What is most important?

Excited and very privileged to be in front of you all speaking here today this morning. And normally I give like a funny illustration or something. I'm not going to do that this morning. I'm actually kind of we're going to be in page 1042 in the Bible's on your chairs. It's going to be Luke chapter 10 verse 38 such a big number ten little 38, but I'm going to bring my Bible reader to read the passage this morning.

Ask Jesus and his disciples were on their way. He came to a village where a woman named Martha open to home to Heaven. She had a sister called Mary who signed to the Lord speed listening to what he said the month. I was distracted by all the preparations. I have to be made she came to him and asked Lord don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself. Tell her to help me Martha Martha, you are worried and upset about many things but few things are needed or indeed. Only one Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her. Awesome. Thank you Sam after reading that.

Now just give me a moment to collect my notes.

So this is a story. I'm sure many of you have heard. I'm sure many of you are familiar with Mary and Martha may be heard in Sunday School going up or maybe just heard it and I'm passing illustration, but I'd still like to take a moment and walk through the setting and describe. What's Just Happening here and we see that Jesus and his disciples are traveling they're going somewhere but Luke's doesn't tell us where they come to a village but Luke doesn't tell us the village just what he does tell us. So is that a woman named Martha welcomes them into their home. He that she opens it up. It says and then some translations. It says welcomed. She wants them there Martha wants to serve Jesus's disciples and Jesus himself. Something interesting happens while Martha is serving Jesus. She sees her sister Mary sitting at his feet listening to him speak. She sees this and maybe Martha thinks to herself. All that be nice. Oh, I'd love to do that. I'd love to sit at his feet and listen as well. I think I'm going to go and I'll just and I she's right before she does that she thinks herself who will do the cooking who's who's going to clean who's going to prepare the food? I have to light the fire and it's 11:00 the bread. I have to fetch water. I have so much to be done and off Martha goes distracted pulled away

and yet received In this passage that Martha gets upset. He see Martha is upset. But why why is Martha upset about this but these distractions? Yeah, she's the one who invited the Lord enter home just as wonderful opportunity to serve Jesus Christ God himself in her home this wonderful opportunity. It wasn't unexpected. It wasn't like cross the Christ came and knocked on the door know it was Martha Welcome 2 Min welcome said come must have come come to my house Jesus. You know if you had asked the queen to come to your house, I'm sure you would be spending a lot of time preparing and cleaning and getting ready. And making a meal for what did not cause you great joy, even that even though the queen even came that she said. Yes. Why does Mars have set? Why of Christ have came into my Village and I had the opportunity to welcome into my home, I would throw on my apron and cook the best meal. I can possibly cook even though it's still going to be pretty bad.

So what is it? What is making Martha upset?

See, it's not that it's service. Not just the service of the Lord that's making her upset. She's upset because she has to serve a loan. Because she gets to see her sister doing something that she wants to do as well. She gets to sit and relax at the feet of Jesus and Martha is running to and fro if any of you have siblings think back to when you were a child and you're sitting on the couch watching TV or listening to the radio. Some of you don't know what you did when you were kids. I watch TV my brother and I we would sit on the couch and watch TV and I would hang out and my dad would come and say Caleb take out the trash. He's older and maybe we could do it together, but Oh, I have to go and I have to do it and this is slightly different because Martha nobody's telling Martha to do any of these things. Nobody's making Martha do anything Martha is doing this out of this obligation. She feels she's obligated to be for making these preparations to make the food and she thinks she's doing the right thing. She thinks that the correct thing to do here is to be serving the lord in to be running around pulled away distracted and to do everything she can to make Christ's happy to make him comfortable because he's our guest

She sees service to Christ as more valuable than Devotion to Christ.

She makes this plane with how she decides to handle situation. Monster doesn't go directly to her sister Mary and say could you help me? She goes straight to Christ himself. fast for the situation to be rectified And Martha makes two errors. When addressing Christ the first seems to me that she accuses Christ of not caring don't you care she cries don't you care that I'm left to do this work all by myself. I'm missing out on your teaching that I'm missing out on being with you, don't you care about this? of course, of course Jesus cares about this

course, he wants Martha to sit and listen to him. Of course. Jesus wants to spend time with Martha. Christ isn't the one who is invited himself in. He isn't even organized the event. Martha Brock Kristen, and he didn't demand Martin Christ didn't a demand of Martha to make this extravagant meal. No, these are all decisions that Martha has made herself.

