you take your Doctor’s visits very important? Let’s assume your appointment is at 8 am tomorrow morning. 8 hours before you are to fast and not eat or drink anything. You know that you will have to get down to your undergarments so there is a conscientiousness that everything looks dapper. Tell me I am telling the truth now. And, if the appointment is at 8:00 am, you will arrive at 7:30 am because you know there will be some new forms to fill out and you do not want anything to cause you to be late with the doctor. What am I saying? We exercise a high level of importance on being timely for the doctor. The doctor is an important person and what the doctor is evaluating is of highest importance.

In the scene this morning we study, Jesus was entering the home of Martha. In our prayer lives we are entering God’s home.

1 Corinthians 6:19 “19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”

So many times we enter our prayer lives just as we would if we were hosting Jesus in our homes. We are in control. Everything is on our time frame, under our conditions or the lack thereof. We lead in the conversation. We set the time, place and how long we will gather. We have a layout as to how we think the prayer time should go.

I want you to think about certain engagements you have had in your recent past. Think about a wedding you attended, going on some major appointment and how important you thought the event was. Think about the preparation, your personal hygiene, the clothes you wore, how early you arrived and on and on. Everything about the event reeked importance in your life.

How important is the fact that we have (and I use the word “privilege” )to enter God’s temple, to meet one on one with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the God of the Universe.

Furthermore, consider this truth. If we all agree that we are entering His domain, His temple, would it not be the right manner to let Him lead in our prayer time?

Silence is something everyone things is uncomfortable. Preachers are the worst to think a point in the service where there is total silence is very uncomfortable. We feel every moment must be planned and we hate when we have a hesitation in preaching and there is a sudden silence or a stopgap in the flow of a service.

Silence is a period of reverence, silence is a period of respect and awe, silence is a period of allowing the Holy Spirit to lead where the prayer should go.

Just a chapter later, Jesus Himself says these words:

Luke 11:9 “9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Dearly beloved, I am in no way saying that we should not come with some requests in our prayers but note something very important. If we follow this pattern for prayer that I have heard others recommend think about the possibility of change in your prayers:

A-Adoration

C-Confession

T-Thanksgiving

S-Supplication

Here is my simple question. Do you believe if you spent the first part in your prayers of Adoring God and being reminded in your prayers why you adore Him and list the attributes as to why you adore Him. Furthermore, you come clean before God with your sins and hold nothing back and your soul is bathed because you repented before the Lord. Moreover, you thank Him and rekindle the reason you are thankful and you are very specific in your prayer life, I wonder, i just wonder if what we came to the Lord in the area of supplying our needs-supplication would change once we prayed over the first matters.

This thought leads into point two. Let’s look at some pitfalls to our prayer life.

2. The Pitfalls in Prayer

The title of the message today is service vs. sitting at the feet of Jesus. And, we note this great contrast between the busyness of Martha and the contemplative side of Mary. Martha is busy and Mary is basking in Jesus.

Luke 10:39-40 “39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.””

We see another contrast in the two sisters, Martha was distracted while Mary was deliberate to spend time with Jesus.

Again, brother Luke, doesn’t the word of God encourage service?

Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to James 2:14-18 “14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

I want you to find embedded in this text the sin Martha committed. Is there anything in and of itself that was wrong with Martha’s action? No, but we read an important truth when James, the brother of Jesus addresses the faith/works issue.

Notice that every time James shares, faith always comes before works. If your works become the all in all and you do not have time to strengthen your faith, if you do not take time to go to the filling station, you will find that your service will be flat for the Lord because you are not spirit filled.

Ill. Pastor’s Prayer Retreat-Praying on the Mountain

My service to the Kingdom will fall flat if I do not pray before my study and my providing the message.

Acts 6:4 “4 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.””

Prayer is the fuel to my preparation that the Word of God would not sound as a clanging cymbal. And that holds true for you.

We had a powerful time in our study last Sunday night for those of you who were here, Max Lucado’s Traveling Light as we have been studying the 23rd Psalm. Last Sunday night we addressed falling victim to the God of weariness or the God of busyness. Max emphasized the verse in the 23rd Psalm.

Psalms 23:2-3 “2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.”

As we think of rest spelled out in the 23rd Psalm, we quickly realize that our rest in the Lord brings restoration.

Do you remember how many scenes I shared that Jesus participated in the first 37 verses of Luke 10 before we arrived at our text this morning? You could easily say, Jesus was so busy I never see how He had time to pray.

One asked Zig Zigler, great Salesman and great motivational speaker these words: “with the busyness of your schedule, how in the world do you make time to exercise? Zig responded, due to the busyness of my schedule, how could I not make time to exercise that I maintain the health called for to meet the demands I have.”

Jesus paused following the return of the seventy when they reported back their experiences and He enjoyed a time with the Father:

Luke 10:21-22 “21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 22 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.””

Everything about this text reminds us that Martha’s life had become too complex to enjoy a time with Christ.

Look at the end of verse 40 which is probably one of the greatest potholes we can step in with the Lord.

“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

Judgmental Spirit

Martha had allowed the externals to become her focus. She became more focused on what someone else was doing or not doing. When that begins to be our focus, that diminishes our prayer life.

Write this down:

You can not criticize and call down fire at the same time.

We wonder many times why our prayer lives fall on deaf ears and its because we have malice, greed, or ill will, or a severed relationship that robs us of a wholeness or a purity in our prayers because we are carrying an compromised attitude toward another.

Demanding Requests

Again, Martha was telling Jesus what to do. “Tell her to help me.” May I share an observation or a thought:

Why would you need to pray if you have all the answers already? In other words, when you come with your agendas in your prayer life and you tell Jesus what to do, why do you need to pray in the first place since you already knew the answer to your dilemma?

Yes, we should make prayers of supplication, but do not demand the outcome by you telling Jesus how you want Him to answer the need. Amen.

3. The Priority of Prayer

Luke 10:41-42 “41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.””

“Martha, Martha”-when Jesus called her name twice the signal was the fact that Jesus was going to share something with her important.

Acts 9 “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”

Martha was worried and troubled because she was doing to many things and doing them in her own power. She was one of the statistics of church called the 10/90. 10% of the people doing 90% of the work. As your pastor, I fight for you that you do not become a statistic called burn out because you are wearing too many hats at the church.

the demon possessed man of the Gadarenes

Luke 8:35 “Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.”

Something happens to an individual when they get saved and get on fire for the Lord. They sing the Lord’s praises daily and they just bask in His glory. The nest thing you notice, they want to be discipled and serve the body of Christ. And in the church we will allow people to work that will work and the next thing you will hear if they were honest under their breath is I am going to church to:

Count the money, record the attendance, distribute the literature, set up the multimedia, to sing in the choir, to pass out the bulletins, etc. and the person forgets their first love.

Luke 10:42 “42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.””

Oh dearly beloved, the most important thing is to have intimacy with the Lord. Your fellowship with the Lord is the fuel to every other relationship and act of service you do.

Matthew 6:33 “33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

If we will prioritize our time with the Lord, He will take care of all the rest.

Let’s pray.