She's the one who wanted all of this. She wanted Christ. She wanted the opportunity to serve and now she's upset when she has to do it alone. And it's made even worse that her sister gets to sit and listen Martha has to look on with a twinge of Envy at her sister. Mary has married has to do with Martha always with Martha really wants and Martha still obliged to service. The second error Martha makes when addressing Christ and is to think that Martha is thinks that she's in the right and Mary is in the wrong. And she wants Jesus to point that out. Very interesting way to go about this. It's not like Mary has left the room all of a sudden in Martha's now pull Jesus to the side and very sister. Can you tell my sister to do something? No, Martha address is Christ Mary sitting right at his feet and says, don't you care? Why don't you get my sister to help me and Mary is right there. Has this happened to any of you may be back in grade school again where you were just so angry or so upset that you couldn't even talk to that one friend you to say off Susan. Can you please deliver the message to Deb that I just don't want to talk to her right now and get her out of here and Davis right there. Maybe it's just me. Maybe it was just me.

Needless to say the Martha is hoping that Jesus will take her side in the issue Martha wants Jesus to validate how she's feeling. But that that isn't what happened. You see Jesus replies with MRSA MRSA. I imagine it almost as if my child my child Jesus has this tender response to Martha's cry. But then he gets more firm as a sentence goes on and he says you get so distracted by many things but I say only one thing is needed and Mary has chosen the better thing and that won't be taken from her. Martha was not expecting this response. She's hoping for something more along the lines of Mary. How could you leave your sister to make all these preparations get up helper at once?

Not quite not quite what Martha Martha gets. Let me see that Jesus truly does care. Just that he cares about the right thing. Did Jesus doesn't care about the fancy meal? Is he doesn't he just cares more about the opportunity to teach his followers opportunity to be with Mary and his disciples. You see Martha has gotten her priorities all screwed up. She's put service over devotion and Jesus helps her to straighten them out. How often do we hear? And even myself included get our priorities out of order? And Jesus and how often do we make big deals out of little things? You know, I feel like I do that every single week every single week. I get upset about something in this very small and very minor and you know, it can be something simple as I want to get something done and I want to get it done in a very specific way in my mind and then someone comes along and helps me do it, but it wasn't exactly how I wanted it done and now I'm really upset because it wasn't done just how I wanted it to be done and I'm really raging and weight. It's done. It's taken care of and I forgotten to be thankful to be happy that someone helps me. My priorities are out of order and I'm sure if you were to look at my wife right now, she's smiling as she experiences this regularly.

You see it's so easy to get our priorities out of order. But Jesus is always sure to sort them out. Christ didn't come to be served, but he came to serve. He doesn't care about the big fancy meal. He doesn't want the gorgeous spread the charcuterie platter. The 2006 Dom Perignon. He doesn't he doesn't care about that. He would have been fine if Martha just Would Have Made bread and poured a glass of wine. A simple meal and then Martha wouldn't have been told pulled tirelessly and every direction they could have spent more time with him. Matzav, just what Jesus wants Jesus wants to spend time with his followers with his disciples. He wants to spend time with people.

And he wants us to learn he wants us to Value learning from him over our service to him. We see that In this passage Mary. Mary has got it, right. She just knows that the best thing she can do when Jesus comes into your home is to sit at his feet and listen. She knew that being with Jesus was born for it. And then all the chores all the obligations all these other things that Martha was busy doing and Mary could have had felt that same obligation as it was probably Mary's house as well.

But she doesn't she picks Christ. over all those things

and it's easy to hear this story. I'm lost. No, I'm right. That's right. That's right. That's right illustration. Sorry. It's easy to listen to the store and and say I just want to be like Mary that's easy thing to do. I'll just be like Mary. No problem. And you're right very easy, very easy to say the right thing to do is to be like Mary. It is so much harder to do in practice because here's the important thing. It's not like Martha had a really obvious decision wasn't like Martha was like should I kill somebody or should I sit at the feet of Jesus it wasn't this This very easy decision to make it was Martha's like should i serve Christ or should I sit at his feet? It's a little different.

You see if Martha was pulled away by her service to Christ. And what is it that you have to choose from? What is it? That's distracting you that's pulling you away from Jesus? Maybe it's your job. Maybe you've got a really demanding job or maybe you just care passionately about it that you want to just give more and more and more until there's nothing left no time. No time left for Christ. Or maybe it's your spouse and your kids and you think I only have so many hours in a day. I need to spend as many hours as I can making sure my family is taken care of making sure that they have what they need. Looking after them. And I've no time no time for anything else no time to sit and learn from Christ.

Maybe there's some of you here who really identify with Martha and that you actually really do value service to Christ over everything and that you want to spend all your time serving to Christ and you're so busy pulling to and fro and worrying about the service to Christ. You forget to stop sit lesson and learn from Jesus.

Or is it that you're here this morning? And you don't even know who Jesus is. Maybe you don't care to know. Maybe you're so busy caught up in day-to-day life doing all that. You can striving for everything you can that you forget to stop and ask. What is it all for? What are you living like for? You see there are so many things that pull us away from Christ.

We become so focused on them. And we forget in the end. It won't matter as much as our relationship with Christ. The news here's the kicker of the whole story. This is my favorite part about this whole story no matter how amazing the meal was that Martha Cooks no matter how good it was only satisfy for a few hours. This could have been five star Michelin Chef food. You could have spent a thousand pound on this meal and it was amazing at every bite was just off. And it only lasts until you get hungry again.

And we spend so much time on these things that we hope will longingly satisfy our needs. And we think that they are so so so important more important than Christ.

But the thing is Christ will last forever. You will satisfy forever. News always with us new will never be taken away from us. You see Mary has chosen. What is good? And what is better? She chose Christ over every other obligation because she knew that he was a most important. She knew that Christ gives life purpose and meaning. It offers life that will last for eternity and Eternity with him because he won't be taken away.

It's a crisis offering everything we're striving for. We strive and long for purpose. We want to find it in our family. We want to find it in our work and our property in music and relationships. And any number of things were looking for a purpose for a meeting and in the end it will all fade away.

What Jesus is offering has no expiration date? It has no end is offering love feet offering purpose satisfaction Joy love life Everlasting what Christ is offering you can't get anywhere else.

You have to go to Christ to get it. You have to sit at his feet. You can't find it anywhere not even in the service to him. You have to go directly to Jesus.

Is only found in him. So why are you pulled away? What is taking you away from the only thing that is needed? What are you hoping will give your life meaning?

And some of you I'm sure I was thinking maybe well if I'm getting pulled away, how do I how do I combat this?

How do I combat this feeling of being pulled away? And the first thing to realize is that we have to acknowledge that we are being pulled away. We are being distracted. We are valuing things over Christ. To say to say otherwise, you're just fooling yourself.

It's it's easy to justify these things. Because your job your family your life ambitions. new relationships those are important I'm not saying that they're unimportant. I'm saying they're not as important as Christ. And it's easy to see these things as important and take them one extra step to say they are of most importance.

That's where we have to be careful to guard ourselves against though that thought that thinking that thought process just like Martha. It's easy to think to ourselves that we are doing the right thing. It's right to invest in these things the right to invest in our time in that.

And it's easy to do that because the things we invest our times and inherently are not bad and it and of themselves. No, we they become bad when we put them over Christ.

And to those today who don't know Christ ask the question. What is it you're living life for? Is it for more money for four more piece for stability? Is it to be significant or any number of things that you can fill your day with striving for? What's it all for? Then I can sit up here and tell you that following Christ won't make you a rich successful. Whatever you want to become that's not what a life following Christ looks like that's not that's not the promises Christ offers. I can promise you though that Christ that following Christ. You'll find Joy the find peace. You'll find Community the find everlasting life. Something is found only in Christ. If you here today and you want to know more about that, please come find me ask me talk to me. I want to share with you more about how good Jesus is. Ask the person next to you. I'm sure they want to share more about how good Jesus is. Can you say important thing? I want to just close with I want you to remember this before I am done. Is that we must not forget that Christ is of most importance. More important than anything else that you can think to imagine.

Father God we are thankful that you sent your son Jesus Christ to redeem us from our sin. We are thankful that you've made a way for us to be in a relationship with you. I pray that you would open our eyes to the truth of who you are and I pray that you would show us what we are valuing over you and help guide us back to you in Jesus name. Amen. Imma, bring it back up.

Great Thanksgiving.

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